JAMES CITY COUNTY — Local husband and wife Dr. Sam Frye and Dr. Deb Frye are currently serving as volunteer chaplains with the James City County Police Department.
Sam is a pastor, former Marine, certified police officer and long-time volunteer police chaplain in the Williamsburg/James City County area. He’s the founding pastor of First Simple Church in Williamsburg and has combined pastoral ministry with police chaplaincy and community outreach for many years.
While serving with the department and responding to various types of calls for service, if a female officer was involved, he would often call on Deb to help counsel them in an informal role. After praying about it, Deb joined the department in a formal capacity in January.
“Deb being here gives the department more depth to be able to help not just our female officers, but also help the spouses of our male officers,” Sam said.
As part of her doctoral program, Deb spent most of her doctoral thesis researching female officers and the problems they face. After sending out surveys to departments across the country, Deb received over 500 replies from female officers about the issues they face in their departments, ranging from sexual abuse to the intricacies of working in a male-dominated industry.
“I had about 18 questions that were ‘on a scale of 1-10’ type answers and the last question was focused on anything they would like to add that I didn’t ask. These women wrote their hearts … things like ‘nobody knows that every shift I have to park behind a dumpster and just have a good cry.’ We, as women, we cry, but as a police officer, you can’t show that emotion. They also can’t cry to their families because then the family worries about them while they are on the job,” Deb explained.
Sam added that having a female counselor for female officers to speak to makes their problems seem more relatable.
“I see the impact that she has here. She has made me more aware of the struggles that female officers go through, which is why I knew she was needed here. We needed to reach our entire department, females included,” Sam said.
While the two counsel separate groups of officers, Deb noted that they have always relied on each other after responding to those calls that may have emotionally affected them.
“We are in the trenches together. When there is a problem, say that Sam has been on a call that I didn’t go on, but it’s bad. The scene is bad, families were devastated, whatever it was, he comes home and he tells me about it, and I’m okay hearing about it. I want to hear about it because he needs to decompress from what he just saw and vice versa,” Deb explained.
In 2026, the Fryes, who are charter members of Law Enforcement United, will travel to California to participate in a bike ride that raises funds and awareness for officers who have died in the line of duty and their families.
To help combat the mental health crises that police officers can have, the Fryes have begun to work on implementing the James City County Police Department Spouse Academy. The four-week evening program will introduce spouses of officers to support services within the department, dispatch and officer safety, crisis intervention, de-escalation techniques, preventative measures to protect marriages, and more.
More information on the Spouse Academy will be coming in 2026.
Overall, the two feel very blessed that they can serve the officers and their families in their respective roles.
“We’re taking our spiritual gifts that God has given us and are working to make this police department community better,” Sam said.
For more information on the James City County Police, visit jamescitycountyva.gov/149/Police.