Community Policing Act
Effective July 1, 2021, the Virginia General Assembly enacted the Community Policing Act, which is found in the Code of Virginia §15.2-1722.1, and defined below:
- No law-enforcement officer shall engage in bias-based profiling as defined in § 52-30.1 in the performance of his official duties.
- The police force of every locality shall collect data pertaining to (i) all investigatory motor vehicle stops, (ii) all stop-and-frisks of a person based on reasonable suspicion, and (iii) all other investigatory detentions that do not result in an arrest or the issuance of a summons pursuant to § 52-30.2 and report such data to the Department of State Police for inclusion in the Community Policing Reporting Database established pursuant to § 52-30.3. The chief of police of the locality shall be responsible for forwarding the data to the Superintendent of State Police.
- The chief of police of the locality shall post the data that has been forwarded for inclusion in the Community Policing Reporting Database on a website that is maintained by the chief of police or on any other website on which the chief of police generally posts information and that is available to the public or that clearly describes how the public may access such data.
For purposes of this chapter, unless the context requires a different meaning, "bias-based profiling" means actions of a law-enforcement officer that are based solely on the real or perceived race, ethnicity, age, gender, or any combination thereof, or other noncriminal characteristics of an individual, except when such characteristics are used in combination with other identifying factors in seeking to apprehend a suspect who matches a specific description.
- No State Police officer shall engage in bias-based profiling in the performance of his official duties.
- State Police officers shall collect data pertaining to (i) all investigatory motor vehicle stops, (ii) all stop-and-frisks of a person based on reasonable suspicion, and (iii) all other investigatory detentions that do not result in an arrest or the issuance of a summons to be reported into the Community Policing Reporting Database. State Police officers shall submit the data to their commanding officers, who shall forward it to the Superintendent of State Police.
- Each time a law-enforcement officer or State Police officer stops a driver of a motor vehicle, stops and frisks a person based on reasonable suspicion, or temporarily detains a person during any other investigatory stop, such officer shall collect the following data based on the officer's observation or information provided to the officer by the driver: (i) the race, ethnicity, age, gender of the person stopped, and whether the person stopped spoke English; (ii) the reason for the stop; (iii) the location of the stop; (iv) whether a warning, written citation, or summons was issued or whether any person was arrested; (v) if a warning, written citation, or summons was issued or an arrest was made, the warning provided, violation charged, or crime charged; (vi) whether the vehicle or any person was searched; and (vii) 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.
- Each state and local law-enforcement agency shall collect the number of complaints the agency receives alleging the use of excessive force.
- The Department of State Police shall develop and implement a uniform statewide database to collect all records of investigatory motor vehicle stops, all stop-and-frisks of a person based on reasonable suspicion, and other investigatory detentions that do not result in an arrest or the issuance of a summons, records of complaints alleging the use of excessive force, and data and information submitted by law-enforcement agencies pursuant to §§ 15.2-1609.10, 15.2-1722.1, and 52-30.2. The Department of State Police shall provide the Department of Criminal Justice Services with secure remote access to the database for the purposes of analyzing such data as required by subsection A of § 9.1-192.
- The Department of State Police shall promulgate regulations governing the operation and maintenance of the database.
Code of Virginia §23.1-1303.14
The most updated portion of the Uniform Crime Reporting Section of the Department of the State Police entitled "Crime in Virginia" must be made available to any interested party upon request as it pertains to institutions of higher education.
This document can be accessed by either requesting a paper copy via the University Police email (cnupd@cnu.edu) or by physically picking up a copy at the University Police Headquarters, located at 12270 Warwick Blvd. Newport News, VA 23606.
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