Community Policing Act

Due to legislative changes to the Community Policing Act, effective July 1, 2021, and pursuant to §§ 15.2-1609.10 and 15.2-1722.1, Chiefs and Sheriffs “shall post the data that has been forwarded for inclusion in the Community Policing Reporting Database on a website that is maintained by the sheriff/chief of police or on any other website on which the sheriff/chief of police generally posts information and that is available to the public or that clearly describes how the public may access such data.”

Effective July 1, 2021, Virginia Community Policing Act data will be made publicly available on the Virginia Open Data Portal.

Under the current Community Policing Act, each time a law-enforcement officer or State Police officer stops an Individual or Driver of a motor vehicle, such officer shall collect the following data based on the officer's observation or information provided to the officer by the Individual or Driver:

The race, ethnicity, age, gender of the person stopped, and whether the person stopped spoke English;
The reason for the stop;
The location of the stop;
Whether a warning, written citation, or summons was issued or whether any person was arrested;
If a warning, written citation, or summons was issued or an arrest was made, the warning provided, violation charged, or crime charged;
Whether the vehicle or any person was searched; and
Whether the law-enforcement officer or State Police officer used physical force against any person and whether any person used physical force against any officers.

In addition to stop information, each state and local law-enforcement agency shall collect the number of complaints the agency receives alleging the use of excessive force.

Participation: Mandatory
Created by: Chapter 6.1. Virginia Community Policing Act
Date enacted: July 1, 2020
Data included: motor vehicle and investigatory stop records, records of complaints alleging the use of excessive force, as submitted by law enforcement agencies