On August 24, 2017, Governor Terry McAuliffe signed Executive Order 68, creating the Task Force on Public Safety Preparedness and Response to Civil Unrest. This Task Force was charged with evaluating the circumstances that led to the events in Charlottesville on August 11-12 and assessing the Commonwealth’s procedures for preparing and responding to events where civil unrest could occur.
VACo participated in the Task Force, which was comprised of state and local government officials with public safety expertise and experience.
The Task Force established a Permitting Work Group and a Preparedness and Response Work Group. The Task Force met four times and received expert briefings, shared and discussed information, and adopted recommendations presented by the work groups.
The task force has produced three reports – the final report on the event, an After Action review report, and a permitting reference document to provide local governments with guidance in developing or revising current permitting processes.
There have been many bills introduced in the first week of the 2018 General Assembly session that address a locality’s ability to regulate weapons at such events including HB 814 (Levine), HB 1019 (Toscano), HB 1052 (Watts), and SB 63 (Favola).
Local governments should review these documents as they move forward in addressing the possibility of events in their jurisdictions.
VACo Contact: Phyllis Errico, Esq., CAE