On the morning of April 7, a local 20-year-old college student and his 18-year-old cousin woke up early, excited for a day of fishing on the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir. By 9 am, they were on the water in their kayaks, waiting to see who would make the first catch of the day. Shortly before […]
Making an IMPACT “It has been almost four years since the father of my kids was deported to Mexico due to his stay in the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail,” said Fanny Smedlie, reading a statement from her friend Karla Lopez. Smedlie, a member of the Executive Committee of the Church of the Incarnation, addressed a […]
A report from a private consulting firm has concluded that Charlottesville and Albemarle disproportionately arrest black people, and that race-based disparities exist in the treatment of individuals in otherwise similar situations. The report analyzes adult arrest data from the beginning of 2014 through the end of 2016. During that period, more than half (51.5 percent) of […]
Before Bradley Shaun Dorman left his Charlottesville home the morning of October 25, he told his mother he was going to look for a job. He would be back in a few hours, in time to bathe their dog Gater. Several hours later, his mother, Annette Simmons, heard a knock at her door. She opened […]
Approximately 6,000 drivers whiz past stopped school buses in Albemarle County each year, putting students getting on and off the bus in jeopardy. New legislation that allows the installation of stop-arm cameras aims to put an end to this dangerous trend. County school officials say they’ve [...]
The 17-year-old boy who escaped his private security guards at the Charlottesville Albemarle Airport on November 30 was “scared,” “cold,” and “hungry” by the time he reached several homes six miles from CHO, according to one of those residents. An Earlysville woman who spoke with him in [...]
It’s about crime The Albemarle County Police Department released its annual crime report for 2017 in June, and while we already published some of the most striking statistics, here’s what else caught our eye. Between the years of 2016 and 2017, crimes rates increased in all but one category. [...]
A local daycare operator who was arrested last month on a felony charge of cruelty and injuries to children after 16 youngsters were found in her Forest Lakes home will go before the grand jury in February. A Juvenile and Domestic Relations court judge ruled January 8 that there was enough [...]
A federal judge raised questions about an Albemarle police officer’s unprecedented late-night search of two African-American plaintiffs’ home for a piece of paper, and said a jury may find it was based on racial profiling. Fewer than two weeks before trial date, Judge Glen Conrad seemed [...]
Nearly 54 years ago, Charlottesville was rocked with the bizarre death of high school football star Pat Akins, 19, whose body was found under a red Triumph TR3 after purportedly having been dragged 12 miles from Crozet. Today his Rock Hill Academy classmate Jimmy Dettor is offering [...]
In early November, an Albemarle County police K9 bit and injured a colt owned by an Augusta County farm owner—just a year and a half after a dog with the Charlottesville Police Department attacked a child. Is it time for man’s best friend to be laid off? While on a jog with its handler November [...]
A just-printed Albemarle County Police Department pamphlet was intended to build trust and cooperation between citizens and law enforcement during interactions that are now under a national spotlight. Its content, however, has alarmed some local attorneys, who say the guide’s instructions are [...]
A federal judge issued an opinion last week that allows a lawsuit against Albemarle County and police officer Andrew Holmes to proceed on its racial profiling claim, while giving Holmes qualified immunity on claims he violated the plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment rights when he showed up at their [...]
While it’s not always smooth sailing between the city and county, collaboration was the word of the day as officers and officials from Albemarle, Charlottesville and the University of Virginia gathered May 12 to dedicate a long-in-the-works, state-of-the-art Regional Firearms Training Center. [...]
New cops are learning a strategy called fair and impartial policing, which aims to help them evaluate their biases before they take to the streets. At a May 13 six-hour course, Albemarle’s Lieutenant Mike Wagner and Master Police Officer Dana Reeves taught 13 recruits from the county, [...]
The high-end realtor charged with involuntary manslaughter and his second drunk driving offense for killing an elderly driver in a Memorial Day car crash last year stands trial in Albemarle Circuit Court. On April 26, a 12-person jury made of nine women and three men was selected to hear [...]
Does an employer’s request for a welfare check on a man who has a gun but has made no threats to harm himself or others warrant holding him for two hours? That’s what a judge will determine in Benjamin Burruss’ lawsuit against five Albemarle police officers and the county for unlawful seizure, [...]
Just days after six people were killed in a weekend shooting rampage in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the Albemarle Police Department and the Charlottesville-UVA-Albemarle Office of Emergency Management hosted an active shooter training session to encourage community members to plan for such an [...]