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"The Department's mission is to provide the citizens of the City of Charlottesville with a modern and professional police department which will protect life and property; preserve law and order; enforce criminal, traffic, and regulatory laws; and, provide essential public safety services to our community."
The Charlottesville Police Department is honored to serve this historic and diverse community. Our city of 40,000 residents is home to three of our nation's Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson's beautiful Monticello estate, and the nationally renowned University of Virginia.
Our Department serves this great community with a corps of highly professional police officers, a commitment to the community policing philosophy, state accredited standards and procedures, modern computerized incident reporting systems, and a host of specialized units. We are very proud of these programs and feel it is our privilege to provide our citizens and visitors with the best, state-of-the-art, police protection.
The largest division of the department is our Patrol Bureau. Its uniformed officers dutifully patrol our city neighborhoods with walking beats, radio cars, motorcycles, mountain bikes, and trail bikes. The Patrol Bureau also maintains a highly trained SWAT team, community service officers, full-time school resource officers, animal control officers, and crossing guards. Many of these officers and supervisors have a proud history of supporting the regional police academy as certified instructors in virtually every aspect of law enforcement training and education.
Our Investigations Bureau is comprised of highly skilled detectives and certified forensic technicians. We are especially proud of our Forensics Unit that continues to lead the way for other Virginia law enforcement agencies in DNA evidence collection techniques and DNA matches or "hits." Our department is also responsible for the administration and operational control of the multi-jurisdictional, Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement (JADE) task force. In cooperation with federal, state, and other local law enforcement agencies, the fifteen detectives and supervisors of JADE are effectively reducing the flow of drugs and guns into our community.
The Charlottesville Police Department pledges to continue our tradition of service and excellence to every citizen, student, and visitor in this "world class" city. No challenge is too great for us to overcome, and it is our passion, duty, and honor to serve you.
Timothy J. Longo, Sr.
Chief of Police
longo@charlottesville.org
The highest moral and ethical standards are the cornerstone of the agency, and all members are expected to adhere to these standards.
Our employees are the most important assets of the Department, and only through teamwork, mutual respect, and cooperation can the community be best served.
The community it serves determines the role of the police. Through a partnership with the citizens, the Department improves the quality of life through control and reduction of crime.
The police and the community share in the responsibility for crime control and public safety.
The capability to achieve is determined by the motivation, diversity, and quality of the work force; therefore, we seek to recruit and retain individuals who possess those qualities.
The agency must seek to collaborate with neighborhoods to better understand the nature of local problems and to develop meaningful and cooperative strategies to solve these problems.
The agency must enhance the skills of all personnel to ensure motivation, creativity, dedication, and professionalism, while creating an atmosphere of job satisfaction, enthusiasm, security, and personal career development.
Available resources, both personal and financial, must be expended with maximum efficiency in order to provide optimum service to the citizens of Charlottesville.
State-of-the-art technologies and up-to-date training are essential for the maintenance and enhancement of police service delivery to the citizens of the community.
Through the application of these commonly held values, we will achieve excellence in policing in the City of Charlottesville.
Timothy J. Longo, Sr.
Chief of Police
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The Virginia Division of Forensic Science and The Virginia Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine have recognized the department's Forensic Unit for its effectiveness and success through the use of DNA Identifications, DNA Eliminations, and the DNA Data Bank. Read more .
Learn more about the Certified Officer Recruitment Program.
