Fairfax County Police Watch: Louisville police taking second look at cop camera plan

By Marcus Green

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Louisville police have started a new search for a company to outfit officers with body cameras, slowing down an effort already behind the department's self-imposed schedule.

Police officials told WDRB News in August that a goal of deploying cameras by July 1 wasn't met because of concerns about data storage, but that the department intended to purchase officer-worn cameras manufactured by Taser, as recommended in a 2013 internal report.

However, police issued a new “request for information” earlier this month from firms interested in providing the cameras.

"I think we're doing what we need to be doing in terms of due diligence, to make sure we get the right camera system for our department," Chief Steve Conrad said Tuesday in an interview at the city's Real Time Crime Center, which monitors more than 80 cameras across Metro Louisville.

Conrad's remarks came hours before officers shot and killed a man who had fired at police after a traffic stop in the Valley Station area, according to LMPD's account.

“I wish that we had had the cameras at Waterfront Park before (the) March 22 (incidents of youth violence). I wish we had had the Real Time Crime Center before that. I truly wish we had all of our officers equipped with cameras today," Conrad said. "But we've got to make sure we're taking the proper steps. I want to make sure we do it right. I want to make sure we're good stewards of the taxpayers' money.”

Mayor Greg Fischer, in an interview before Tuesday night's shooting, said adding body cameras is a "really good thing."

“Clearly it's a trend that's happening all over the country and we look forward to being part of it too," Fischer said.

“Whether they're high-profile cases or not, the justice system needs to know what happened for the protection of the citizens and for the protection of the police officer," he said.

Maj. Robert Schroeder of LMPD's administrative services division said Taser remains the front-runner to provide body-worn cameras that follow an officer's field of vision, but LMPD could solicit a round of bids from manufacturers depending on the responses due Friday.

The department didn't meet a July 1 goal for one-fourth of patrol officers to start wearing the cameras, delaying the rollout because of concerns over storage costs of up to $1 million a year on a "cloud" system. The department's patrol officers, which currently number about 900, would wear the cameras.

LMPD now is seeking bids from vendors for a system managing footage from body cameras, as well as “storage, retrieval, documentation and management of digital video, images, voice recordings and other digital evidence." Such evidence includes recordings from in-car cameras and stationary security cameras; emails and text messages; information from private computers; and scanned documents, according to a request for proposal issued Oct. 15.

Bids are to be opened Nov. 5.

Louisville would be the largest police department in Kentucky to start using body cameras. At least eight police and sheriff's agencies in the state already deploy the technology, although policies vary widely. In the Louisville area, police in suburban Jeffersontown and Jeffersonville, Ind., are pursuing camera systems.

Officers in LMPD's Fifth Division – an area that includes the Highlands – would wear the first body cameras, according to police. Drug forfeiture funds are expected to pay for the program.

Police had previously said they expected the cameras to be in use by late 2014 or early 2015. Schroeder said that timeline has been pushed back slightly.

“We'd hope to get something within six months, but you never know these things turn out,” he said.

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.