Fairfax County Dems call for firing of new police chief

 Its a punk problem...have you had to deal with the Fairfax County Police when they think no one is watching? They're punks. And that's the core of the problem. Get rid of that attitude and you'll have a great police force which is why this clown IS ALL WRONG FOR THE JOB. 

Fairfax County Dems call for firing of new police chief

David Taube May 26, 2021 at 2:00pm

The Fairfax County Democratic Committee wants county leaders to fire newly hired county Police Chief Kevin Davis in response to continued controversy surrounding his history as an officer.

The local political group passed a motion at its general membership meeting yesterday (Tuesday) recommending that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors fire Davis, reopen the police search, and implement a transparent hiring process.

“We believe we need to overhaul the criminal justice system from top to bottom, to end racial inequity in policing, end police brutality and build a police force built on trust where our residents don’t need to worry about protecting their families from the police sworn to protect and serve them,” FCDC said.

Davis’s hiring has drawn vocal criticism from civil rights advocates and community groups since he was appointed as retired Chief Edwin Roessler’s successor on April 23, particularly in the wake of an NBC4 report on two lawsuits that he faced while working as an officer in Prince George’s County, Maryland in the 1990s.

In one case, Davis reportedly stopped and violently arrested a driver, eventually leading to a $12,500 jury award to Mark Spann, who is Black. The other case involved Davis and a group of narcotics officers illegally detaining a 19-year-old, who later sued and won a $90,000 judgment.

Davis has also faced renewed scrutiny for his 2015-2018 tenure as commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department, which included a secret aerial surveillance program and a six-day lockdown of the predominantly Black Harlem Park neighborhood that is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit filed by the ACLU’s Maryland chapter.

“Hiring a candidate with a history of racially charged use of force incidents in their past is not starting from a place where community trust can be built,” FCDC said.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay has repeatedly expressed confidence in Davis as Fairfax County’s new police chief.

A spokesperson from his office declined to comment on the FCDC motion, which was developed by the committee’s Black caucus. The committee says in a press release that it was “overwhelmingly” supported by its 1,000-plus members.

In lieu of a comment, McKay’s office shared a letter sent to FCDC on May 20 that touted Davis’s “ability to implement progressive reforms,” citing his efforts to implement changes in Baltimore like the introduction of body-worn cameras and a revised use-of-force policy that emphasizes deescalation.

The letter, which was signed by all nine Democratic supervisors, also defended the level of public engagement used during the police chief hiring process. The search included a pre-screening panel, a survey that generated over 3,000 responses, and an outreach campaign with over 275 community meetings and calls.

Davis also participated in a public input session during his first week as the new police chief — albeit with continued controversy.

“We are confident that this year’s process was the broadest and incorporated both extensive public input and intentional inclusivity,” the Board of Supervisors letter said. “Regardless, we commit to looking at our entire public participation process for future personnel decisions and establishing a framework for further improvement.”

The board also stated that it “fully understands that the history of policing has not centered around the safety and well-being of all members of the community,” acknowledging systemic problems in the U.S. and county.

As noted by the Fairfax County NAACP, the FCDC motion on Tuesday came exactly one year after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee on the neck of George Floyd. A jury convicted Chauvin of murder in the death of the 46-year-old Black man on April 20.

The civil rights organization reiterated in its statement released today (Wednesday) that it “does not have confidence in the process by which the new Police Chief was hired, nor in its results,” calling for people to contact supervisors and amplify their concerns on social media.

“Whether in Minneapolis or Fairfax, the issue of police brutality is real, and time and time again, we are told that our fears and outrage are misplaced,” the Fairfax County NAACP said. “What the Board of Supervisors refuses to acknowledge is the validity of our concerns over the hiring process and our experience of being dismissed when asked for feedback.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Davis, who started the job on May 3, shared a plan for his first 100 days at a Board of Supervisors public safety committee meeting. His plan included revamped procedural justice and implicit bias training that he, command staff, and others are testing before rolling out to the entire department.

“Accountability and training used to be kind of buried inside police department organizational structures. It needs to be elevated and highlighted,” Davis said.

Davis also said he plans to be inclusive with a community advisory council for his department, saying that, int he past, he has included the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP and other advocacy groups.

