After decades when few law enforcement officers in Virginia lost the right to serve in sworn positions, recent reforms have brought dramatic increases in decertifications
By Emma Rose Brown and Dillon Bergin
The Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO
This story is a collaboration between the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO and MuckRock, a nonprofit investigative news site.
Decertifications of Virginia law enforcement officers have jumped fourfold annually since 2020, when lawmakers passed reforms during a push for police accountability, according to a data analysis by the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO and MuckRock.
Dana Schrad, director of the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police. Handout Photo VACP
The dramatic jump in decertifications – once an exceptionally rare punishment – has both advocates for police reform and law enforcement officers saying the new regulations have made a difference. Five years after the murder of George Floyd energized national change for police accountability, Virginia lawmakers and advocates agree that further reforms are ahead.
“We are really strict in Virginia about holding our officers accountable and making sure that the bad eggs are gone,” said Dana Schrad, director of the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police.
The disciplinary reforms were overdue, said Claire Guthrie Gastañaga, former executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Virginia. The large increase in decertifications, she said, “means that things are working.”
Police and jail officers must be certified by the state to work in law enforcement. Decertifications, the revocation of a person’s authority to serve as an officer, have averaged about 80 cases annually since the reforms were enacted in 2021. Reinstatements of decertified officers have also risen each year since the reforms.
In the prior two decades, the highest number of officers decertified statewide in a single year was only 17, according to the analysis of data provided by the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS). Between 1999 and 2011, just four officers in Virginia lost their certifications.
Five agencies across the Commonwealth have decertified more than ten officers: Virginia State Police, Chesapeake Police Department, Henrico County Sheriff's Office, Fairfax County Police Department and Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office.
The Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO and MuckRock obtained the database used to track officer decertifications from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services through a public records request. The data, which also includes decertifications of jail officers, captures disciplinary actions from 1999 to early 2025. Each record includes the officer’s name, law enforcement agency, position at the agency, and the date and reason for decertification. The newsrooms also requested and obtained data on the number of certified officers as of March 2025 from the Department, as well as a list of all law enforcement agencies in the state.
Experts say this increased number of decertifications results from reforms enacted four years ago that broadened the scope of violations that could lead to decertification. For example, an officer may now lose their badge for lying or resigning during an investigation into their alleged misconduct.
New standards of conduct have also been created since the law was passed, which add additional grounds for potential decertification.
Prior to the reforms, Virginia officers could only be decertified for specific drug or criminal offenses or for failing to complete required training.
Gastañaga said the reforms aimed to address officers who had been fired for cause or had resigned during an investigation into misconduct but who remained able to seek employment at other law enforcement agencies in the Commonwealth. Officers can still be fired but keep their certification.
“We really needed to change the law to say that somebody who was terminated for cause could be decertified—and should be frankly decertified—in Virginia,” she said.
The Virginia reforms had been in the works for several years and gained momentum in the General Assembly following the murder of Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis.
According to a 2021 report by the Brennan Center for Justice, 30 states and the District of Columbia enacted legislative policing reforms in the year after Floyd’s death.
There are almost 25,000 certified law enforcement officers in Virginia’s police departments, sheriff’s offices and jails, according to the analysis of data provided by the Department of Criminal Justice Services.
The process to decertify an officer in Virginia requires a sheriff, chief or agency administrator to notify DCJS in writing within 48 hours of becoming aware of potentially decertifiable misconduct. A five-person team then reviews the notification to determine whether to decertify the officer.
Once the criteria for decertification are verified and decertification is initiated, DCJS serves notice on the officer. A former officer has 30 days to appeal his or her decertification before it is finalized.
Virginia State Police, Chesapeake Police Department and Henrico County Sheriff’s Office led decertifications
While the 2020 law has led to an increase in decertifications across the state, most agencies haven’t decertified a single officer since the law changed. More than 260 agencies have not decertified any officers. Of the agencies that have decertified officers, almost half have used the process just once.
The Virginia State Police employs more officers than any other agency and has decertified the highest number of officers – 16 – since the 2020 reforms were enacted.
The sharp increase in decertifications is the “direct result of the statute change” and the agency’s compliance with the laws, Virginia State Police spokesperson Robin Lawson said in a statement.
But the Chesapeake Police Department has 331 officers, just a fifth the size of the state police, and has also decertified as many officers – 16 – as the state police since the law changed. The department had decertified only two officers in the two decades before the reforms.
“The Chesapeake Police Department holds its officers to the highest levels of professional standards at all times,” Chesapeake Police Department spokesperson Leo Kosinski said in a statement. “As a department, we are committed to both continuous improvement and constant review of our policies, tactics, training, and team members.”
Kosinski declined to answer questions about why the department had as many disciplinary actions as the state police force.
