Prince William honors longest-serving police chief by naming new station after him

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY — In the hall of heroes, Charlie T. Deane on Tuesday was honored.

Deane was the longest-serving police chief in the Washington, D.C. region when he retired after 42 years with the department. One of the original 42 officers that formed the Prince William County Police Department in 1970, Deane served as its second leader for 24 years, from 1988 to 2012.

Deane, alongside his family, stood at the new Prince William County Central District Police Station which today is named for him — the Charlie T. Deane Station.

“These are troubling times,” said Deane. “We must say a prayer for our officers every day.”

The retired chief spoke underneath the photos of Officers Ashley Guindon, Chris Yung, Micheal Pennington, and Paul White. All four Prince William County Police officers were killed in the line of duty, and all four are honored inside the hall of heroes where the station was dedicated in front of a crowd more than 200.

Deane set the tone for a police department that continues to get high marks for community policing, and high case-closure rates. He was at the helm during the 2002 sniper shootings that gripped the region, and during the region’s recovery after September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the Pentagon and New York City.

A visionary, he’s credited for pursuing what is today the Prince William County Public Safety Training Academy. He pushed for active shooter training even before the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Colorado.

Current Prince William County Police Chief Barry Barnard said Deane’s name is mentioned often in the halls of the department. He’s called a courageous leader.

“Because of your strength and your compassion,” Barnard told Deane. “You always told us to do the right thing. You told us that we work for the community and we work for the U.S. Constitution.”

During his tenure, Deane was also drawn into the center of an immigration battle when, in 2007, the Board of Supervisors ordered county police officers to obtain the legal status of anyone suspected to be in the U.S. illegally. Led by Board Chairman and now U.S. Senate Candidate Corey Stewart, the move put Deane and his department in a precarious position. The department had spent years building relationships with minority communities, and, at the time, Dean said the new order could jeopardize those relationships.

“You don’t want to tango with this guy,” said Stewart, talking about Deane at the ribbon cutting ceremony on Tuesday.

Eventually, the order was rescinded and legal status of inmates was checked at the county jail.

The police department now adds a third district to its operations with the addition of the mid-county station, located at 5036 Davis Ford Road. In the past, the department operated two districts — one in the east from the Garfield station on Donald Curtis Drive in Woodbridge, and the Paul T. White station on Freedom Center Boulevard just outside Manassas.

Inside the new Deane station, it’s more like a museum than a police station. The walls are lined with newspaper front pages from the old Potomac News and Manassas Journal Messenger newspapers.

The ink on the pages tell the story of how a panel of local officials and Fairfax County police officers formed a panel to discuss the need for the department as population and crime grew in Prince William in the late 1960s. They showcase tough cases like the East Coast Rapist investigation, where women in Prince William, Maryland, and in other jurisdictions in the eastern U.S. were brutally assaulted. 

There are artifacts, too, like the oldest police motorcycle owned by the department in use from 1970 to 1990. The slug that killed a Prince William County justice of the peace in 1922. An arrest warrant that dates back before the founding of the U.S.

And the most talked about item, which is kept on the third shelf of a display case in a basement hallway. In its own shadow box, the knife Lorena Bobbitt used in 1993 to sever her husband’s penis while he slept in their Prince William County home.

The long, red knife had long been in an evidence locker and is now on display, near the cover of a People Magazine cover the prominently features the case that drew national attention to the county.

Capt. James Carr will oversee operations at the new station. A total of 121 sworn police officer will call the new station home, and so will five civilian administrative staff.

The Office of the Chief of Police will be relocated to Deane station from nearby McCoart Government Center. Also housed inside the new facility will be the Office of Professional Standards, Financial and Technical Services, public information, patrol, and detectives from the violent crimes division.