Lee District Supervisor Rodney Lusk, who chairs the public safety committee, proposed 30-day progress reports to assess his and the department’s work with numbers.

During the committee meeting, the board also discussed a draft policy that Davis presented to scale back when police are involved in a pursuit.

Distrust hangs over Fairfax County’s introduction to new police chief

 

Matt BlitzMay 7, 2021 at 2:10pm

 

(Updated 5:00 p.m.) Kevin Davis’s first challenge as Fairfax County’s new police chief is to earn the public’s trust, and if the community input session held last night (Thursday) was any indication, it will be a formidable task.

In a virtual discussion that lasted more than two hours, caller after caller expressed dismay at what they believe was insufficient transparency and community engagement from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors during the hiring process, leading many to question that if the county made the right decision in appointing Davis.

“The Board’s closed-door deliberations and no community involvement in the vetting process left us in the dark. This, coupled with press revelations after the selection, rendered the process fatally flawed,” Diane Burkley Alejandro, lead advocate for the immigrant rights organization ACLU Power People Fairfax, said during the session.

Late last month, NBC4 reported that Davis had faced — and lost — civil lawsuits in the 1990s related to the use of force and unconstitutional detainment while on the job in Prince George’s County.

Callers also brought up concerns about Davis’ authorization of secret aerial surveillance while he was Baltimore’s police commissioner as well as comments he made in a 2020 Baltimore Sun op-ed about defunding the police.

The Board of Supervisors acknowledged that the community has expressed concerns about Davis’s record in a broad statement earlier this week, but county leaders have not wavered from their position that he was the best choice to lead the Fairfax County Police Department and implement the reforms that the board has been seeking.

“Your hiring of Mr. Davis in today’s environment is just plain tone deaf,” Hunter Mill District resident Diana Smith said yesterday, directing her ire to the board. “…It sends a really negative message. I think this was a really flawed decision based on a really flawed process, which led to a flawed selection of a candidate.”

A number of callers backed Fairfax County NAACP’s call last week for a new police chief search, a stance that has won support from other community groups throughout the week.

“I and other community organizations expressed not only the lack of community engagement but the type of community engagement. It’s fine to check a box and say ‘we did a survey, we had community meetings’ but was that enough and were we really heard?” Amanda Andere, a member of the Chairman’s Equity Task Force, said. “We need to start over. We need a process rooted in equity that starts and ends with community input.”

For Davis’s part, he acknowledged the criticisms in his opening remarks and said that he made mistakes over the years but plans to continue to work to gain the community’s trust.

“I have certainly changed, grown, and have learned many lessons throughout the course of my career,” Davis said in response to one caller. “Every year along my journey, I’ve learned more and have become more attuned to community expectations and sensitivities…Was it always a perfect journey? No.”

Throughout the night, Davis reiterated that he was proud of his career, the progress he’s made in terms of building trust with communities of color, and his belief that he has been “one of the most progressive reform leaders in our country.”

“I’ll follow my own mother’s advice…by being the best chief of police I can possibly be,” Davis said.

Even though callers frequently directed questions to them, Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay and Lee District Supervisor Rodney Lusk, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, rarely responded to the callers and largely limited comments to their opening and closing remarks.

Some questioned if the board had to sign non-disclosure agreements regarding the process of selecting a new police chief. Neither responded to those inquiries.

A county official confirmed to Reston Now that board members signed NDAs but said this is not an uncommon practice when the board interviews job applicants to preserve their anonymity.

Neither McKay nor Lusk seemed to entertain the idea of redoing the search for a new police chief either.

“We are aware that there’ve been some instances that have come to light that have caused concern in our community. I want to reiterate that we have heard those and we understand those,” McKay said in his opening remarks. “We know that [Davis] brings with him extensive experience in police reform, and we know that he will move Fairfax County to the next level.”

In his closing remarks, Lusk, who is Black and has spoken about his own painful experiences with police, explained his thought process when it came to selecting Davis as police chief.

“I know there’s a lot of emotion around this and, believe me, I have had a lot of emotion around this too,” Lusk said. “…Can we give Chief Davis an opportunity to enact the reforms we need? If he’s not able to do that, the Board has to make a decision. He knows where he is in this situation.”

Davis also addressed media for the first time this morning (Friday) in a press conference where he again highlighted his past achievements and answered questions about past incidents and lawsuits.

