Fairfax County Police Watch: Big brother is watching you

The Fairfax County Police Department owns a number of Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs), devices which are mounted on police vehicles or stationary objects and read every license plate that comes into its field of vision – potentially thousands of records per minute. The Department stores the records for up to a year, allowing it to determine particular vehicle locations and specific dates and times. We filed suit on behalf of Harrison Neal, a Fairfax County resident whose license plate information has been recorded by the Department at least twice, arguing that the Department’s use of ALPRs violates Virginia’s Government Data Collection and Dissemination Practices Act.

FCPD filed a Memorandum in Support of Demurrer on July 31, 2015 asking the judge to dismiss the case, arguing that license plate records are not “personal data” under the statute. On August 28, 2015, the judge denied the Demurrer, allowing the lawsuit to move forward. FCPD filed their Answer to the Complaint on September 18, 2015.

FCPD filed a Motion for Summary Judgment on August 4, 2016 on the basis that the Complaint failed to establish a violation of the Government Data Collection and Dissemination Practices Act. Neal filed a Motion for Summary Judgment on August 4, 2016 on the basis that the collection, storage and use of automated license plate reader information failed to meet the requirement of the Government Data Collection and Dissemination Practices Act. Both parties subsequently filed Oppositions to the other party's Motion for Summary Judgment on August 25, 2016. On Sept. 8, 2016, Judge Smith heard arguments on summary judgment motions filed by Neal and FCPD. The case is scheduled for trial on Nov. 28-30, 2016. in Fairfax County Circuit Court.

On Nov. 18, 2016, the Fairfax County Circuit Court ruled in favor of the defendant. We filed the Notice of Appeal on behalf of Harrison Neal with the Fairfax County Circuit Court on Dec. 20, 2016. Our Petition for Appeal was filed with the Virginia Supreme Court on Feb. 22, 2017. The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed an Amicus brief in Support of the Petitioner's Brief on Feb. 22, 2017. FCPD filed their Brief in Opposition of Neal's Petition for Appeal on March 17, 2017. On June 22, 2017, the Supreme Court of Virginia granted our Petition for Appeal. The ACLU of Virginia filed the Opening Brief on behalf of Harrison Neal on August 1, 2017.

On April 1, 2019, a Fairfax County judge granted the ACLU of Virginia’s petition for an injunction prohibiting the FCPD from collecting and storing ALPR data outside of an investigation or intelligence gathering related to a criminal investigation.

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.