Aug 11, 2015
Dave Statter, Statter 911
What is it about transparency
Fairfax County (VA) doesn’t understand?
Less than two weeks after Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova
and the leadership of the Fairfax County Police Department admitted that the
image of the department was greatly impacted by the withholding of information
in the John Geer case, the County hides even more information.
Instead of simply telling us the
officer who shot and killed Geer, Adam Torres, was recently (we think) fired,
County officials waited, once again, until Washington Post reporter Tom Jackman
asked about it first. Even after acknowledging Torres is gone, the department
still refuses to tell anyone when his termination occurred.
Wake up Fairfax County! A County
employee’s hiring and departure date is not a state secret. It impacts nothing.
Hiding behind “it’s a personnel matter” borders on the comical and further
undermines your credibility. (Learn more sbout the lack of transparency in the
firing of Officer Adam Torres in a report yesterday by WUSA9.com’s Peggy Fox.)
The report of the Communications
Committee (read report here) of the Ad Hoc Police Practices Review Commission,
was embraced by Ms. Bulova and FCPD Deputy Chief Tom Ryan at the July 27
Commission hearing. The report highlights the concept of adopting “a
predisposition to disclose” information (read Jackman article about the report
here). Why can’t anyone making these decisions see that failing to provide the
termination date for Torres is just more of the decades old “predisposition
towithhold” information policy long favored by Fairfax County?
(Note: You can watch the July 27
hearing here. Deputy Chief Ryan’s comments are at 2:15:27 and Sharon Bulova’s
remarks are at 2:24:08.)
After all of the self-inflicted
wounds over the last two-years, it’s telling that it didn’t dawn on anyone in
charge that the Fairfax County Police Department should have released, as soon
as it occurred, the news that the employment of the man at the center of this
controversy was terminated. This was an opportunity to show it’s really a new
day at FCPD instead of the leadership digging a deeper hole for themselves and
the department.
Before I was appointed to this
Commission, I was very vocal about my dissatisfaction with the top officials
who allowed a cover-up to occur in the Geer case. In case this story is new to
you, it became extremely obvious in January of this year that those in charge
withheld key information from the public that was provided very early on by the
officers who witnessed the shooting and those assigned to investigate John
Geer’s August 29, 2013 death. I remain
extremely proud that those officers and detectives did their jobs so honorably.
They made clear from the start that this was a bad shooting by one of their
fellow officers. At the same time, I’m ashamed by what occurred at the top
levels of the government where I live .
Despite my own doubts, I thought
it important to have an open mind as I worked on the Commission alongside some
of these same leaders. The goal has been to change backwards policies and adopt
a culture of transparency that a growing number in law enforcement believe is
key to 21st Century policing.
Over the last few weeks, it has
been extremely disappointing to witness this same leadership making a number of
decisions that seem to show it’s business as usual in Fairfax County. In
addition to the mishandling of the Torres firing, these include:Failing to
openly address the Alex Horton complaint until after his opinion piece appeared
in The Washington Post (more here); Denying a request by one of the
Commission’s committees to see files on long-closed police involved shooting
cases; Denying a FOIA request by the father of David Masters to see the
investigative file on that long-closed case.
What all of this tells me is the
culture change needed to restore trust in FCPD is not a priority for those in
charge. Instead, it sounds a lot like a reaffirmation of the “what you don’t
know can’t hurt me” culture that has been a guiding principle in Fairfax County
for way too long.
These words are in the
Communications Committee report (full disclosure – I helped write this as a
member of the committee):
No longer can they (Fairfax
County and the Fairfax County Police Department) just pay lip service to the
idea of transparency. Real change is needed – now.
The evidence, so far, indicates
the status quo is just fine and that there’s a lack of understanding on the
part of Fairfax County leaders about what “real change” means. The citizens of
Fairfax County and the men and women who protect us deserve better.
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