Fairfax County Police Watch: We need national minimum IQ standards for cop...and I'm sure this dog would have agreed

K9 handler issues apology after dog dies in car

Tim Rearden

A K9 with the Montville Township Police Department died from apparent heat stroke after he was left inside of a cruiser on a warm day, according to Chief Terry Grice.

The dog's handler, Sgt. Brett Harrison, was found to have violated policy and procedures and has been suspended from the department.

According to the department, Sgt. Harrison arrived on station on the morning of Sept. 28 and went inside police headquarters to work on paperwork related to various cases.

Harrison left the 2-year-old dog, Beny, in the cruiser and failed to leave the windows open. The car was turned off.

More than four hours later, Harrison returned to the cruiser and discovered the dog laying lifeless in his rear passenger compartment's kennel.

The temperature when the officer arrived on station was 69 degrees and it was 79 degrees when the dog was found.

After a disciplinary hearing was conducted, Harrison received a two week unpaid suspension and a loss of 40 hours of vacation time.

The chief said Harrison was "completely forthright and cooperative" during the hearing.

"This is a loss that words cannot describe, and it is very difficult for everyone involved," said Chief Terry Grice. "There is no doubt that this loss will have a lasting impact on Sgt. Harrison and our entire department."

A statement from the department also said that Sgt. Harrison cared deeply about Beny. He worked with the dog more than 40 hour a week and Beny lived with Sgt. Harrison and his family when the two were off duty. Sgt. Harrison was overwhelmed with grief and is taking this loss very hard, the chief added.

Sgt. Harrison has been an exemplary officer who has never received discipline since being hired onto the department on Sept. 11, 2007. He came to the department after serving 10 years in the United States Air National Guard, where he was deployed to Qatar during Operation Enduring Freedom. Over the years, he has received awards and praise from law enforcement leaders for his dedication in getting weapons, drugs, and impaired drivers off the roads.

"While we worth though this tragedy, the Montville Police Department remains committed to continuing our K9 program.

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.