Framework for the Future 2030

Regional Approaches to Public Safety

Crime Meetings

In 2005, the Department began hosting semi-monthly “Crime Meetings” to share crime and investigative information between the three precincts, the campus police from Christopher Newport University, military police from Fort Eustis, members of the Northrup Grumman Newport News Shipyard Security Force, airport police from Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport, and police from neighboring jurisdictions.  These meetings have led to the early recognition of crime trends and similarities, which has resulted in a higher incidence of arrest.

Terrorism Emergency Response Plan

After September 11, 2001, the Police Department worked with the Fire Department, the Planning Department, the Office of Emergency Management and the FBI to prepare the City’s Terrorism Emergency Response Plan. The Terrorism Emergency Response Plan became effective in February 2002.  Under the Plan the Newport News Police Department has the primary responsibility to monitor potential terrorist activities, investigate potential terrorist threats and actual terrorist incidents, and provide crisis management response. The Newport News Police Department has an individual assigned to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Violent Crimes Task Force

The Department is a member of the Violent Crimes Task Force whose mission is to identify and target for prosecution offenders who are involved in violent crimes and firearms offenses.  This initiative enhances the effectiveness of Federal, State, and local law enforcement resources through a well-coordinated initiative to convict and incarcerate dangerous offenders.

Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Task Force

The Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Task Force (PNETF), has investigators from the Newport News Police Department, Virginia State Police, the Hampton Police Department, and the Poquoson Police Department.  This team staged Operation Blowfish, one of the “most significant and successful organized crime drug enforcement task force investigations ever conducted in the Hampton Roads area” (United States Attorney, Eastern District of Virginia). From 2003 to 2005, Operation Blowfish halted a narcotics pipeline into Virginia and the United States, and resulted in a cash and property seizure totaling over $3,000,000.

Teaming

The Police Department teams with other City agencies to address City issues such as derelict properties and illegal boarding houses that are havens for graft, drugs, and other criminal activity.  Working with the Police during fiscal year 2006, the Department of Codes Compliance successfully condemned and demolished 46 unsafe and uninhabitable houses.  The Department of Codes Compliance is partners with the Police, Fire, and Public Works Departments to establish a program to perform a “clean sweep” of areas identified as having multiple infractions and crime.