Sheriff's Office

Essex County provides a Sheriff's Office, located within Tappahannock, which employs 11 officers and is headed by Sheriff Walter "Arnie" Holmes. There are also five State police officers and three sergeants assigned to the area.

Enhanced 911

Essex County has implemented an enhanced 911 system to improve the accuracy and speed of response to emergencies. A person dialing 9-1-1 is routed through the local telephone exchange office where their telephone's ANI (Automatic Number Identification) is identified. From there the call is routed to the County Office where the ANI is matched to it's corresponding customer service record, producing ALI (Automatic Location Identification), which is a visual display of the caller's location.

The emergency service operator receives a display of the caller's telephone number, address, type of phone service and a reference to the Police, Fire and Rescue Squad dispatching agency for that location. The call-taker quickly verifies, verbally, the information on the screen, then determines the nature of the problem, and dispatches the appropriate emergency service.

The link between the telephone number, the location of the phone, the display of this information and the recently installed street name and numbering is one of the keys to speedy emergency team response.