The Road Shark initiative has Fairfax County Police Department and Virginia State Police working together to hone in on specific driving behaviors.
Officers will be following a different driving behavior for each month of this year through August.
The program intends to make the roads in the Virginia county safer by focusing on high visibility enforcement, outreach and education to the public, and making decisions with hard data, the department said in a release.
This month, they’re zeroing in on impaired driving. Next month, they’ll focus on distracted driving. They’ll focus on aggressive driving and school zone violations in the months to come.
During a five-week campaign in 2024, officers gave out over 34,000 tickets and warnings for anything from distracted driving to pedestrian safety. That was up over 10,000 from the year prior.
“We see Road Shark as an opportunity to remind our residents that our police officers are out there spending a little bit of extra time trying to make our roadways safe,” Assistant Fairfax County Police Chief Robert Blakley said during a news conference on Monday.
Officers will be on the lookout for violations, such as aggressive, impaired and distracted driving, as well as speeding and school zone violations. Blakley said the campaign is less about getting officers to meet a citation quota, and more about getting residents to “take an extra second to get to where you’re going safely.”
Fairfax County police said the Road Shark program was making progress, including:
- Nearly 35,000 citations and warnings were issued across five enforcement waves in 2024.
- A marked decrease in traffic incidents was observed throughout the county.
- Enhanced community awareness led to more responsible driving behavior.
“We see traffic crashes as a preventable thing. So it’s an opportunity for us to really get out there and do our very best to keep our residents safe,” Blakley said.
WTOP’s Ciara Wells contributed to this report.
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