Fairfax County Police Watch: DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE INQUIRY

• US Justice Dept. lawyers to Portland police: Drop 'us vs. them' mentality in police training

• Portland police shouldn't buy body cameras until more money found, budget analysts suggest

• Attorney General Loretta Lynch praises 'peaceful resolution' to Oregon standoff

• Loretta Lynch -- and Officer Paresa -- bring inspiration for George Middle sixth-graders

• Attorney General Loretta Lynch arrives in Portland Wednesday to recognize community policing partners

U.S. Justice Department lawyers have urged Portland police to drop their "us vs. them'' mentality in officer training after observing the bureau's annual weeklong refresher training for its force.

They also recommended that the bureau minimize use of military combat photos in active-shooter training, include community volunteers in scenario-based instruction and find a way to allow residents to share their perspectives about their experiences with officers as part of training.

"As an overarching concern, we observed at several points PPB instructors reinforced a sense of PPB being on the opposite side of the public whom they police and serve,'' the federal civil rights lawyers wrote.

The federal review of training is the latest critique of police practices since the Justice Department found in 2012 that Portland police engaged in a pattern of excessive force against people with mental illness. The federal investigation also found that Portland police fired multiple cycles of stun guns unnecessarily and failed to wait between cycles to allow a suspect to follow their commands.

A negotiated settlement reached with the city and approved by a federal judge in August 2014 calls for a wide range of changes to police policies, training and oversight and regular reviews by the Justice Department.

Training Capt. Bryan Parman said the letter from the federal lawyers is helpful to provide "the Police Bureau with additional clarity on the requirements of the agreement."

He said the bureau has made substantial changes since the settlement and will continue over the years to make sure that police fully adopt its provisions.

The Rev. Leroy Haynes, chair of the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform, and the Rev. T. Allen Bethel, coalition co-chair, thanked the Justice Department for keeping their eye on police training. The coalition was granted friend of the court status and allowed to provide input on the settlement agreement.

"The DOJ has hit on many points the coalition and members of the community have been concerned about for a long time,'' Haynes and Bethel wrote to the federal department.

While the federal officials were impressed with the bureau's new training center off Northeast Airport Way, its defensive tactics training and scenario-based training, their review found lapses in instruction and made these recommendations to the city attorney's office:

-- Police trainers should incorporate a review of bureau policies when teaching tactics or technical skills, whether it's on the use of Tasers or providing emergency medical care to a wounded suspect. The review found bureau training on less-lethal weapons rushed and incomplete.

"As much as possible, technical skills should be trained in the context of the policy governing those skills,'' the federal assessment said.

-- The bureau should better examine whether officers have learned the material. The bureau didn't use written, individual quizzes on policy or tactics to determine each officer's competency or set any measures to determine if officers learned the material, the review found.

In one class, instructors gave an eight-question quiz on the bureau's use of force policy, but officers didn't write their names on the quizzes. Similarly, the bureau asked officers to fill out a survey anonymously regarding the weeklong training.

Written on the survey was a note to officers that it could be subject to a public records request. "That admonition seems intended to discourage criticism,'' the federal review said.

-- Bureau training on its use of force policy needs updating. The bureau distributed an easy-to-carry card to officers on the policy to keep in their pockets or wallets, but the card already is out of date, the federal attorneys noted. The reviewers also found the card confusing.

-- The week's 40-hour training devotes significant time to firearms refresher instruction, but the review said the training should give more emphasis to officers' decision-making skills and understanding of policy.

The bureau "could and should re-enforce the concepts of de-escalation and rendering aid to a subject during the firearms training, rather than focusing solely on technical skills,'' the review found.

-- In one of the deadly-force scenario training exercises, the reviewers expressed concern about the long delay before officers moved in to provide emergency aid to the wounded suspect.

They discussed their concern with Police Chief Larry O'Dea.

O'Dea told them that the bureau's policy has improved. Now, officers wait for a supervisor to respond to the scene with a tactical shield so officers can approach a suspect safely, he said. They used to require the callout of the bureau's Special Emergency Response Team, which could take 45 minutes. Supervisors carry shields in their police cars, cutting down on the response time, O'Dea told the federal officials.

Federal civil rights attorneys said in the review that the change still may not meet the settlement's requirement for police to provide aid as soon as possible. They also pointed out that even with the tactical shield, some officers remained just as exposed to potential harm as they would have been if they immediately gave aid.

-- Maxine Bernstein

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.