Fairfax County Police Watch: 08/30/15

License Plate Readers at Center of Legal Dispute in Fairfax County

Brought to you by………

John Foust. Because even moral cowards need a job

“When the cops murdered unarmed citizens, secretly recorded public officials and held the people of this county in contempt, I said and did nothing. I was silent in the face of injustice. And now I expect you idiots to reelect me”

About Supervisor John W. Foust

John was elected to the Board of Supervisors in 2007 and re-elected in 2011. In all that time he has never, not once, spoken out against the brutality, corruption, excessive power or bloated budget of the Fairfax County Police.

However he did find time to run for reelection several times and run a losing bid for congress.

Since joining the Board of Supervisors, John has sought to provide effective, results-oriented, common sense leadership for the residents of the Dranesville District and Fairfax County…..in as long as providing effective, results-oriented, common sense leadership doesn’t involve speaking out against the cops.

License Plate Readers at Center of Legal Dispute in Fairfax County

ACLU is defending a Fairfax County man who says police department is unlawfully collecting information on law-abiding Virginians.

By MARY ANN BARTON (Patch Staff)

This week, a little known technological advance used by police — automatic license plate readers — was front and center after alleged killer Vester Lee Flanagan was caught on Interstate 66 in Northern Virginia by a state trooper who used the technology.

The technology is at the center of a case brought again the Fairfax County Police by a local resident who is being represented by the ACLU.

Today, Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Grace Carroll denied the Fairfax County Police Department’s request to dismiss the case, brought by the ACLU challenging the FCPD’s use of automatic license plate readers to “unlawfully collect the personal information of law-abiding Virginians,” according to a news release from the Virginia ACLU.

Filed in Fairfax County Circuit Court, the lawsuit is being brought on behalf of Fairfax County resident Harrison Neal, who, the ACLU says, discovered that his license plate had been scanned twice in one year and stored in a database, even though he wasn’t part of any police investigation.

Neal is represented by ACLU of Virginia staff attorney Hope Amezquita and ACLU of Virginia cooperating attorneys Edward Rosenthal and Christina Brown of the Alexandria firm Rich Rosenthal Brincefield Manitta Dzubin & Kroeger, LLP.

“This case is simple,” said Rebecca Glenberg, legal director of the ACLU of Virginia. “Our laws make clear that law-abiding Virginians should be free to travel around the Commonwealth without police departments tracking, storing, and sharing their vehicle’s movements with other law enforcement agencies. We thank Judge Carroll for allowing this case to move forward.”

The ACLU chapter noted in a news release that: “Instead of reforming its policies to ensure against the passive collection of the movements of law-abiding Virginians, the FCPD sought to have the case dismissed by arguing that the information collected about our client and his vehicle is not personal information, and therefore does not violate the Virginia Government Data Collection and Dissemination Practices Act.”

“Fairfax County Police Department’s use of automatic license plate readers to compile vast databases of people’s movements in their vehicles is precisely the kind of intrusive practice the Virginia Government Data Collection and Dissemination Practices Act was meant to prevent,” said Claire Guthrie Gastañaga, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia. “By compiling a history of your vehicle’s movements in local and regional databases, law enforcement can use algorithms to predict your movements and determine your friends, politics, and medical conditions.”

Modern technology can be used to enhance public safety, but only if proper policies are in place, according to the ACLU.

“As we saw on Wednesday when the Virginia State Police used an automatic license plate reader to locate the individual suspected of killing two Roanoke journalists, when used correctly modern technology can be used to make us safer,” said Gastañaga.

“Our client is not asking for the Fairfax County Police Department to stop using automatic license plate readers for active criminal investigations or for Amber or Blue Alerts. In those cases, the technology serves a valuable law enforcement purpose. He’s just asking that the Fairfax County Police Department stop using automatic license plate readers to collect everyone else’s data too.”

Almost two years & the shameful cover-up continues in Fairfax County, Virginia

John Foust. Because even moral cowards need a job

About Supervisor John W. Foust

However he did find time to run for reelection several times and run a losing bid for congress.

Almost two years & the shameful cover-up continues in Fairfax County, Virginia

From Statter 911.com

By Dave Statter

Aug 21, 2015

Just eight days away from the two-year anniversary of the killing of John Geer and the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and Fairfax County Police Department continue their shameful cover-up. Despitethe arrest this week of Officer Adam Torres, the appointment of a commission to improve police practices (of which I am a member) and lots of talk about lessons learned, the leadership in the County and the police department still don’t understand a very important word — transparency.

