Fairfax County Police Watch: ACLU launches app in D.C., Maryland, Virginia to record police actions

The Associated Press

The American Civil Liberties Union launched a free smartphone app in Maryland, the District and Virginia on Friday that allows users to record police actions and instantly transfer the video to the organization's attorneys for review.

ACLU officials hope Mobile Justice becomes a citizens' version of officer-worn body cameras, making police more accountable and deterring incidents of excessive force. The app, available for the iPhone and Android operating systems, has been available for several years in a number of states, including New York, Colorado and California. Officials said it has been downloaded about 300,000 times.

The app uses a smartphone's camera to record incidents. The video is automatically transferred to the ACLU, to preserve it in case the phone is lost, confiscated or destroyed. Users fill out a report documenting the location, time and people involved in the incident. If the incident appears to show police misconduct or a violation of civil rights, the ACLU can choose to take action.

The app can also notify users when other users nearby have been stopped by police. This allows them to witness and record the interaction. The app includes a "Know Your Rights" section, with state-specific guides for interacting with and recording the police.

"The app puts the public on the same footing with the police," said Claire Guthrie Gastañaga, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia. "People can take their own video and make a choice about when to disclose it."

Gastañaga said the ACLU spent the summer studying the use of body cameras by police and that the release of Mobile Justice was, in part, a response to it. She said body cameras were intended to "open up transparency and accountability and help restore trust" in police, but she said if public records laws aren't changed to mandate the release of the videos, it won't have much impact.

"If you know citizens are taking film and it's made available to ACLU, and we'll have an opportunity to make decisions if civil rights have been violated contemporaneously with events, that might change how you treat police-worn body cameras," she said.

Maj. Edward O'Carroll, director of public affairs for Fairfax County police, said in an e-mail that although he has not reviewed the app, the department supports citizens' rights to record police, as long as it doesn't obstruct officers' actions, jeopardize safety or incite others to break the law.

"We want the community to be informed, safe, and trust the officers who are tasked with their roles as community law enforcement," O'Carroll said.

Likewise, Greg Shipley, a Maryland State Police spokesman, said that the department has no issue with the app and that police "welcome the opportunity to display their professionalism during interactions with the citizens we serve."

The launch comes after cellphone video has played a pivotal role in a number of high-profile cases of excessive force by officers against African Americans, including Freddie Gray in Baltimore and Walter Scott in North Charleston, S.C. Many of the videos have gone viral and helped build a national movement against police violence.

The Mobile Justice app is available, in English and Spanish versions, through the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Under the terms of the app, the ACLU has the right to use a video submitted as it chooses. Gastañaga said that could mean mounting a campaign in some cases or choosing to do nothing if the video does not show misconduct. The ACLU also warned people to notify police if they have been stopped and are attempting to reach for a phone to record the interaction.

The ACLU said it has received tens of thousands of videos through Mobile Justice, but it has not pursued litigation in any case.

ACLU officials in New York City said a similar app made to document interactions between police and residents as part of the controversial stop-and-frisk program has generated thousands of video submissions, but no litigation has arisen from it.

Mobile Justice is one of a crop of police-accountability apps that have come out in recent years. Among others, Five-O allows users to rate officers, and Swat allows users to livestream police encounters and file complaints.

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.