Fairfax County Police Watch: Harrisburg police officers suspended in connection with wild car chase

By Christine Vendel

Harrisburg police have suspended several officers for allegedly violating department policy in a wild car chase earlier this month.

City officials would not identify the officers, confirm the number of officers or suspension days or say what part of the department's pursuit policy was allegedly violated.

The city also declined to provide a copy of the police department's pursuit policy, which outlines the circumstances under which officers can chase vehicles. Such policies are confidential under Pennsylvania law.

Other states, including New Jersey, allow reporters and the public to access pursuit policies.

Sources told PennLive four officers were suspended between two and five days each. Officers can appeal their suspensions but it was unclear if the officers had filed appeals.

The Nov. 3 chase started downtown after officers noticed the driver going the wrong way along Second Street. He drove northbound on Front Street, then drove the wrong way across the Harvey Taylor Memorial Bridge.

Because of the danger he posed to other drivers, police chased him, Police Chief Tom Carter said the day after the chase.

During the 15-minute chase, the suspect hit or sideswiped at least three vehicles, including two Harrisburg Police cars. One woman in a vehicle struck by the suspect suffered minor injuries, police said.

The chase ended on North 32nd Street, near Logan Street, in Camp Hill after the driver struck a curb, disabling his vehicle. He was alone in the vehicle.

Police charged Curtis Howard Wanner, of Womelsdorf, with 10 crimes including fleeing and eluding, reckless driving, aggravated assault, resisting arrest, and driving the wrong way.

Police "always take into account the safety of the public before chasing anyone," Carter said at the time. "We tried to get him stopped several times. He was not paying attention to our signals. We had to take some police action."

Investigators believe Wanner was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Police department policies can range from permissive, deferring to officer discretion, to restrictive, only allowing officers to chase vehicles associated with a violent felony.

It's unclear where Harrisburg stands because of the state law that mandates such policies "shall not be made available to the general public."

While police departments have different guidelines for police chases, many involve a requirement that the initial officer ask a supervisor for permission to continue a pursuit.

In those situations, supervisors weigh the seriousness of the offense against the danger posed to the public. The supervisor will either grant approval or tell the officer to terminate the chase.

The supervisor usually gets updates throughout a chase and can decide to discontinue later if the danger posed to the public seems to be increasing.

When making decisions, supervisors will usually consider the following circumstances: vehicle speeds, volume of traffic and pedestrians, weather conditions, time of day, road conditions, familiarity with the area and whether the suspect is known and could be arrested at later time.

Police agencies in Pennsylvania are required by law to make a report of each police chase and provide the data to the Pennsylvania State Police. The PSP is required to collect these reports, analyze the data, and compile and publish an annual summary of the findings.

Harrisburg city officials on Friday denied PennLive's Right to Know request for the report concerning the Nov. 3 chase.

According to last year's annual report of aggregated data:

• Seven people were killed in police pursuit crashes. All of them were violators. The figure was down from 14 killed in 2012.

• 514 pursuits resulted in a total of 671 crashes with 203 of the pursuits resulting in injury to the violator, police, and/or uninvolved persons.

• More than 69 percent of pursuits resulted in the apprehension of one or more violators.

• Roughly 53 percent of chases were initiated because of traffic violations, about 14 percent for felony crimes and 13 percent for suspicions of driving under the influence.

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.