JAMES CITY COUNTY— Tony Dallman, Assistant Chief of the James City County Police Department, has retired from active duty after 31 years of service to the department on Dec. 16.
Dallman, who began his career in 1995 with James City County, served in multiple capacities, including the patrol division, community services unit, radar instructor, field training officer, internal affairs investigator and crisis negotiator.
He said a favorite part of his job was serving in the community services division.
“Community services, then and now, is our crime prevention, public relations, community relations and school resource officer hub. You get to be around kids, around the people doing good, positive things for our community. You are around some crime victims and helping people recover from crime, but a lot of that unit’s tasks bring a different sentiment to the job,” Dallman said.
Dallman became a lieutenant in 2001, a major in 2014, and an assistant police chief in 2022.
Dallman also served as interim police chief during a recent transitional period for the department.
“I was happy to step into that role. I was super proud of everyone in the department who came together to make things work while the process to find the next chief was going on,” Dallman said.
An experience that Dallman is extremely proud of is being chosen as a member of the 257th session of the FBI National Academy.
The program is a prestigious, 10-week professional development program held at the FBI Academy in Quantico for select law enforcement leaders from around the world. The program focuses on advanced training in leadership, behavioral science, law, forensics and physical fitness, preparing participants for executive-level roles while fostering global law enforcement partnerships.
“It’s a very small number of people who get to go through that program. It’s an international program … there were about 200 people in my class, and about 50 of them were from other countries. It’s very interesting from the perspective that you learn a lot about law enforcement around the country and the world, and how regionally we’re all different, but our values within the job are still the same,” Dallman said.
According to Dallman, his success as a police officer stemmed from the importance that the department places on partnerships.
“As soon as I got out of the academy, I could tell the importance of partnerships to this department. There weren’t many of us on patrol when I first started, and we really had to rely on each other. As a supervisor, partnerships and collaboration, working together, was super important. None of this is possible without the people behind the scenes,” Dallman explained.
With 31 years of service, Dallman knew it was time to retire. However, he hopes to have left a legacy of functionality behind at the department.
“I hope that my legacy here is that the department continues to function and works together. I want everyone to continue to make the county a safe place to live, work and play in. That’s the best legacy that any of us can hope for. We all serve our time, and we’re a person in a machine, but what we really want is for the community to keep getting better,” Dallman said.
While his active duty retirement date is effective Dec. 16, Dallman’s last official day at the department is set for March 1.