CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) Major Camille Stewart spent the past 29 years with the Fairfax County Police Department, and Albemarle County’s new deputy chief of police knows her new assignment will present a new set of challenges.

“The communities are obviously very different,” Stewart told Cville Right Now. “Albemarle is almost twice the size of Fairfax. However, Fairfax has a million residents. So, definitely the policing is different, especially when you’re talking about manpower. Our officers in Albemarle are covering such a wide area, and they’re very spread out, so that is very different.”

But Stewart, who was sworn in on June 4 and started her new post overseeing professional standards and investigations bureau on June 16, said there’s also plenty that will translate from her nearly three decades working in northern Virginia.

“I’m finding cops are the same, no matter where you go,” the George Mason graduate said. “There’s always the same issues, from one department to the other. So, that part’s familiar.”

Getting to know a new team of cops, she said, has been similar to her work as a station commander in Fairfax, when a single station might house 125 officers. Albemarle’s force, Stewart said, is currently at 163.

As for the crimes, she said those don’t really change dramatically in different areas of the Commonwealth.

“You still have the same old things because you have neighborhood, disagreements and people getting in the same fights, domestics or larceny, stolen cars,” Stewart said. “Most of that is the same. And, you know, the criminals, they don’t really know jurisdictional boundaries.”

It isn’t just officers and criminals Stewart has to get to know in her new position, though. She noted that the Albemarle Police Department works closely with state police, UVA police and Charlottesville City police. She’s also gotten to know the local fire departments, and county executives and, come the fall, she’ll begin to get a handle on how UVA being in session impacts the work of the department.

Her 29 years in Fairfax, which included work as a crime prevention officer, public information officer, paramedic, helicopter division team member, criminal investigator and police liaison commander, she believes, has her well prepared for this next challenge.

And the move to Albemarle has returned Stewart, a Botetourt native, to some familiar scenery. Last week, she pulled off while driving over Afton Mountain to take a photograph.

“I guess I didn’t pay attention to the mountains when I was younger. I took them for granted,” Stewart said. “And then going to Fairfax, you don’t have any. It’s so beautiful here and I just, I love it. I can’t wait to actually get out on the weekends and explore.”