Richard "Rick" Arrington began his law enforcement career in the U.S. Army as a Military Policeman. He began his civilian law enforcement career with the Roanoke City, Virginia Police Department in 1981 and served at the agency for over 26 years in various capacities, retiring as a Zone Commander over one-fourth of the city. During his time with Roanoke, Rick oversaw the community services unit which was developed under his leadership and included all School Resource Officers, D.A.R.E. Officers, the Crime Prevention Unit and the Community Policing/Problem Solving Unit, as well as the Mounted Patrol. He also served in various leadership roles with the state’s crime prevention association and led to the creation of the Safer by Design committee to move the concept of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design forward. Rick retired from the Roanoke Police Department in 2006 and was recruited and hired by the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS).
In 2013, as a subject matter expert in Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED), he became the principal architect in designing the current Code of Virginia mandated “School Security Checklist,” and has trained hundreds of school staff and School Resource Officers in how to conduct vulnerability assessments within schools. In 2013, as part of a subcommittee of the Virginia Governor’s School Safety Taskforce, he worked with fire officials, architects and engineers in developing standard consideration for new school construction. Rick has published numerous articles on Crime prevention Through Environmental Design and other prevention applications in various trade periodicals. In 2007 he published his own text entitled, Crime Prevention-A Law Enforcement Officer’s Practical Guide (Jones and Bartlett Pub.), which is currently being used by many in the proactive policing field as their desk reference to addressing crime and developing better relationships within their communities. Having presented seminars related to safety in faith-based organizations for numerous years and recognizing a marked increase in the request for this topic in September 2015 Rick published a small text entitle, Securing the Faithful (Sunset Institute Press) for Faith-Based organizations. Most recently he was cited in the 2018 released text by Lawrence Fennelly and Marianna Perry, CPTED and Traditional Security Countermeasures- 150 Things You Should Know. (CRC Press)
Rick retired from DCJS as the Crime Prevention Programs Manager and crime prevention subject matter expert with the Commonwealth of Virginia in 2018. Arrington opened his own consultant company, Crime Prevention Center for Training and Services, LLC in 2019.
He is one of less than a dozen professionals to serve on the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries’ (ISRI) National Law Enforcement Advisory Committee to address metal theft. Arrington also serves on the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Crime Prevention Committee and served on the IACP 2018 School Liaison Working Group to review past model policies, concepts and issues. He also served on the National Fire Protection Association’s committee on premises security in the recent past.
