Purcellville police join regional Critical Incident Response Team

The Purcellville Police Department will participate in the newly created Northern Virginia Critical Incident Response Team.  The Critical Incident Response Team was created by the Northern Virginia Police Chiefs and Sheriffs Committee with the purpose to investigate critical incidents involving law enforcement officers within the cooperating jurisdictions. At the Jan. 12 Purcellville Town Council Meeting, the Town Council formally approved the CIRT Memorandum of Understanding.

Below is additional information from the official Regional CIRT press release:

The team is comprised of seasoned criminal detectives, crime scene technicians, and commanders from 11 participating agencies.  The Chief Executive Officer of each participating agency in Northern Virginia will have the option of calling upon this multi-jurisdictional team to investigate incidents within their localities. These incidents include but are not limited to; law enforcement involved shootings, any action taken by law enforcement which results in the death or a life-threatening injury of a person in the performance of an officer/deputy’s duties, in custody deaths, and law enforcement officer suicides.

At the completion of a comprehensive, thorough, and impartial investigation, the Critical Incident Response Team will present the facts and evidence of the investigation to the local Commonwealth Attorney’s Office or designated prosecuting authority. The agency where the incident occurred will continue to conduct their own separate administrative investigation.

The creation of this multi-jurisdictional team will provide an efficient, effective, and a standardized investigation of these high-profile events. The multi-jurisdictional team of tenured detectives also provides a higher degree of impartiality in these types of investigations as the team members are not solely reviewing their own peer officers’ actions; the mere make-up of the team ensures checks and balances throughout the entire investigative process.

The Critical Incident Response Team was created in accordance with VA Code 15/2-1726 Agreements for consolidation of police departments or for cooperation in furnishing police services and VA Code 15/2-1736 Mutual aid agreements among governing bodies of localities.

Additional participating law enforcement agencies include: Arlington County Police Department, Fairfax City Police Department, Falls Church Police Department, Herndon Police Department, Leesburg Police Department, Manassas Park Police Department, Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police Department, Prince Williams County Police Department, and Vienna Police Department.

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