The Henrico County Sheriff’s Office, which employs about 248 officers, has decertified 10 members of the force since the new law went into effect. Before 2021, the Henrico County Sheriff’s Office had not decertified a single officer, according to DCJS records dating back to 1999.
The Fairfax County Police Department, the second-largest law enforcement agency in the state, has also decertified ten officers since the updated statute took effect.
In response to emailed questions, the Fairfax County Police Department’s Chief’s Office said that the department “strictly adheres to the provisions set forth” in the state code and “thoroughly investigates all allegations of misconduct as it relates to FCPD policy and state law.”
At the same time, two of the state's largest agencies, Loudoun County Sheriff's Office and Virginia Beach Police Department, have issued just two decertifications each. Neither agency responded to emailed questions about decertifications at their agencies.
Since the reforms, the leading reasons for decertifications have been giving untruthful statements during an internal affairs investigation or falsifying documents. In Chesapeake, 14 of the 16 police officers lost their badges for lying or issues related to credibility, and all 10 deputies in the Henrico County Sheriff’s Office were decertified for lying, falsifying documents or “compromised credibility/integrity.”
“When we agreed to having the veracity standard [in the new law], we felt like that went to the core of being a public safety officer: could you be believed in court?” said Schrad.
During the four years since the new law took effect, reinstatements following appeals have also gradually increased, reaching a high in 2024. The number of reinstatements before the reforms was not shared. Former law enforcement officers can challenge their decertification through a review by the Criminal Justice Services Board. This 32-member committee includes law enforcement officials, attorneys, advocates and citizens. Officers regain their certification if their appeal is successful.
“Officers have the same rights as any other public employee should have,” said Schrad. “When officers come to appeal their decertification, often for lying, they've got to be able to stand up the case for why they don't think that the lie or the dishonesty is material [to their work in law enforcement].”
The new legislation also mandates that law enforcement agencies request the files of potential hires, aiming to prevent officers with a history of alleged misconduct from "wandering" between departments without the hiring agency’s knowledge.
Some who successfully appeal are recertified and continue to find employment in law enforcement. Polly Griffin, a former Virginia Commonwealth University security officer, successfully appealed her decertification in 2022. She was originally decertified for offenses including being overheard on a body-worn camera telling a man, “You’re lucky I don’t kill you,” and for using excessive force on a woman in custody. Her decertification was reversed following a CJSB hearing, and Griffin has since been hired by the Petersburg Police Department, according to reporting by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Reform efforts are an ongoing debate
Lawmakers and advocates agree that while the reform has succeeded in increasing decertifications, there is room for future improvement to the accountability process.
Following the expanded decertification laws in 2020, Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, introduced amendments, developed in consultation with the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police and other organizations, that allow appeal hearings, once open to the public, to be held behind closed doors.
Locke did not respond to interview requests.
Supporters of the amendment say it addresses the problem of law enforcement agencies skipping appeal hearings—either to avoid making investigative files public or because they viewed certification as a DCJS responsibility.
According to Schrad, appeals were sometimes successful because the panel lacked adequate evidence. The new law requires agencies to appear at hearings and present supporting documentation.
“We were able to compel their cooperation in exchange for protected hearings,” Schrad said.
However, transparency advocates call the change a step backward.
The process doesn’t require secrecy, Gastañaga said. She believes the public should know the names of anybody who has been determined to be decertifiable and should know the outcome of their appeal.
Alice Minium, founder of the police accountability organization OpenOversightVA, said the amendment benefits law enforcement agencies over public interest. Minium attended CJSB hearings when they were open to the public.
“The problem is not just…who gets decertified or the fact that they hold it all in closed session, but with the fact that the public is not even factored in here,” said Minium.
Minium recently sued to make public the names of sworn officers in Hanover County. On February 25, 2025, the Virginia Court of Appeals ruled that those names are not exempt from disclosure under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. The court found that preventing the release of the agency’s roster “flies in the face” of the transparency that the law was designed to protect.
“You can't do things in secret and have them be oversight,” said Minium.
Reporter Sammy Sussman contributed to this story.
Reach Emma Rose Brown at emmarosebrown@proton.me, and Dillon Bergin at dillon@muckrock.com.
How we did our analysis
VCIJ and MuckRock reporters obtained the database used to track officer decertifications from 1999 to early 2025 from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services through a public records request. The database includes decertifications before and after recent disciplinary reforms, as well as reinstatements and pending decertifications. We chose not to include pending decertifications in our analysis because pending cases may be in the process of an appeal.
Laws and policies governing police certification in Virginia have changed since 1999, affecting the number of decertifications. For example, prior to the reforms enacted in 2021, Virginia officers could only be decertified for specific drug or criminal offenses or for failing to complete required training.
To compare rates of decertification among different agencies, we requested data from Virginia’s Training and Certification Electronic Records (TRACER) database on the total number of certified law enforcement and jail officers employed by each agency in March 2025.