Police Chief: multifamily growth is biggest change in Chesterfield in past 5 years

Posted August 13, 2025 at 10:25 PM, Filed Under: All News, Front Page, Meetings

By Greg Pearson


When Police Chief Frank Carpenter said the biggest difference in Chesterfield County during the past five years has been the increase in multifamily housing, many of the 53 members and guests of the Brandermill Region Men’s Club nodded their heads in agreement. Col. Carpenter was the speaker at the September meeting of the Brandermill Men’s Club (BRMC).

Carpenter was to have spoken on how growth in the 360 corridor would affect crime and traffic safety, but he said the county’s transportation department asked him not to get into its topic. Officials of CDOT are doing a PowerPoint presentation to the BRMC at 10 am on October 2 covering the extensions of the Powhite Parkway and Woolridge Road. As usual, the meeting will be at the Brandermill Church.

But there is good news on the recruitment front. The Chesterfield Police Academy has 28 recruits, the largest class in the past nine years. Their training takes nine months to complete. Currently, CCPD is authorized for 564 sworn officers and has just 531, which includes those still attending the Academy. A sworn officer carries a badge and is authorized to make arrests. The Virginia State Police also has a staffing shortage.

While the environment is improving for recruitment, Chesterfield and Henrico County have about the same number of sworn officers. But Chesterfield has twice as many square miles as Henrico to police.

“We are living off our reputation of being ‘Arrestafield’” explained Carpenter. “That reputation keeps some of the bad guys away from our county.”

The chief says Chesterfield cooperates with ICE on immigration problems when called upon. After such an arrest, CCPD hands off a suspect who happens to be an illegal immigrant to the Chesterfield Sheriff’s Department, which oversees the county jail and courthouse.

According to Carpenter, Chesterfield doesn’t really have a gang problem. Those youths are more likely to be “smaller in numbers more like neighborhood cliques.”

There is a school resource officer (SRO) assigned to every middle and high school in the county. If he had more manpower, Col. Carpenter would like to place an SRO in every elementary school also.

BRMC members asked questions about the intersection of Kelly Green Drive and Genito Road near the proposed water park. There have been a number of accidents there recently allegedly because that intersection lacks a traffic light. Carpenter said VDOT monitors accidents and their locations to determine when to install a traffic light. Routinely, traffic lights cost $50,000 each.