Fairfax Co. police roll out car-chase guidelines; some supervisors skeptical

By Dick Uliano

April 3, 2018 7:48 pm

WASHINGTON — Fairfax County, Virginia, police have introduced guidelines that spell out when officers should begin, continue or end a high-speed chase.

But some members of the county’s Board of Supervisors are concerned that the guidelines might not go far enough toward ensuring public safety.

Appearing Tuesday before the board’s Public Safety Committee, police Chief Edwin Roessler said that officers and supervisors must be sure three guidelines are met before officers pursue any suspect in a fleeing vehicle.

The officer has reasonable, articulable suspicion that a driver and/or passengers have committed, have attempted to commit, are committing, or have threatened to use violence to commit a violent felony against a person; other criminal offense; or a traffic infraction.

The driver refuses to stop when given the signal to do so.

The need for immediate apprehension outweighs the danger created by the pursuit to the public, officers and offender, including passengers.

“Preservation of all human life is paramount. We’ve moved that up to the front of the page to make it very clear that human life is the key factor in making a decision,” Roessler told the committee.

Roessler told supervisors there were 149 high-speed chases by Fairfax County police officers in 2017, 134 in 2016, and 118 in 2015. He attributed the rise in police chases to an increase in the number of vehicles on county roads.

Some supervisors questioned whether the guidelines provide officers with enough specifics.

“I’m still concerned that the policy is vague,” said Supervisor John Cook, chairman of the Public Safety Committee. “… The first paragraph is anything because it’s violent crime or criminal offense or traffic infraction,” he said.

Cook described the policy’s third component as “kind of squishy.”

Roessler assured supervisors that the policy embodies best practices for police chases and said the policy includes on-track training for officers with refresher training every 36 months.

“It really comes down to how is it going to be trained, because to me this is really, really vague,” said Supervisor Pat Herrity.

Police Chief Roessler said that officers and supervisors need a high level of justification to pursue fleeing vehicles in the county, where roadways are sometimes highly congested. Roessler also said that officers should cancel any high-speed chase if they are needed to provide any emergency medical aid.

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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.