Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin wielded his veto pen for the first time this week, shooting down a bill that would allow the Arlington County Board to appoint an independent auditor to investigate police misconduct.

The veto targeted a measure that both drew bipartisan support in the House of Delegates and was relatively narrow in scope, limited to Arlington County. Under current law, the county manager is allowed to hire a police auditor; the bill Youngkin vetoed would simply have given that power to the five-member county board instead.

Youngkin said in a statement that he vetoed the bill because it would have unfairly impacted police officers.

“Investing in a single politically-appointed individual the power of judge, jury, and executioner without any input from law-enforcement officers or delineated qualifications for such individual constitutes an undue burden for those who protect and serve the community,” he said.

During his campaign for governor, Youngkin presented himself as the law-and-order candidate who would support police. His stances landed him the endorsements on the Virginia Fraternal Order of Police and the Virginia Police Benevolent Association. Since being elected he has gone about overhauling the commonwealth’s parole board, and the new Republican majority in the House has moved to roll back some of the criminal justice reforms passed by Democrats when they controlled both chambers.

“The best way to ensure that any bad actors within law enforcement are held accountable is to stand up for law enforcement, not tear them down or subject them to politically-motivated inquiries,” said Youngkin of his veto.

But his decision to veto the bill has drawn swift criticism from Arlington County Board members, who in a statement on Wednesday expressed their “serious disappointment” over Youngkin’s move. They also said they think Youngkin misunderstood the purpose of the bill, and that his statement errantly said an independent police auditor would have the power to fire any officers for misconduct.

Board Chairwoman Katie Cristol said hiring a new independent auditor is part of a broader plan to create a new nine-person Community Oversight Board to address and investigate allegations of police misconduct, and that giving the county board that authority was critical to ensuring the new auditor could remain independent.

“The county manager is the chief law enforcement official in Arlington County,” she said in an interview with DCist/WAMU. “And so there is understandably a sense from community members who participated in this that to have him hire and fire the independent policing auditor really muddles that perception of independence. That’s not a knock on the potential for impartiality or the value of impartiality that our town manager holds. But it’s important structurally in the governance that that independence be part of the independent policing auditor.”

A bill passed by the General Assembly in 2020 gave all localities in Virginia the power to create similar civilian oversight boards of police. But Arlington County’s structure of government — and Virginia’s longstanding rule that localities only have powers delegated to them by the General Assembly — meant that it was forced to ask for permission to allow the county board to hire a new police auditor. That, says Cristol, means Arlington is being treated differently for simply wanting to do what many other counties are already doing.

“This bill was not breaking new ground in terms of how independent policing auditors are hired and treated throughout the commonwealth. It was simply about bringing Arlington County into line with other jurisdictions around Virginia,” she said.

Cristol says she and her colleagues on the board are reaching out to Youngkin to address what they say are his misunderstandings and misconceptions about the bill. She also says his veto could be overriden by the General Assembly, though the votes may not be there to accomplish that.