Meet the Chief: Q&A with Vienna's New Chief of Police

Col. James Morris was hired this spring as the new Chief of the Vienna Police Department after 24 years of service in the Fairfax County Police Department.

Morris worked in McLean, Reston and Oakton before assuming the role of station commander at the Franconia station and eventually the Acting Chief of Police title for the entire department. 

Morris sat down with Patch to assess his time as Chief so far, and to discuss his plans for the police department in the future.

Q: What has the experience as Chief of Police been like so far?
A: It’s been great. There has been a lot of learning to do. Even though it is a small department there are a lot of people, and I’m a people person; I want to get to know the people. So that takes time. Police departments, while they have a lot of similarities, there are differences. So I’ve just been trying to get myself acquainted with the policies and practices of Vienna so I can understand how Vienna works and how it’s most efficient.

Q: What has been different about Vienna from your previous jobs in law enforcement?
A: A lot more personal relationships in Vienna because there are 40 officers, 50-something total employees, I get to see everyone at least every two weeks if not every week. Before, when I was with Fairfax (County Police) there were 1,600 employees, there were people in that department I’d never seen. That’s a big difference and it’s a difference I like.

Q: What challenges have you faced so far as Chief of Police?
A: No challenges that I didn’t expect. It’s a lot more hands-on being Chief. My previous positions I had people that made the budget or did the forms or obtained the grants, and I was more or less the viewer and the signatory. Here, a lot of those things I’m going to be actually in the weeds on, making and developing, because it’s run a different way. It’s a smaller agency and everybody is doing everything.

Q: What challenges do you think the town of Vienna is facing?
A: Well the town’s number-one challenge is traffic. Vienna is just a cut-throat community. I see that, I feel for the residents who live on these cut-through roads, who try to maneuver on Maple Ave., and I understand that. So as we go out and do traffic enforcement or we look at traffic-calming measures it’s keeping that in mind. It’s trying to serve the community, and realizing that’s probably the No. 1 problem. 

Q: Any crime-related challenges?
A: There’s not a big rash of crime in the area. In Vienna we have the mailbox smashings, we just had a fairly significant burglary series go on that got solved in working in conjunction with the McLean station of Fairfax County. So there is certainly crime that goes on here. Officers are always busy dealing with something, so there is crime. But there’s nothing so defined, no big hot-spot where we have a No. 1 issue or anything, it’s more little issues that pop up that we try to put out right away and move on. A good example: two days ago we had a mailbox smashing at several houses on a street. That’s one that’s going to get our attention for a little while, but that’s not a constant. It just kind of pops up now and again.

Q: What has it been like interacting with community members?
A: It’s been great; I really enjoy it. It’s an active community, there are a lot of folks here that I see are part of several groups. I’ll go to the Legion for a dinner and I’ll see those same people at the Rotary Club, and I’ll see a lot of those same people at the Optimist Club.  And it’s really neat to me. It’s a nice, close-knit community with active members in it, and that’s important, especially for my role as Police Chief because I want the police department to be part of that community, and I want them to feel like they’re part of the police department. So having the active, core group of residents that Vienna has that’ll be pretty easy to accomplish.

Q: What’s your relationship like with members of Town Council and Vienna's local business community?
A: I think I get along good with the Town Council. I am very open in communication. They know they can contact me directly, and I will contact them directly. Members of council already do if they have a question. As we rolled out the needs assessment for the new police station several did; several came directly, came here and met with me and we talked about concerns. I try to be that open. Same thing with the local businesses; I’ve met with several local business owners, some over issues, others just to meet with them. The business community in Vienna is an important community, just like with the residents it’s an active community. It’s a group that wants police service, that wants some level of attention, and our goal is to make sure they get it.

Q: What goals have you set for your time as Police Chief?
A: One of my goals is to make sure the officers in this department are getting the best training possible, and that they’re getting full opportunities to grow and develop as police officers. That is currently going on, I just want to make sure that continues and look for ways to help develop that. Another priority is that I want a new building. I want a new police station. That’s going to be a priority, it’s something that has to happen for the Vienna Police Department to continue to flourish and bring the quality level of services to the town of Vienna that the town wants, the town council wants, I want and that the officers here want.