“I was twenty four years old in 1993. Would a 52-year-old Kevin Davis handled that incident differently now? No doubt about it,” he said in reference to the 1993 encounter that left a young Maryland law student bloody in front of his family’s home.

Referencing the 1999 incident where he was accused of false imprisonment and roughing up a teenager, resulting in a $90,000 settelment for the victim, he reiterated what he told the Baltimore Sun in 2015.

“I was a young narcotics detective and we were given an assignment from a high-ranking official,” Davis said. “We did not have full visibility on that assignment and should have asked more questions. We should have been more skeptical. We should have been more cynical, but we weren’t…More than any other experience in my career, that has shaped me.”

When asked if he disclosed these incidents to the Board of Supervisors during the hiring process, he said only that the process was “comprehensive and exhaustive.”

He also spoke about his plans to institute reforms in a police department that has had a history of using force against people of color, while also addressing morale within the department.

“Morale is an issue in the Fairfax County Police Department,” Davis said. “We have to work on attrition. We have to work on recruiting.”

Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Fairfax County Police Jeff McKay Rodney Lusk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shadow Of Lawsuits Hangs Over New Police Chief In Fairfax

 

Fairfax County board reaffirmed its support for newly appointed police chief, despite reports of lawsuits he faced earlier in his career.

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — Fairfax County Board of Supervisors threw their support behind new Chief of Police Kevin Davis, whose appointment has been clouded by recent reports of use-of-force lawsuits against him in his past. The board appointed Davis on April 23, and his first day on the job was Monday.

In the aftermath of Davis' appointment, several news outlets in the Washington, D.C. area reported that the incoming police chief had a series of use-of-force cases brought against him when he worked for the Prince George's County Police Department in Maryland earlier in his career.

The board issued a statement late Tuesday afternoon saying Davis was chosen with their full support and confidence.

"We are aware of the incidents reported in the local media," the statement said. "While they occurred decades ago, we understand the concerns of the community. We expect Chief Davis to respond to questions regarding those incidents in the media and directly with the community and the Board of Supervisors. He has also demonstrated through his leadership that his past experiences have shaped his focus on reform. He has our trust to guide the Fairfax County Police Department through the challenges ahead and build on the reform efforts already made."

In the early 1990s, Davis — who Board Chairman Jeff McKay described as someone who will further the county's work on police reform — stopped a soon-to-be law student named Mark Spann while he was driving in Prince George's County.

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After Spann was stopped, Davis violently took him to the ground and arrested him, Spann told NBC4. He eventually won his civil case against Davis.

Six years later, Davis was sued again, this time for false imprisonment and arrest of a man who said Davis and other officers essentially kidnapped him for a night, NBC4 reported. The victim won a civil lawsuit against Davis.

Davis went on to become the assistant chief in Prince George's County before getting jobs leading Anne Arundel County and Baltimore city's police departments.

In its statement, the board reiterated its commitment to collectively reform policing in the county and expected Davis "to be a strong and effective advocate for the types of reforms that are designed to protect at risk communities from police misconduct."

On Monday, FCPD posted a photo to its official Twitter account of Rev. Anthony McCarthy, a former NAACP spokesman and a former public information office for three Baltimore mayors.

"Baltimore has had a long line of police commissioners," McCarthy said, in the Twitter post. "Kevin Davis has a human touch. People genuinely like him and admire him, both black and white. He was exceptionally aware and sensitive of race issues because of the obvious demographics of our city. Fairfax County will be well-served by Kevin Davis."

In a second quote posted by FCPD Tuesday on Twitter, Tessa Hill Aston, former president of the Baltimore NAACP, praised Davis, saying that "he listened and acted" when they worked together in Baltimore.

McKay and Lee District Supervisor Rodney Lusk, who chairs the board's public safety committee, are hosting the call-in, public input session about Davis at 7 p.m., on Thursday. Those wishing to participate in the community input session may call 703-324-1020. Anyone who wishes to testify by phone during the event or submit video or written testimony must sign up in advance by emailing clerktotheBOS@fairfaxcounty.gov.

