Fairfax County Police Watch: Know Your Rights

Know Your Rights

From 1995 to 2008, the Ella Baker Center's Bay Area PoliceWatch campaign worked to protect the community from police misconduct and advocate for the creation and implementation of restorative policing practices. Over the years, we provided a combination of social and legal services while mobilizing the grassroots. The following resource was developed as part of our Bay Area Police Watch program.
Encounters with the police can be frightening and confusing. Use these guidelines to protect your rights when dealing with law enforcement officers.
If the Police Stop You...

• Stay in control of your emotions and words. Don’t physically resist.
• Keep your hands visible.
• Remain silent. They have guns, pepper spray and billy clubs. Your strongest weapon is your mind.
• The less you say, the better. Silence is not a crime.
• Ask, "Am I free to go?" If they keep you, you are being detained.
• Ask, "Why are you detaining me?" To detain you, the police must have reasonable suspicion that a person has been involved in criminal activity.
or Try to Search You...
• Never consent to a search.
• Say loud and clear (especially if there are any witnesses present): "I do not consent to a search."
• Don’t resist physically.
• Don’t open your bag for them. It will count as consent to the search.
• Police may 'pat down' your clothing if they suspect weapons or drugs.
or Try to Enter Your Home...
• Never consent to a search.
• Step outside. Lock the door behind you.
• Ask to see a warrant. Make sure it has the right information (e.g., address) and a judge’s signature.
• They can do only what the warrant allows them to. Warrants often limit the search to one room, one day, etc. Make sure they are complying with the warrant.
or Stop You in Your Car...
• Stay calm. Again, you do not have to answer any questions.
• When they ask you, show them your driver’s license, registration, and proof of insurance.
• Tell the officer, "I do not consent to a search."
• Don’t open your trunk or car door.
• The police can order occupants out of their car for police safety. As long as you maintain that you do not consent, opening your car door doesn't necessarily mean you consent to a search.
• If they give you a ticket, sign it. Otherwise you can be arrested. Fight the ticket in court later.
• If the police suspect you of drunk driving and you refuse to take a blood, urine or breath test, your license can be suspended.
If the Police Arrest You...
• Do not answer any questions until a lawyer arrives to represent you.
• Say only, "I choose to remain silent and I want to talk to my attorney."
• The police may handcuff, search, photograph and fingerprint you.
• Do not talk about your case to anyone except your attorney.
If You See or Experience Police Brutality
• Remain calm.
• Write down the details of the incident, badge numbers, and names of witnesses immediately.
• Get a medical report immediately, as well as photographs documenting any injuries or property damaged.
Always Be a Witness
• Always be a witness for a friend, relative or stranger.
• Stop and watch.
• Record the officer’s name, badge number, and car number. Write down the time, the place, who said what, and who did what.
• If the officer tells you to leave, say, "I have the right to observe from a safe distance." Assure them, "I’m not trying to interfere."

Morrogh finds cop he doesn’t love. In other news, hell freezes.

Probe of fatal police shooting goes to federal authorities

By Justin Jouvenal/Post

The Fairfax County prosecutor has turned over the investigation of a fatal police shooting of an unarmed Springfield man to federal authorities, citing complications with the five-month-old case.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh said the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia has agreed to continue the probe into the death of 46-year-old John Geer, who was shot during a standoff with Fairfax County police in August. No one has been charged in the incident.

“There is a conflict of interest that has arisen in the case,” Morrogh said Thursday. “And there is a second potential conflict of interest that has arisen out of my office. . . . This is the prudent thing to do.”

Morrogh declined to describe the nature of the conflicts because the investigation is ongoing. The U.S. attorney’s office said Thursday that it could not confirm or deny any investigation or comment on pending investigations.

Police went to Geer’s Pebble Brook Court home on Aug. 29 because of a report of a domestic disturbance. Geer’s father, Don Geer, said his son was upset because his girlfriend, the mother of his two children, had decided to leave him.

John Geer had thrown his girlfriend’s belongings in the front yard. She called police and told them that Geer had a firearm. Police said they tried for about 50 minutes to persuade Geer to leave the home, but he refused.

Don Geer said he watched the climax of the encounter. He said that he could not hear what officers were saying to his son but that he saw him standing with empty hands resting on top of a screen door at the home’s entrance.

At some point, John Geer began to slowly lower his hands and an officer opened fire, hitting Geer in the chest, his father said. Geer retreated inside and closed the door. A SWAT team eventually entered the home and found Geer dead.

Don Geer said detectives later told him that his son did not have a gun on him at the time of the shooting but that there was a holstered handgun a couple of steps from the front door.

Don Geer said it appeared to him that the shooting was unjustified, but he was unsure what to make of the probe being turned over to federal authorities.

“I don’t know whether that’s good or bad — if I had a better idea of why they are doing it, I could form an opinion,” he said.

Geer and friends of his son have been critical of how long the investigation has taken, but Morrogh said police and prosecutors were working to explore all the evidence. He did not think federal prosecutors would have to start from scratch.

“No one wants these things to linger on,” Morrogh said.

Our ink will outlast his career

Under the reign of former Chief of Police Rhorer the Fairfax County Police arrested a man for not wearing clothes in his house while he made coffee, set up an eye doctor on a gambling charge and then used the SWAT team to kill him. An investigation into the charge that the Doctor’s primary clients were cops has never been investigated. The police gunned down an emotionally unstable man because cop who shot him wrongly assumed the man was trying to escape. He wasn’t. The cops also shot dead four other citizens under highly questionable circumstances. The department under Rhorer was sued multiple times by citizens. So did they fire Rhorer? Naw they promoted him. According to news reports Rhorer draws a salary of $191,168 per year as Deputy Fairfax County Executive as well as a concurrent pension from the Fairfax County police of $173000 per year.

Occupation by force

According to the most recent U.S. Census figures, nearly one in five Fairfax residents (17.5 percent) is of Asian descent while Hispanics make up nearly 16 percent of Fairfax’s overall population. Those numbers drop considerably when applied to the Fairfax County Police Department, where only 4.3 percent of officers are Asian and 4.1 percent Hispanic. White officers make up 84 percent of Fairfax County’s 1,360-member police department, significantly higher than the county’s general population (54 percent white). Almost 90% of the force lives outside the county.