Fairfax County Police Watch: A Needed Conversation

by improvingpolice

I follow police and the present crisis and this is what I hear from the community: "Stop the killing!" That cry is resounding across our great nation. It is a strong, agonizing cry from those who feel oppressed and dominated by an economic and justice system that they believe does not work for them.

I surely am not the only one who has heard this cry. Countless journalists and community activists from Ferguson to Baltimore over the last year have reported it. Anyone who follows the daily news knows the troubling situation in which we find ourselves.

But what I don't hear is a response -- an answer from those who can immediately answer the question -- the police. Police leaders are in a position to do so and few, if any, are doing it.

Their professional organizations -- the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), the Major Cities Police Chiefs, or police unions like the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) essentially say nothing. Why is this? Why in the midst of this crisis in our nation do both police leaders and their professional groups remain silent?

Do they not know what to do? Are they frightened of those whom they serve? Do they fear backlash from their unions? Do city lawyers tell them not to speak because of future liability claims? It puzzles me because speaking out seems to be the right thing to do -- a right response to a legitimate inquiry. Policing in a democracy cannot just work for the majority of us, it must work for everyone. And that's not happening today.

I was a police leader for 25 years. This is what should happen: After an officer involved shooting, the city's police chief holds a meeting in the community. The chief reports that the current system, policy, training, tactics, and leadership is being reviewed along with the department's attitudes about the use of deadly force. The chief shares deep feelings about the importance of preserving life and what has happened is a tragedy -- not what police want to have happen . The chief pledges to the community and reassures them that everything will be done to stop the killing.

The absence of this conversation with impacted communities and a pledge from police to improve the status quo is causing undo tension, grief, and anger in our nation's cities. Let's start talking and fix this failed system before it's too late.

improvingpolice | May 11, 2015 at 6:31 am

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.