Fairfax County Police Watch: Newark Police To Release "Most Comprehensive" Stop & Frisk Data In The US

Facing the results of a federal investigation of misconduct, the Newark Police Department announced that they will release detailed stop-and-frisk data every month. "The totality really makes this the most comprehensive policy of its kind, as far as we know, in the nation," New Jersey ACLU executive director Udi Ofer told the Star-Ledger.

The federal review began after the ACLU revealed that Newark's Internal Affairs Bureau appeared to be blithely dismissing complaints of police misconduct. Newark's Police Director Samuel DeMaio denied the connection between the federal review and the announcement of the policy.

I don't know how anybody can say what the federal government is going to make us do…This will allow the public to have a more vigorous conversation in a quicker manner. The monthly reporting is exactly the way to go.

The Newark PD will release 12 different facets for each stop, including the names and badge numbers of the officers involved, the English proficiency of the person stopped, and detailed information regarding instances where force is used.

Newark's voluntary release of monthly data stands in stark contrast to the NYPD, which had to be forced by the City Council to release stop-and-frisk data on a quarterly basis.

But as the NYPD has felt pressure from politicians, community and civil liberties groups, and a landmark federal trial, they too have been edging ever-so-slightly towards transparency.

Shortly before the trial began, the NYPD issued a memo mandating what had previously been a "suggestion": police must write a detailed narrative of the stop and a thorough description of why the officer stopped a suspect in their log books. The form police use to record stops, called a UF250, was also expanded to require more detail.

The NYPD also decreased the number of stops made in the first quarter of this year by 51% compared to the same period in 2012.

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.