Attorney General Mark R. Herring wrapped up his third annual statewide public safety tour today with a four mile run with the current class of recruits at the Richmond Police Department Training Academy.
This year’s tour, which focused on training and community policing efforts, included stops in Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, Lynchburg, and Roanoke for meetings at training academies and community policing events like Coffee with a Cop, neighborhood watch meetings, and youth and citizen academies.
“Over the last two weeks I have been so impressed by the commitment of communities and law enforcement agencies across the Commonwealth to strengthen their lines of communication and to constantly work to build the sense of trust and mutual respect that is key to having the safe, successful communities we all want,” said Attorney General Herring. “Community policing takes time, resources, and commitment, but the results speak for themselves. Each community is pursuing community policing and 21st century policing training in their own ways and as Attorney General I will do everything I can to support those efforts. It’s what our communities, our officers, and their families deserve. When trust and communication break down it makes our communities less safe, it makes it harder to solve crimes, it can put officers at risk, and we can’t allow that to happen in Virginia.”
In 2014, Attorney General Herring held his first annual public safety tour, traveling more than 2,500 miles in two weeks to hold 22 regional meetings with representatives from more than 60 cities, counties, and towns. More than 75% of the meetings involved a discussion of the growing heroin and prescription drug overdose epidemic, prompting Attorney General Herring to develop and implement an aggressive, unprecedented five point plan to address the problem including education, prevention, and enforcement.
In 2015, Attorney General Herring again toured the Commonwealth, extending invitations to elected officials, law enforcement, and public safety officials from more than 58 agencies and localities to share their priorities, concerns, opportunities, and successes. Information gathered during the tour informed his efforts to promote safe, impartial, 21st century policing and to support local efforts to strengthen ties between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve.
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