Newly-created social justice commission will investigate Prince William police

Members of a newly created commission will investigate the Prince William County Police Department and its response to riots that occurred in the county on May 30.

The new Racial and Social Justice Commission will meet over the course of the next year and will be tasked to bring back recommendations on how to improve the hiring practices of the department, as well as the use-of-force policy.

Riots broke out in the county this summer following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, first on Saturday, May 30  at Sudley Road and Sudley Manor Drive outside Manassas, where one officer suffered a head wound and three others were also injured.

The next night, a Walmart on Liberia Avenue in Prince William County was looted and several other shops were smashed after a peaceful protest turned violent. Virginia State Police troopers were called on both nights to serve as a back-up for police officers in Prince Willliam County and Manassas.

The new social justice commission board will have eight members appointed by the members of the Board of County Supervisors. It will also include the county police chief, county executive, a member from the county school division, and the chairman of the county’s Human Rights Commission — a separate board that has existed since 1992 and carries out tasks that will “overlap” the duties of the new social justice board, according to Raul Torres, who heads the county’s office on human rights.

The new commission was created in a 5-3 party-line vote, with Democrats supporting it, and Republicans voting against. Those who dissented asked for specific instances of reported discrimination by county police that would necessitate the need for a new commission but they couldn’t cite one.

Leaders noted that the county government had not been sued for racial discrimination in the past 20 years. The county’s human rights office investigates cases of reported discrimination at area businesses, and only 3 percent of those cases are found to be credible, said Torres.

Torres said the existing Human Rights Commission do the job of the social justice commission but ultimately recommended a new social justice task force at the direction of members of the Board of County Supervisors. The human rights office will absorb the initial cost of the new commission for the first year but has requested at least $200,000 per year to fund the office in the fiscal year 2023.

“The Blacks see things that need looking into, and I believe we’re going to find some things that are of concern, maybe someone, somewhere who has been unjustly treated in the county, and somehow, I believe they’re right,” said Neabsco District Supervisor Victor Angry.

Despite recent calls from residents who identify with Black Lives Matter to defund the county’s police department, Angry says that’s not the goal of the new commission. Rather, he said it will provide residents one year to voice their concerns about policing in the community.

“The police do what we tell them to do,” said Angry.

In 2018, 93 percent of residents that replied to a citizen satisfaction survey said they thought highly of the county’s police department.

“You can ask for a number of cases, but we need to remember how we got here,” said Board of County Supervisors Chair At-large Ann Wheeler, referring to the death of George Floyd. “This is an issue that is going to change our county and our state. This is an opportunity for us to do something right for a change, to effectuate some type of real change going forward.”

Following the riots, Woodbridge District Supervisor Margaret Franklin took to Facebook to condemn the police department’s response to the May 30 riots, where Virginia State Police Troopers used teargas to disperse a crowd.

She also dismissed Republicans who said that funds shouldn’t be used to create a redundant commission during the financial downturn brought on by the pandemic.

“We fund a lot of projects in this county, for a lot more, that is a lot less important than this,” said Franklin.