In a new era of policing, old claims of misconduct draw fresh questions for a chief

Kevin Davis in 2017 when he was the police commissioner in Baltimore. He has been named chief in Fairfax County, Va. (Patrick Semansky/AP)

By 

Justin Jouvenal

May 1, 2021 at 4:25 p.m. EDT

As a young police officer in Prince George’s County in the 1990s, Kevin Davis was accused in separate lawsuits of slamming a Black driver into the pavement during a traffic stop and, with other narcotics detectives, illegally detaining a 19-year-old.

Juries awarded both plaintiffs damages, before Davis began a rapid ascent to the upper echelons of local policing. He became a top deputy in Prince George’s County, Md., then went on to lead the police departments in Anne Arundel County, Md., and the city of Baltimore.

But amid a national reckoning on race and policing, those more-than-two-decade-old incidents have become fresh flash points as Davis, 52, who is White, begins his latest high-profile post Monday: police chief in Fairfax County, Va.

In recent days, Fairfax County’s chapter of the NAACP and several other groups have called for Davis’s ouster or have demanded more information about how Davis was chosen. At least three groups, including the NAACP and a group affiliated with the American Civil Liberties Union, have expressed misgivings about the selection process.

Davis disputed the account of the driver in the traffic incident. He said he made a mistake in the other encounter and framed it as a learning experience.

Kofi Annan, executive director of The Activated People, the latter group that wants a new chief, wrote in an email that Davis “is not the leader we need at this moment.”

“The hire feels like a gut punch considering what the Black community and our nation has experienced over the past year,” Annan wrote. “While the Derek Chauvin verdict was a step in the right direction, this hire feels like we’ve taken two steps back locally.”

Fairfax County taps former Baltimore chief to be next police leader

Fairfax County officials defended their choice, saying Davis has built a stellar record as a reformer since those early incidents and is well-positioned to continue the ambitious overhauls the Fairfax County Police Department has undergone in recent years.

Davis helped guide Baltimore’s troubled police department through reforms after the death of Freddie Gray of injuries suffered in police custody, and he paired officers with mental health professionals to respond to calls about people in crisis in Anne Arundel, among other innovative initiatives.

“Davis demonstrated a complete understanding and commitment to improving policing, promoting transparency, and building relationships in the community,” Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff Mc¬Kay said in a statement. “In addition, following conversations with leaders across the region as well as people who have directly worked with him, it is clear that they also have tremendous confidence in his abilities.”

In interviews with The Washington Post, Davis pointed out that he was cleared of any wrongdoing in internal reviews of both incidents from the ’90s. He took issue with the account of the Black driver in the first incident and said he erred in participating in the second. He said the latter case helped forge his policing philosophy and pushed him toward a reform mind-set.

“That 1999 incident convinced me when I ascended to leadership positions . . . I would take every effort and every care to ensure that my subordinates were never put in a position that was in contrast to the values of the police department and the community,” Davis said.

But Mark Spann, the driver in the first incident, questions the selection of Davis as chief.

Spann, then a White House intern, said in an interview that he was returning home after a night out in 1993 when Davis stopped him in front of his parents Temple Hills home for reasons he said remain unknown to him.

In Spann’s recollection of the event, Davis doubted that Spann owned the Mercedes-Benz he was driving and refused to answer questions about why he had been stopped. Spann also said in testimony in 1994 to the Prince George’s County Human Relations Commission, which investigated the encounter, that he refused requests by Davis to submit to a search.

As the conversation escalated, Spann grew fearful and honked his car horn, drawing his father out of their home. Walter Spann recalled that when Davis and another officer who arrived on the scene would not tell him what was happening, he criticized the officers’ communication skills. Walter Spann said Davis grew angry and prepared to handcuff his son.

After Mark Spann asked why he was being handcuffed, Davis grabbed him and threw him to the pavement, pushing his face into the ground and causing him to bleed, father and son said. Spann said he was then handcuffed and loaded into Davis’s cruiser, where he was threatened and insulted with racial slurs by Davis on the way to the police station.

Spann was charged with battery, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. His trial ended in a hung jury, with most jurors favoring his acquittal, according to court records.

Spann sued Davis, and a jury awarded him $12,500, according to court records.

“I’m incredulous that this man would be considered as a purveyor of justice for our communities and our safety,” Spann said.

In an interview, Davis emphatically denied using any racial slurs against the younger Spann and said his account is not accurate. Davis declined to address the specific points of his story, saying he didn’t want to get into a back-and-forth with him.

