Subcommittee approves bill to allow state or local police to enforce and use cameras on GW Parkway

Senator Sarvo presented Senate Bill 776, which would authorize the Virginia State Police and local police departments (for example Fairfax County) to enforce traffic offenses and operate speed‑monitoring devices on the George Washington Parkway (a federal parkway) within a defined planning district.

Senator Sarvo said the parkway was designed in 1933 and was not built to handle the current commuter traffic; he described recurring collisions and community concern about speeding and lack of enforcement by the United States Park Police. Residents and neighborhood association representatives described frequent high‑speed traffic and weekly crash responses at dangerous intersections, and asked the subcommittee to allow state or local police and speed cameras to address the problem.

The bill would permit state or local police to enforce applicable federal traffic regulations via an enforcement mechanism that can be handled through local dockets rather than federal court. The bill also proposes allowing local placement of speed cameras, with a mechanism to avoid federal reversion of fines to national coffers that had previously deterred local camera deployment, according to the sponsor’s remarks.

The committee heard multiple residents from the Mount Vernon and Old Town Alexandria communities in favor, including representatives of neighborhood associations. At the end of the hearing, the subcommittee moved to report the bill; the clerk recorded the vote as 4–3–1 to report Senate Bill 776. The transcript records no substitute and no detailed fiscal estimate; it does show the committee intends to limit the bill’s geographic scope to Planning District 8 and the GW Parkway as discussed.