NORFOLK, Va. - During National Police Week, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares called police officer vacancies in Norfolk and Portsmouth "so devastating."
Both cities have faced a large number of vacancies.
The two have the worst vacancy rates in the entire Commonwealth, Miyares' said.
"It really takes away from this idea of community policing. When you have community policing, you can have officers really embedded in the community building relationships," Miyares told News 3 in a Zoom interview Monday.
To address the vacancies, Norfolk City Manager Chip Filer has proposed slashing a number of open positions from the budget and reinvesting the money elsewhere.
"Once we budget for 652, our expectation is that we will get to 652 by the end of the fiscal year," Filer said in March when he presented his proposed budget.
Portsmouth has also faced a large number of vacancies. Police Chief Stephen Jenkins told the City Council in March the city still had 88 vacancies, which he says has taken a toll on the department.
"When you're running at the level we are right now and having to cover because of the lack of shifts and things of that nature, all of that is stressful," he said.
Miyares is no fan of the Commonwealth's Attorneys in the two cities and believes a key to closing the vacancy gap is to foster a culture that values law enforcement.
"There's no job like it in America and I think we have to recognize how difficult that job is," he said. "I think the second step is what the governor's doing, which is pay raises for law enforcement. There's a record amount of money in the budget."
While police officer recruitment is a struggle nationwide, some local governments have been able to make up that gap, including Virginia Beach, where the department told News 3 earlier this year, they'd lowered the number of vacancies to about 30.
"Virginia Beach is another city where they've actually looked to work with the police," he said.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin, also last year, announced the Bold Blue Line Initiative, which addresses police recruitment partly by making it easier for out-of-state police to be able to come here and work.
"The governor just announced the Bold Blue Line Initiative and so initial numbers are positive," said Miyares. "We'll know more in the next six to 12 months."
