In 2021, Rodney wrote and passed the Board Matter that established the County’s first co-responder program. Beginning as a pilot, and growing into a fully-funded program with 23 full-time positions, the co-responder program diverts 911 calls without elements of criminality or threat to the public to a mental and behavioral health professional when appropriate. This kind of diversion allows our law enforcement professional to focus on serious crime, as the types of calls for service that the program aims to divert account for approximately 40% of FCPD call volume. Clinicians in the field are always supported by a nearby officer who either responds directly with the clinician or is positioned nearby to intervene in case of an emergency. Similar programs across the country have been extremely successful, and outcomes in the first year of the program have been overwhelmingly positive.

As Chair of the Public Safety Committee, Rodney has held a record number of public safety meetings over his first term. In addition to expanding the official calendar of the committee to six meetings per-year, Rodney also held the first ever public safety community input session. These first-of-their-kind meetings gave community members and advocacy groups the opportunity to interact first hand with senior public safety leaders within the county.

Rodney also led the Board Matter that created the county’s first Public Safety Community Input Matrix, a living document that allows any member of the community to submit feedback and questions related to public safety on a public forum in order to receive response from the county.

Rodney also championed the foundation of the County’s first Use of Force Citizen Advisory Group, empowering citizens from impacted communities to provide input and analysis on the Use of Force Study that the County commissioned from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Over the course of the pandemic Rodney led innovative efforts to deploy our public safety infrastructure to support our community. Most notably, Rodney has worked with the County’s Citizen Emergency Response Team (CERT) to facilitate an unprecedented food distribution program that distributed over 3 million pounds of food over a two year period.

As Chair of the Public Safety Committee, Rodney regularly attends roll call meetings and patrols with officers. He understands first hand what it takes to attract and retain officers to our County. That’s why Rodney has consistently advocated for increasing pay for first responders and streamlining our hiring practices. Rodney has also sought to expand the County’s Magnet Housing Program in order to provide housing support for police officers so that they can live in the communities in which they work.

Through engagement with both FCPD and the community, Rodney learned the stress that exists for both officers and community members during even the most routine traffic stops. This is especially true for individuals with developmental and behavioral disabilities. In response to these concerns, Rodney worked with FCPD and members of the Fairfax County School Board to organize dozens of community workshops for FCPD officers and young people, many of them with developmental challenges, to simulate traffic stops at locations in every magisterial district in the County. Through these trainings, both officers and community members came away with a stronger relationship and are now better equipped to safely interact during traffic stops.

The Fairfax County Police Department is one of the most sophisticated and successful departments in the nation. However, the process of modernizing our police force never ends. Rodney supported appropriations to provide body worn cameras to every patrol officer in Fairfax County. Additionally, Rodney’s advocacy directly led to the assignment of electronic control weapons to every FCPD officer on patrol.

Rodney has also worked closely with the Chief of Police to expand access to de-escalation training for officers.

Finally, Rodney knows it is vital that we create greater degrees of familiarity and comfort between our police force and our community. Rodney has actively worked with FCPD to improve recruitment efforts within communities that are the most actively policed in the County.