Police Violence Casts Shadow on
Sporting Event
by MARK HAND
In late June and early July, thousands
of police officers and fire service workers from around the world will converge
on Fairfax County, Va., a suburb of Washington, D.C., to participate in an
Olympic-style competition known as the World Police & Fire Games.
The 10-day-long games will feature
traditional athletic events such as track and field and boxing. Police officers
also will be eligible to compete in police pistol combat events and service dog
competitions that include narcotics detection and subduing suspects.
The games’ organizers, the California
Police Athletic Federation, tout the biennial event as one of the world’s
largest multi-sport events, second only to the Olympics in terms of the number
of participants. First held in 1985 in San Jose, Calif., the games are open to
active and retired law enforcement officers and fire service personnel. About
12,000 athletes from more than 70 countries are expected to compete in 61
events in 53 different venues in Fairfax County and other parts of the D.C.
metropolitan area from June 26 to July 5.
The previous World Police & Fire
Games, held in Belfast, Northern Ireland, were deemed “the best and friendliest
ever” games by its organizers. The organizers estimated the cost of the event
at about 13 million pounds, or $18 million. The Fairfax County games are
expected to cost about $20 million.
After hosting the event in 2013,
organizers of the Belfast games expressed disappointment with the number of
participants from outside Northern Ireland. “The consequence of lower out of
state numbers has a knock-on impact on subsequent monetary targets: commercial
bed nights; registration and event entry fees; and economic benefit,” the
organizers of the Belfast games said in an event post-mortem released in
February 2014.
Following the lead of previous host
cities, the Fairfax County government will be lavishing the private event with
at least $3 million of taxpayer money. Public funds will be going to the games
as the county’s public schools are facing a financial crisis and as the
county’s library system is dealing with budget cuts of almost 30% over the past
10 years on a real spending basis.
Despite budget problems with the county’s
core services, government officials are excited about the millions they agreed
to spend on the games. “Fairfax County has pledged $3 million to host and
sponsor the games. With several more million in staffing and public safety to
come,” Fairfax County Chairwoman Sharon Bulova, the county’s top elected
official, boasted at a 2014 event to promote the games. Bulova declined a
request to comment on the World Police & Fire Games for this article.
In 2009, Fairfax County officials
highlighted the economic benefit of hosting the World Police & Fire Games
when they were competing with their counterparts in Toronto and Winnipeg,
Canada, to win the games for 2015. Organizers estimated a regional economic
impact of $60 million to $80 million in revenue from the event. Drawing on the
Olympics parallel, the Fairfax County games organizers also hired a former
Olympic organizer, Bill Knight, to serve as chief executive of its effort.
Some experts aren’t convinced these
types of sporting events are big revenue-producers. When it comes to the
Olympics, for example, Philip Porter, an economist at the University of South
Florida who has studied the impact of sporting events, told The New York Times
that the evidence is unequivocal on cities that host the Olympics. “The bottom
line is, every time we’ve looked — dozens of scholars, dozens of times — we
find no real change in economic activity,” he said.
Whether the World Police & Fire
Games gives Fairfax County a big financial boost remains to be seen. What is
certain is the event’s athletic competitions will give police officers and fire
service personnel an opportunity to show off their athletic prowess.
A contingent from the Baltimore Police
Department is likely to make the 40-mile trek south to participate in the
games. The World Police & Fire Games will provide an intriguing
juxtaposition for the city’s police department: Baltimore’s finest will be
hailed as heroes in Fairfax County at the same time that six of their
colleagues face criminal charges in the death of city resident Freddie Gray.
Fairfax County itself is under scrutiny
for extreme police violence. Earlier this year, the Fairfax County government
paid almost $3 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family
of a man, John Geer, who was killed by a county police officer while standing
in the doorway of his home. On top of the Geer settlement, the county could
face another multi-million-dollar lawsuit after members of the Fairfax County
Sheriff’s Office recently used a Taser against a woman who was fully restrained
in the county jail. The woman died from the delivery of four 50,000 volt shocks
from the Taser.
The organizers of the World Police
& Fire Games likely are hoping the ongoing focus on police violence in
Ferguson, Mo., New York City, North Charleston, S.C., Baltimore and many other
cities does not overshadow the games. And Fairfax County residents should not
be surprised if the county agrees to spend additional public funds on security
due to concerns about protesters showing up at the various events.
Mark Hand covers political action. You
can reach him at markhand13@gmail.com
