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Fairfax County, Virginia (U.S.)

image by Joe McMillan, 16 January 2000

Description of the flag
Police Department
Sheriff's Office
Department of Public Safety Communications

- indicates flag is known.
- indicates it is reported that there is no known flag.

Municipal flags in Fairfax County:

See also:

Description of the flag

Sharp-eyed readers will note that the horse in the image is brown rather than red. The correct heraldic blazon is "gules," but the county habitually represents the horse as well as the lions in what it seems to take as "natural" colors.
Joe McMillan, 16 January 2000

At www.co.fairfax.va.us/sheriff/honorguard.htm there are a number of photos of the Sheriff's department honor guard from one of those counties, Fairfax. Four flags are visible on some of the photos- U.S., Virginia, Fairfax County and another very similar to the County flag but with a brown field instead of blue. Is that the Sheriff's Department flag? The departmental uniforms seem to be the same shade of brown. Another photo, not linked at that first page may give more additional detail www.co.fairfax.va.us/sheriff/images/flag-lg.jpg.
Ned Smith, 26 June 2005

The yellow around the edge of the county flag (light blue) is wider than that around the state and national flags. There are county flags extant here in Fairfax County that lack the yellow border, but all those I have seen displayed in front of and inside county office buildings have the yellow border. It does seem to vary in width, however, and I have been unable to find any county ordinance specifying the design-- not that I've tried very hard, beyond looking in the law section of the public libraries.
Joe McMillan, 4 July 2005

A photo of the flag flying outdoors, taken on 7 June 2008 and available on Flickr, shows the flag without the yellow border and with the lettering in blue letters.
www.flickr.com/photos/overcon/2560348412/in/pool-flags
Ivan Sache, 24 May 2009

Police Department

image by Randy Young, 18 September 2014

The Fairfax County PD is responsible for law enforcement duties throughout Virginia's Fairfax County, exclusive of the independent cities of Fairfax and Falls Church, and any town police departments throughout the county, such as Vienna, Annandale, or Herndon. There are numerous photographs of the department's flag across the Internet, but some of the best I found were on the VACP (Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police) website.

The flag of the Fairfax County Police Department features the department's badge centered on a dark blue field. In white sans serif letters above the badge are the words "FAIRFAX COUNTY" while the words "POLICE DEPARTMENT" appear in the same type letters below the badge. The detail in the high resolution photographs on the VACP website clearly show that the colors of the Fairfax County seal in the center of the badge are not the same as the official colors, and are instead a rather gross liberalization of those colors. For the gif, I have used the gross colorization of the seal used in the photographs of the actual example flag used in the ceremonies.
Randy Young, 18 September 2014

Sheriff's Office

image by Randy Young, 24 June 2014

According to the Fairfax County government website, "the Fairfax County Sheriff's Office is responsible for managing the Adult Detention Center, providing security in the courthouse and serving civil law process. The sheriff and the sheriff's deputies have civil and concurrent criminal jurisdiction in Fairfax County, the City of Fairfax and the towns of Vienna and Herndon." The Fairfax County Sheriff's Office works in conjunction with the Fairfax County Police Department and the police departments in the City of Fairfax, the Town of Vienna, and the Town of Herndon.

The flag of the Fairfax County Sheriff's Office is dark brown with the Sheriff's Office badge centered on the field. The badge itself consists of a five-pointed gold star with the Fairfax County seal displayed in the center of the star. Above the star is a white banner with the word "FAIRFAX" in black letters, while two white banners below the star carry the words "SHERIFFS" and "OFFICE" in black letters. Photos of the flag displayed in ceremonies show it with a gold fringe.

Randy Young, 24 June 2014

Department of Public Safety Communications

image by Randy Young, 10 June 2014

From www.fairfaxcounty.gov/911/aboutus.htm:
"The Department of Public Safety Communications (DPSC), also known as Fairfax County 9-1-1, is a nationally recognized public safety communications center, the largest in the Commonwealth of Virginia and one of the ten largest in the United States. DPSC receives approximately 1 million calls requesting public safety service per year and dispatches units of the Fairfax County Police Department, Fire and Rescue Department and Sheriff's Office. In addition to Fairfax County, DPSC is the designated 9-1-1 public safety answering point (PSAP) for the towns of Herndon and Vienna and the City of Fairfax located in the County. The employees of DPSC are truly the First of the First Responders and proud to serve the citizens of Fairfax County and the County's other public safety departments."

The flag of the department, seen online at www.virginia-apco.org features the department's logo displayed against a white field.

Randy Young, 10 June 2014