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Fairfax County police investigated or advised on more than 800 threat cases in 2025 as specialized officers worked to defuse potentially dangerous situations before crimes occurred.

The department’s full-time Threat Assessment Management Team consists of detectives dedicated to examining threats against public officials and community members. The team works alongside the Criminal Intelligence Unit, Police Chief Kevin Davis said.

Davis said modern threats require law enforcement agencies to devote full-time attention to assessing risk, a practice he described as relatively new.

Many of the communications do not meet the legal definition of a crime. They are often protected speech directed at elected officials, community leaders, business figures or health care workers. Most arrive by email, although some are delivered in writing.

Even when a message is not criminal, detectives may consider it threatening enough to warrant contact with the sender. Officers can visit the person with mental health clinicians and colleagues trained in crisis intervention.

Those encounters help police determine whether someone wants or needs mental or behavioral health services. Davis said the approach moves beyond the traditional practice of waiting for a crime to occur and instead seeks to reduce the risk of escalation.

Virginia also adopted a policy in 2020 allowing police departments to temporarily remove firearms from homes when someone is experiencing a mental or behavioral health crisis or when aggravated assault or more serious violence appears likely.

Fairfax County police have participated in 463 emergency substantial risk order cases in roughly the five years since then.

Davis said those crises are frequently not criminal, but may still involve an unstable person with access to firearms.