The War­ren Coun­ty Sher­if­f’s Office is pleased to announce that we are active­ly work­ing towards becom­ing a Cer­ti­fied Crime Pre­ven­tion Agency.

What is Cer­ti­fied Com­mu­ni­ty Crime Pre­ven­tion Program?

In 1998 an Exec­u­tive Order cre­at­ed the New Part­ner­ship Com­mis­sion for Com­mu­ni­ty Safe­ty, charged with the respon­si­bil­i­ty of advis­ing the Gov­er­nor on new ini­tia­tives to “pro­mote com­mu­ni­ty safe­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly youth and fam­i­ly safe­ty.” The Com­mis­sion worked dili­gent­ly to assess the needs of local­i­ties across the Com­mon­wealth and assist them in address­ing their indi­vid­ual com­mu­ni­ty safe­ty issues.

The Com­mis­sion asked the Depart­ment of Crim­i­nal Jus­tice Ser­vices (DCJS) to rec­om­mend pro­grams that fos­ter the devel­op­ment of com­mu­ni­ty safe­ty ini­tia­tives at the local lev­el. DCJS pro­posed, and the Com­mis­sion approved, the Cer­ti­fied Crime Pre­ven­tion Com­mu­ni­ty Pro­gram. Based on a study con­duct­ed by the Vir­ginia State Crime Com­mis­sion in 1993, the goal of the pro­gram is to pub­licly rec­og­nize and cer­ti­fy local­i­ties that have imple­ment­ed a defined set of com­mu­ni­ty safe­ty strate­gies as part of a com­pre­hen­sive com­mu­ni­ty safety/crime pre­ven­tion effort.

One of the first of its kind in the nation, the pro­gram encour­ages local­i­ties to devel­op and imple­ment col­lab­o­ra­tive com­mu­ni­ty safe­ty plans with­in a flex­i­ble frame­work designed by the Com­mis­sion. Fur­ther­more, it pro­vides an ongo­ing process by which com­mu­ni­ties can reassess and update their plans to address emerg­ing com­mu­ni­ty safe­ty issues. To obtain cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, a local­i­ty must meet 12 core com­mu­ni­ty safe­ty elements/strategies aug­ment­ed by a min­i­mum of sev­en approved option­al ele­ments. DCJS runs and mon­i­tors the pro­gram. An agency must recer­ti­fi­ca­tion every 3‑years.

What’s required to become certified?

• Coun­ty adopts Res­o­lu­tion of support
• Pro­gram plan sub­mit­ted to DCJS for approval
• Pro­gram cre­at­ed and put into full effect

What incen­tives are there for War­ren Coun­ty to become certified?

• Become a leader in Com­mu­ni­ty Safety.
• Sends a clear sig­nal to crim­i­nals that crim­i­nal behav­ior will not be tolerated.
• WCSO giv­en pref­er­ence in the State Crim­i­nal Jus­tice Grant appli­ca­tion process.
• Great mar­ket­ing tool to attract fam­i­lies, tourists, busi­ness­es, and oth­ers inter­est­ed in find­ing a safe loca­tion in which to live, work, and play.
• Pre­mi­um reduc­tions from insur­ance com­pa­nies for policyholders.
• Enhances the pro­fes­sion­al­ism of coun­ty man­age­ment and Sheriff’s Office by show­ing we can meet rig­or­ous stan­dards relat­ed to com­mu­ni­ty safety.

Pro­gram Elements

There are 12 core ele­ments and 7 option­al ele­ments that com­prise our pro­gram plan. Addi­tion­al­ly, there are oth­er option­al pro­grams and ini­tia­tives that may become a part of the program.

12 — Core Com­mu­ni­ty Safe­ty Elements

1. COMMUNITY ADVISORY COUNCIL (CAC)
2. DCJS Cer­ti­fied Crime Pre­ven­tion Specialist
3. Neigh­bor­hood Watch Program
4. Com­mu­ni­ty Policing/Crime Con­trol Plan­ning Process
5. Orga­nized Dis­tro of Com­mu­ni­ty Safe­ty Literature
6. Com­mu­ni­ty Safety/Risk Assessments
7. Crime Ana­lyst
8. Com­pre­hen­sive School Safe­ty Audit
9. Busi­ness Out­reach Program 
10. Orga­nized Refer­ral Process for Crime Victims
11. Youth Delin­quen­cy Pre­ven­tion Program
12. VLEPSC Accred­i­ta­tion  

WCSO — Option­al Safe­ty Ele­ments     

Oth­er Active Programs

• D.A.R.E.
• TRIAD / S.A.L.T. COUNCIL
• Nation­al Night Out
• SRO Pro­gram
• OPERATION TELEPHONE PROGRAM

Oth­er Links For Programs

• COMMUNITY ADVISORY COUNCIL (CAC)
• TRIAD / S.A.L.T. COUNCIL
• PROJECT LIFESAVER
• OPERATION TELEPHONE PROGRAM
• SMART 911
• SHERIFF’S YOUTH CAMP
• CHILD IDENTIFICATION PROGRAM
• CHILD SAFETY SEAT INSTALLATION
• EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS