By URIAH KISER
Sitting at his desk on a snowy late March morning, Dumfries Police Chief Robert Forker answers a phone call. He, and is second in command Capt. Rebecca Edwards, are the only ones in the office this morning because their two-person front office staff is contending with a minor bout of the flu.
It’s a small department for a small town, made of up eight officers, charged with serving about 5,000 residents. But Forker has been around a long time, and has worn many badges and hats in Prince William County. Now, he plans to hang it up and move on to his next patrol beat – permanent retirement.
Forker started his career in as a cop in Washington in 1973, following in the footsteps of his father-in-law. He became a Prince William County police officer in 1981 and served until 2007, working in units like accident investigation, crime prevention, internal affairs, and in the department’s criminal investigation division during the infamous D.C. sniper attacks of 2002. He retired – the first time – as a Captain at the county’s 911 Public Safety Communications Center at the McCoart Building.
But he retired from Prince William’s force only to be called up again in 2011 to lead the Town of Dumfries Police Department, which during the previous year was undergoing a leadership change following an FBI investigation into the department. The changeover meant long-serving chief Calvin Johnson would exit and just retired Prince William police Major Ray Colgan would takeover as acting chief.
It wasn’t until after Colgan’s replacement, Daniel Taber, was promoted to Dumfries Town Manager that Forker was called in for an interview.
“[Colgan] told me it probably wouldn’t take more than six months before they found a permanent replacement chief. That was in 2011,” joked Forker.
During Forker’s time here he’s worked to the make the police department more responsive to its residents, and to make his officers more accountable.
“We initiated a program that has our officers walking a beat at least one hour a day. That means they get out of their cars and get out into neighborhoods and talk with citizens,” said Forker.
He also implemented a complaint tracker system used to identify complaints made to the department for things like parking and noise violations. Officers were required to document the actions used to rectify the complaints, and then report back to the to residents what measures officers used to resolve the problem.
His public open door policy came after routine police reports were not being logged properly, and after he learned that what records were being kept under Johnson were locked away from public view.
Forker doesn’t hold any ill will for Johnson, however.
“Chief Johnson was the right man for the job at the time,” explained Forker. “There was a large drug problem in this town, as well as other issues, and he was tasked with responding to that.”
New issues have also arose in the town, as the department will be the first and only in the county to hire and implement a school police resource officer for Dumfries Elementary School following the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. The move was ordered by the town council, who will also ultimately decide who will replace Forker.
But the whispering wail of retirement is calling him, and Forker plans to hang up his police cap for good come September’s end. He’ll follow his old boss, Chief Charlie T. Deane, who retired from the Prince William County Police Department last fall. He was one of the longest serving police chief’s in the country.
“Chief Deane was an institution in Prince William County. Under him, I learned that if you don’t have the support of your community you could not do your job,” said Forker.
Forker credits the implementation of his community policing strategy with what he learned from Deane.
Forker works hand in hand with his second in charger, Capt. Rebecca Edwards, who came to Dumfries after rising through the ranks a deputy in Spotsylvania County. She could be in line to replace Forker, but wouldn’t say if it’s a job she wanted to take on.
“We’re really going to miss his professionalism and his personality around the station,” said Edwards.
Come September, Forker knows what items will be piling up on his agenda.
“I’m going fishing, and if you can’t find me there I’m probably around the house doing a whole lotta nothin’, and if you can’t find me there you’ll probably find that I’ve gone fishing again,” said Forker.
