Fairfax County Police Watch: Police oversight isn't the answer, raising standards is the answer with IQ checks and mental health testing

Bainbridge council to get first look next week at proposed police oversight board

by BRIAN KELLY

Although the concept found little support from a special task force set up to study the idea, Bainbridge Island may still create a citizen advisory group that will oversee the city's police department.

The Bainbridge Island City Council will consider an ordinance at its meeting next week to establish a Citizen Police Advisory Board.

The board, if set up by the city council, would review complaints about the conduct of police officers as well as general complaints about the police department.

The new Citizen Police Advisory Board will build trust and strengthen ties with the community, said Police Chief Matthew Hamner.

"Transparency breeds trust," Hamner said.

"I'm willing to be very open and transparent about what we're doing. Quite honestly, it's important that the citizens have an opportunity to see what's going on in the department in a much more magnified way," he said.

Calls for an independent citizen oversight committee intensified in 2012 as the city found itself the subject of a federal civil rights lawsuit prompted by the fatal police shooting of a mentally ill Bainbridge Island man in October 2010.

Douglas Ostling was shot and killed by a Bainbridge police officer after officers went to his family's home to investigate a 911 call and Ostling met officers at his apartment door with an axe.

The jury in the federal case decided the shooting was justified, but also found that the Bainbridge Island Police Department had not adequately trained its officers and the family's civil rights had been violated. The family was awarded $1 million.

Earlier this year, the city formed a 10-member task force to examine the idea of creating an oversight commission.

Though all but one of the task force members said a commission wasn't necessary at the end of their review, city officials noted that two different independent consultants hired by the city in recent years supported the idea of a citizens advisory board.

Hamner is also asking the city council to create the advisory board.

"I want a full turnaround of the ship. I want everyone in the community to know that this police department is accountable to the public," Hamner said.

Citizens on the seven-member board will be appointed by the city manager and confirmed to their posts by the city council, and are expected to represent a cross section of the community.

The city attorney will serve as advisory counsel to the board, and an officer of the police department is also expected to serve as a non-voting liaison member.

The board will look into complaints submitted to the city manager. Complaints about specific events must be filed within 45 days of the alleged incident, though general complaints can be filed at any time.

The board will not have jurisdiction to review complaints that are the subject of civil lawsuits or are connected to criminal actions that are pending.

According to the proposed structure of the board, the board chairman will dismiss any complaints when:

A civil or criminal action relating to the complaint is pending, regardless of whether complainant is a party to the action;

The complainant has filed a civil action based upon the event or alleged police conduct upon which the complaint is based;

The complaint is redundant to other complaints previously filed by the same party;

The complaint is filed out of time;

The complaint is filed against parties other than members of the Bainbridge Island Police Department;

The complaint relates to events that were the basis of prior complaints handled by or pending before the board; or

The complaint is wholly frivolous on its face.

Decisions by the board chairman to dismiss complaints can be reviewed by the full board at a following meeting and upheld or overturned.

According to the ordinance that creates the new committee, complaints will be investigated within 60 days of being submitted.

The board chairman will conduct an initial review, which will be followed by an investigation conducted by two members of the board.

The police chief will also designate one or more officers of the police department to investigate any complaints on behalf of the department.

After the board reviews reports on complaints, it will decide whether the city manager or police chief need to take corrective action, and the board will put its findings in writing, as well as any recommendations for improvements.

The board will also review all complaints at an annual meeting to determine if a pattern of misconduct has occurred or if particular police department policies "are being met with significant disapproval by a substantial number of citizens."

The city council will review the ordinance to create the commission at its meeting on Monday, July 28. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at city hall.

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.