“I respect his position and how he feels, but I strongly disagree with his memory,” Davis said.

In a statement and testimony to an investigator for the Human Relations Commission in 1994, Davis said he stopped Spann because he was acting suspiciously. Davis told the investigator that Spann got out of his car and walked briskly toward his cruiser and refused commands to get back inside the car. He also insulted Davis, calling him a “red-neck police officer,” according to a summary of Davis’s account.

When Davis asked Spann to put his hands on a cruiser for a search, Spann pointed his index finger in the officer’s face, according to the account. Davis told the investigator that Spann shoved him and that they both fell to the ground after a struggle. Davis told the investigator he did not intentionally push Spann’s face into the ground and that Spann kicked a second officer.

Spann denied being belligerent or physically violent.

The Prince George’s County Human Relations Commission concluded that the encounter was “an outrageous incident of police misconduct” and that Davis had used excessive force. The findings were based on interviews with Mark Spann and his father, since Davis chose not to testify before the full commission.

The panel said Davis harassed Mark Spann “without cause” by “treating him like a criminal suspect when there was no reason to do so” and “making physical and other threats.”

Though the department cleared Davis in the incident, the commission recommended that the police department pursue “significant disciplinary action” against him, pay Spann’s medical expenses and investigate whether there was any merit to the charges filed against Spann.

 

Kevin Davis, who has been named Fairfax County’s police chief, is seen in 1997 when he was with the Prince George’s County police. He is shown in a case involving a car that was using fake temporary license plates. (Robert A. Reeder/The Washington Post)

In the 1999 lawsuit, Davis and a group of Prince George’s County narcotics officers were accused of picking up a 19-year-old and questioning him for five hours on the whereabouts of his 17-year-old girlfriend. The girl was the niece of a deputy chief, who had ordered Davis and the other officers to hold the teen without a warrant.

The teen, Brian Romjue, later sued Davis and the other officers in federal court in Maryland, winning a $90,000 judgment. Romjue could not be reached for comment.

Davis said he was given the case under false pretenses and should have asked why a superior was asking narcotics detectives to investigate a missing-person case. He said it was a searing experience.

“The six most important words in the English language are ‘I admit I made a mistake,’ ” Davis said.

Davis’s selection followed a nationwide search to replace Dave Rohrer, who was serving as interim police chief since Edwin C. Roessler Jr. resigned in February. McKay said the effort was “comprehensive,” including 275 community meetings and calls, 450 emails to stakeholders, and a survey of county residents that drew 3,000 responses.

Even so, the Fairfax County NAACP and other groups said the public did not have enough input, that the selection process should have been more transparent and that they had questions about how fully Davis was vetted.

Karen T. Campblin, president of the Fairfax County NAACP, said in a statement that the organization has no confidence in the process by which Davis was selected and had raised concerns about the lack of public input while the process was underway.

“Unlike the 2013 hiring process for the former police chief, Fairfax County residents were excluded from the candidate evaluation and interview sessions,” Camp¬blin said. “Throughout the hiring process, the Fairfax County NAACP expressed concern over the lack of transparency and accountability to the public.”

Fairfax County Supervisor Rodney Lusk, who heads the public safety committee, said the Fairfax County NAACP and other groups were given the opportunity to provide written comments on what they wanted in a police chief and to provide sample questions.

“We incorporated their concerns, their issues and their questions in the interview process,” Lusk said.

Lusk said he could not comment on what supervisors knew of the incidents involving Davis from the ’90s, but Mark Spann said he was not contacted by county officials as he had been by Baltimore officials when Davis was up for chief there. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors said it plans to hold a public meeting to address concerns about Davis.

Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), said he knew nothing of the ’90s incidents involving Davis but said Davis had done substantive work as Baltimore’s police chief.

Wexler said Davis was the first big city police chief to implement PERF’s de-escalation policy at a time when it was controversial and some said it could get officers killed. Wexler said Davis also implemented a federal consent decree aimed at reforming the department at a time when he could have tried to put it off.

Wexler said that given the national climate around policing, issues from chiefs’ pasts are receiving more scrutiny. He said few candidates for chief of police have no baggage.

“People will look at what someone did years ago, and it comes back to haunt them,” Wexler said. “You have to ask yourself, given the totality of someone’s work: What have they done then, what would they do now, and what will they do in the future?”

Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report.