Certified Crime Prevention Community Program

Virginia Secretary of Public Safety John Marshall officially recognized Henrico County as a Certified Crime Prevention Community (CCPC) and congratulated the county’s 11 new Certified Crime Prevention Specialists in a ceremony held January 20, 2004. Henrico earned the distinction as the locality with the most specialists in the state, with 23.

The CCPC program, run by the state Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), encourages localities to develop and implement collaborative community safety plans within a flexible framework.

“This program is not designed to be easy,” said Leonard G. Cooke, DCSJ Director. “It requires a tremendous effort on the part of the locality to plan and develop viable safety strategies that impact every aspect of that community and to then implement the strategies to reduce citizen fear of crime, youth violence, gang activity and involvement in drugs.”

When Henrico County’s Board of Supervisors passed a resolution in December 2001, the certification process began. Through the joint efforts of the Division of Police, Schools, Victim/Witness, Mental Health/Developmental Services, Social Services, Juvenile Court, Probation and the Planning Office’s Community Maintenance Division, Henrico met 12 primary community safety elements/strategies and seven optional elements for the stringent certification process. The following April, the county submitted extensive documentation of its crime prevention efforts.

County Manager Virgil R. Hazelett, P.E. noted, “certification as a crime prevention community demonstrates our comprehensive and fervent commitment to public safety and to the citizens of Henrico.”