On Friday, while Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis announced the arrest of three people accused of engaging in a long and costly string of retail robberies, he also found himself speaking about immigration enforcement.
The announcement came just a day after someone touted as a top MS-13 figure in the Northern Virginia region was arrested.
In the same week, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced he wanted to tie state funding to cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. He said that would, in particular, impact Fairfax County.
Davis admitted he wasn’t aware of the governor’s comments, but that his department had its hands full enforcing state and local laws, and was content to let federal agencies handle federal laws.
“Our plate is full with the enforcement in the investigation of state and local laws for crimes that occur here in Fairfax County. And we do a pretty good job at closing cases here,” said Davis.
“We have Fairfax County detectives who are assigned to many federal task forces: FBI, DEA, ATF Secret Service, US Marshals. So our relationship with federal law enforcement has always been a strong one, and I have no intention to pull back on any ongoing commitment to federal law enforcement if there is any type of enforcement going on in Fairfax County, whatever its nature.”
But he suggested one consequence of changing that policy could have a negative impact county-wide.
“Folks who live and work and play in Fairfax County are generally — and we can prove this with data that we collect — are generally comfortable telling us about a crime, telling us about a suspect, telling us about a particular circumstance that we may not know about,” said Davis.
“So we don’t want to engage in any efforts that would deteriorate the trust that our community members have in our police department.”
Davis said his department’s gang unit is the largest in northern Virginia, and that federal law enforcement can always count on his department for assistance when it’s needed. Davis added that the placement of his officers on federal task forces will continue as well, but he was careful to make clear he wasn’t ready to start battling the governor either.
“I don’t want to make any comments that appear to draw a line in the sand with anybody, so I promise to go back and take a look at [Youngkin’s comments],” said Davis. “And ultimately, a political discussion is a discussion and or a question that’s probably best posed to someone other than the local police chief.”
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