Fairfax County Police to Deploy New Squad to Fight Drunk Driving

by Andrew Ramonas — November 30, 2016 at 2:50 pm 6 Comments

The Fairfax County Police Department is stepping up its efforts to catch drunk drivers.

FCPD tomorrow is set to debut a nine-officer team that will focus on reducing crashes by motorists who are driving while intoxicated, according to the department. The cops will work from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m., using statistics and requests from locals and police commanders to determine where they should patrol.

The officers will get additional training on spotting drunk drivers and recognizing drug use. But they already have averaged 241 DWI arrests in the past seven years.

“It is our hope that the squad’s extensive experience and passion for DWI enforcement will continue to enhance the safety of our motoring public,” an FCPD news release says.

Photo via Fairfax County Police Department

P Henry

FCPD should also increase enforcement to catch red light runners.
Watchful One

Isn’t DWI enforcement part of a patrol officer’s job? I understand FCPD picked well-qualified officers already on the force for this new team.
But, does that mean they are hiring nine more guys (hopefully some gals in the mix)? At a minimum of $52 K starting salary, I hope not!

Happy they got $2 million-plus federal grant for large new vehicles & other equipment, but I assume replacements in a few years will be at County (taxpayer) expense.

Hope we get some accountability and transparency in the bargain, but so far the police are fighting those concepts all the way…
- Ming the Merciless
  
  Reston Association just hired an expensive new employee to do the job they’re already supposed to be doing, so why not FCPD as well? Rest assured FCPD will be subject to the same rigorous accountability and transparency as the Reston Association.
- Mike M
  
  Good question. I think it works like this:
  When you have too much money, you start to stovepipe your organizations and overspecialize. You cease to cross-train and you become bloated as an organization.
  
  How do you know when you have too much money? When you start to behave just like this.
  
  What do people do when the money doesn’t come easy? They have to start to think. They have to ask more depth of fewer resources. They cross train.
  
  As for the grant, . . . it ain’t free. So don;t get too excited.
CE

So these 9 officers won’t be hand in out speeding tickets ever only DWIs? Cool. How do we identify these officers so we can speed on by?
- ah
  
  Lol

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