Prince William Times 05/13/2021

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GIRLS SOCCER WARS: Patriot, Battlefield resume their district duel. SPORTS, Pages 18-19

May 13, 2021 | Vol. 20, No. 19 | www.princewilliamtimes.com | $1.00 Covering Prince William County and surrounding communities, including Gainesville, Haymarket, Dumfries, Occoquan, Quantico and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park.

See PrinceWilliamTimes.com for coronavirus updates

Va. Republicans pick nominees for state ticket

PHOTO BY SKY’S THE LIMIT MEDIA/JC PHOTOGRAPHY

A Prince William County police officer talks with a motorist stopped in the area of Brookside Court and Deerfield Lane in Woodbridge on Tuesday, May 11.

Local police more likely to search Black, Hispanic drivers during traffic stops By Daniel Berti

Times Staff Writer

Hispanic and Black drivers traversing Prince William County are searched and arrested more often by local police than other groups, according to newly released police traffic stop data. But local police say they are not yet ready to draw any conclusions from the numbers. In the last six months of 2020, Hispanic and Black drivers accounted for 74% of 205 vehicle searches conducted by local police officers and 78% of all 175 traffic stop-related arrests. By comparison, white drivers accounted for 26% of vehicle searches and 21% of arrests during the same time period. Additionally, police pulled over Hispanic drivers using “terry stops” -- or pretextual stops -- at higher rates than other groups. A terry stop allows police to detain a person based on suspicion of criminal activity. Of the 41 terry stops reported in six-month period, 18 involved Hispanic drivers, 14 involved white drivers, seven involved Black drivers and two involved Asian drivers.

“Once you have the data you have to ask the important questions. First of all, what exactly does this mean for Prince William County? And then, are there things we need to do in law enforcement to change this?”

Staff Reports Virginia Republicans have picked their nominees for statewide offices. Former hedge fund CEO Glenn Youngkin will seek the governor’s mansion, while U.S. Marine veteran and former state delegate Winsome Sears will vie to be Virginia’s first Black female lieutenant governor and state Del. Jason Miyares will run for attorney general. The three came out on top of three days of complicated ballot counting that followed the Republican Party of Virginia’s “unassembled convention,” which took place on Saturday, May 8. About 30,000 pre-registered voters participated in the convention, casting ballots from 39 polling places around Virginia. All of the ballots were taken to a hotel in Richmond, where volunteers spent much of Sunday and all day Monday and Tuesday sorting and tallying them in multiple rounds of vote-counting. See GOP, page 10

GOP Nominees

Glenn Youngkin for governor

Winsome Sears for lt. governor

Jason Miyares for attorney general

County takes first steps toward collective bargaining By Daniel Berti

Times Staff Writer

Local police officers made 14,662 traffic stops between July 1 and Dec. 30, 2020, or an average of about 80 a day. Of those, white drivers accounted for 39% of all local traffic stops; Black drivers accounted for 29%; Hispanic drivers accounted for 26%; and Asian drivers accounted for 4%. The vast majority of those stops -- 97% -- resulted in either a traffic ticket or a warning. Only 1% of stops resulted in a vehicle search or arrest.

After a new Virginia law took effect May 1 allowing public employees to collectively bargain for the first time in 40 years, Prince William firefighters and police unions have urged county officials to take action to them to negotiate for higher wages, benefits and work conditions. The Prince William Board of County Supervisors responded by directing county staff to investigate creating a work group to draft a collective bargaining ordinance. The move came during a Tuesday, May 10 work session at Buckhall Fire Station – marking the first step toward allowing county employees to negotiate their contracts with the county executive.

See TRAFFIC STOPS, page 6

See COLLECTIVE, page 15

POLICE CHIEF PETER NEWSHAM

Brentsville District High students hold their first plant sale in school’s state-of-the-art greenhouse See Page 16

88 DULLES, VA

Welcome to the new legacy! Still your bank. Visit TFB.bank for more information.

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