As many law enforcement agencies struggle to hire new officers, the Fairfax County Police Department has welcomed its largest recruiting class in more than a decade.
Fifty-six new recruits make up the department's first majority non-white recruiting class.
“Whether it be Black, white, Hispanic, everyone gets to, you know, show what they’re made of," police recruit Alphonzo White said.
White said he wants to be an officer people can rely on and relate to.
“I lost my father in 2006 to gun violence, so that’s been my ‘why.' That’s been my reason," he said.
Becoming an officer during a time when the profession has come under intense scrutiny is something that White says motivates him.
“I have to change the narrative. I grew up in a household that didn’t respond well to police. I have to be the difference-maker. I have to set myself – I have to set the bar extremely high," White said.
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A quarter of the new recruits are women.
Melissa Purvis has a degree in psychology and worked with kids with mental health issues for years, including many in the LGBTQ community.
“If I want to see policing better, I think we need to be hiring people like myself – other people with mental health backgrounds or just other various experience,” Purvis said.
This is the second recruiting Fairfax County class that’s received a $15,000 sign-on bonus.
“I feel like they’re investing in me. It definitely makes me want to invest in myself even more as well. I think it’s a mutual thing having that bonus," Purvis said.
The department says bonuses help, but it has also expanded its recruitment. Rather than targeting mostly ex-military members and criminal justice grads, the department has been casting a wider net to entice non-traditional applicants.
Several other police departments in the D.C. area also offer sign-on bonuses for officers, including the Metropolitan Police Department in D.C., the Montgomery County Police Department, Prince George's County Police Department and Arlington County Police Department.
