County Hopes to Keep State-Funded Police Officers

Prince William County will probably not lose six police officer positions supported by state funds in fiscal year 2012 as had been expected, County Executive Melissa Peacor said Tuesday.

The officer positions are funded by state 599 funding administered by the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services. Due to state budget cuts, Peacor said the county had been expecting to lose the state funding for those positions, but it now looks as if the county will not lose that funding after all.

The Code of Virginia provides for financial assistance to local law enforcement agencies, referred to as the 599 program. Prince William County is one of nine counties along with 41 cities and 126 towns to receive 599 funding.

The Board of County Supervisors did not budget to replace the six officer positions due to its policy of not automatically replacing lost state funding. Occoquan District Supervisor Mike May said that though he supports the board’s policy, he thinks it might be better to count officers funded by the 599 program toward the count’s total number of police officers and budget accordingly.

Peacor’s announcement came during a budget work session of the Board of County Supervisors where representatives from the police, sheriff, library system, cooperative extension, community services and social services presented their assessments of the proposed county budget for fiscal year 2012.

, and the board will still face difficult decisions of where to allocate resources. County agencies are all vying to stay off the chopping block in the coming weeks before the budget is finalized.