Prince William County Police Department (PWCPD) is a county police department inPrince William County, Virginia, United States. PWCPD has primary jurisdiction in all towns within the county, includingDumfries,Occoquan,Haymarket, andQuantico, which also have their own police departments. The County Police department also has limited enforcement jurisdiction in theindependent city ofManassas through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
The Prince William County Police Department found itself in the news in July 2017 for issuing an arrest warrant forLucky Whitehead, a player in theNational Football League. At the time of the incident, Whitehead, a local native ofManassas, Virginia, was a player for theDallas Cowboys. On June 22, 2017, officers from the Prince William County Police Department arrested an individual for petit larceny who verbally provided the name Rodney Darnell "Lucky" Whitehead Jr. to officers. The officers from the Prince William County Police Department did not validate the individual's identity via a government issued photo identification, nor did officers take a mug shot of the individual at the time he was arrested. Subsequently, an arrest warrant was issued for Whitehead for failure to appear in court. At the time of incident in Virginia, Whitehead was in the state of Texas, a fact not investigated by Prince William County officers. As a direct result of the arrest warrant, Whitehead was released from his contract with the Dallas Cowboys.[citation needed]
A spokesman for Prince William County police, Jonathan Perok, issued several contradictory official statements on the matter. In July 2017, the final statement from Perok indicated that Prince William police still do not know the true identity of the individual they arrested and, "The police department is working with the Prince William County Commonwealth Attorney's Office to clear Mr. Whitehead from this investigation. The police department regrets the impact these events had on Mr. Whitehead and his family."[1][2][3]
