Fairfax County Police Watch: Hawaii Takes 'A Big Step' in Making Police More Accountable for Misconduct

By Nick Grube

PF Bentley/Honolulu Civil Beat

Hawaii Sen. Will Espero during a hearing at the State Capitol.

Hawaii lawmakers passed a bill out of conference committee Wednesday that will force county police departments to disclose more information about officers who get in trouble for misconduct.

If signed into law, Senate Bill 2591 will force police chiefs to tell the Legislature how many officers were suspended or fired in a given year, and whether the disciplinary action resulted in criminal charges or was still subject to a union appeal.

Any disciplinary action that is overturned will require police chiefs to include an explanation as to why the punishment was revoked. This should also be the case if a disciplined officer resigned before the punishment was finalized.

“This will be one of our positive measures that we pass this session in terms of transparency and open government,” said Sen. Will Espero. “It’s a big step and there’s more to do, but this is certainly a win.”

Espero introduced SB 2591 in response to Civil Beat’s series In The Name Of The Law, which examined the secrecy and lack of public accountability surrounding police misconduct.

A key component of that series involved an analysis of annual misconduct reports each county police department is required to submit to the Legislature. Civil Beat found that about once a week on average a Honolulu police officer is suspended or discharged for breaking the law or violating policy.

But the reports provided little detail about the type of misconduct that is actually taking place in a department. Important details, such as an officer’s name or whether they were prosecuted for a crime, are not included.

That’s because the state’s police union was successful in convincing lawmakers in 1995 to carve out an exemption in the Hawaii public records law that allows departments to withhold information about suspended cops. Fired officers, however, are not afforded this shield and are subject to having details about their misconduct released.

SB 2591 does not require police agencies to release suspended officers records.

However, a Hawaii Circuit Court judge recently ruled that suspended officers files must be disclosed. That case has been appealed by the union.

All other public employees who are suspended or fired — whether they’re a teacher or a prison guard — are subject to information about their misconduct being released.

Another important component of SB 2591 relates to how long police departments must hold onto an officers disciplinary records.

Departments will often destroy a fired officer’s personnel file before the public is made aware of it through the annual reports to the Legislature due to archaic records retention schedules and lengthy union grievance procedures.

SB 2591 requires departments to hold onto an officer's disciplinary records for at least 18 months after a final disciplinary action is recorded in an annual report.

That particular provision comes from legislation that died before making it to conference committee. House Bill 1812 — introduced by Rep. Karl Rhoads — was a companion piece to SB 2591 and was identical in nearly every way.

Rhoads, however, amended the bill to include more time for lawmakers and the public to get access to a fired officer’s disciplinary file to provide more oversight. He also suggested changing the public records law to get rid of the exemption that protected suspended cops from having details about their misconduct released.

The State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers and Honolulu Police Department vigorously opposed Rhoads’ amended HB 1812 while journalists and good government groups, including the Media Council Hawaii, the Civil Beat Law Center for the Public Interest and state Office of Information Practices all supported it.

HB 1812 passed both chambers, but died before making it through conference committee.

Brian Black, executive director of the Civil Beat Law Center, said HB 1812 was definitely a stronger bill due to the changes it sought in the public records law.

But he also noted that SB 2591 was less controversial and didn’t get as much pushback from SHOPO, which made its presence known in the halls of the State Capitol.

“The original purpose of (SB 2591) was to make things better in terms of the annual disclosures,” Black said. “Anything that’s going to make police misconduct a more informed issue with the public is a good thing no matter what.”

SB 2591 also includes a provision that says fired police officers’ disciplinary files will not be made available until 90 days after disciplinary action becomes final.

Current law requires the information to be released after 30 days.

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.