Having seen a 11% decrease in overall crime and an almost 20% reduction in violent crime during his five years in office, Prince William County Police Chief Peter Newsham spoke with WTOP about his department’s focus for 2026 and the many factors that contribute to a safe community.
“We pay very close attention to crime and we’ve had a lot of success,” said Newsham. “If you look at our homicide rate, you have 100% closure on our cases this year. It’ll be five years since I’ve been here, where we’ve only had one homicide that has remained open.”
Hiring affects crime rate
While the crime numbers are coming down, having officers in the community is a huge crime prevention tool. Newsham notes that there has been a slight decrease in the number of applicants looking to become police officers.
“There’s a shrinking pool of folks that are available to work in law enforcement,” said Newsham. “We are competing with federal agencies are offering these pretty significant signing bonuses, and they’re hiring lots of law enforcement on the federal side, so I think that’s impacting our pool of applicants.”
“Prince William County is in pretty good shape with vacancies less than 12%, but with over 500,000 residents, you’ve got make sure you have enough police officers to provide an adequate police service,” said Newsham.
Community shapes the plan
Every two years, the Prince William County Police Department is required to do a satisfaction survey with the community to maintain its national accreditation.
“It’s a random survey, and it touches all of the different diverse groups that we have in the county and our satisfaction rating, our department satisfaction rate about 96% which is something we’re very, very proud of,” said Newsham. “People are not afraid to talk to us at this department.”
“People who do this work are really, really phenomenal people. They operate under some very, very difficult circumstances, and they go out there every single day and they’re out there helping people,” said Newsham.
Source
‘Phenomenal people … helping people’: VA police chief shares 2026 outlook