Instead of finally telling us how this debacle occurred (the cover-up — not the tragic shooting) and holding those in charge accountable, it’s business as usual in Fairfax County. As has been the routine since August, 2013, we watch as scandalous details very slowly leak out under Tom Jackman’s byline in The Washington Post. Today’s news is that a police captain secretly recorded a telephone conversation with a prosecutor assigned to the Geer case.

In the same article, we are reminded again that the Board of Supervisors still hasn’t come clean on exactly what they knew and when they knew it in the efforts to withhold important information and documents from the Commonwealth’s Attorney, the U.S. Attorney, the Justice Department, a U.S. Senator, the Geer family and us.

The people we elect — the people we put our trust in — continue to insult us. They hide behind a claim of attorney-client privilege. The Supervisors think we should be satisfied with redacted documents that mask their decision making and the decision making of top Fairfax County officials.

As I pointed out in March, the attempt by the Board of Supervisors to hold deputy county attorney Cynthia Tianti responsible for this entire fiasco was laughable. The decision to fire Tianti (since reversed) has brought a lawsuit that is slowly bringing us more details of the misdeeds by those in charge. It was clear then that the Tianti firing would blow up in their faces and it has.

Chairmen Sharon Bulova and the Board of Supervisors continue to think just naming a commission to change practices in the future will make us all forget this and soon restore confidence in County leaders. It won’t.

Anything short of true transparency will just allow the hits to keep on coming. It’s well beyond time for all of this information to be released, with no or minimal redactions.

Real accountability is also a requirement to finally put this to rest. Months after Cynthia Tianti was thrown under the bus and her job marginalized, it’s extremely obvious the terrible decision making that got us into this mess continues. While that fact says a lot to me, for some reason Sharon Bulova and company refuse to publicly admit Ms. Tianti is not the real problem. Instead, our elected leaders keep paying big bucks to those actually responsible for this embarrassment and allow them to take us deeper into this hole with no end in sight. Shameful.

Torres Trial Date Set for December

Brought to you by………

John Foust. Because even moral cowards need a job

About Supervisor John W. Foust

However he did find time to run for reelection several times and run a losing bid for congress.

Bond denied for former police officer charged with murdering John Geer.

By Tim Peterson

Shortly after 10 a.m. on Aug. 19, former Fairfax County Police officer Adam Torres entered the circuit courtroom for his arraignment, dressed in a baggy, blue-green prison jumpsuit. Torres was indicted the previous Monday by a special grand jury for killing Springfield resident John Geer in August, 2013.

He was still an officer at the time and one of several who responded to a call from Geer’s longtime partner Maura Harrington that Geer was throwing her belongings out on to the lawn of their Springfield home.

After the indictment, Fairfax County Police said Torres surrendered himself that evening at the County Adult Detention Center.

Circuit Court judge Judge Stephen C. Shannon placed Torres’ arraignment first on his docket. The defendant’s attorney John F. Carroll began by rebutting his client being held without bond until the trial. Murder qualifies as an offense for which bond is denied in Virginia, but it can be argued whether the person accused poses a flight risk or is a threat to the community.

Carroll stated the case that Torres, 32, immediately turned himself in, has no prior criminal record and has a wife and two children. As Hayfield and George Mason University graduate, Carroll said he doesn’t think “you can find anyone with greater ties to the community.”

The attorney went on to summarize the Geer shooting incident, beginning to justify Torres by saying a handgun owned by Geer had been found on the scene “within reach, in our estimation,” and that Geer had made “numerous erratic movements,” prior to Torres firing.

And because the shooting in question was in Torres’ performance of duties as a police officer, Carroll argued, “there’s no reason for anyone to be fearful.” Carroll then asked that a bond for Torres be set at $25,000.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh spoke after Carroll in opposition to the bond motion. “Not only did he kill Mr. Geer,” Morrogh said, “but did so with malice.” Morrogh later added that was the consensus of the special grand jury.

The prosecutor also referenced evidence that Torres had been in a “deteriorating mental state,” saying the former police officer had fought with his supervisor and with his wife because he suspected her of infidelity.

Though Morrogh didn’t disagree with Torres’ connection to the community and lack of flight risk, “It’s the first time I’ve seen a police officer shoot someone who had his hands up,” he said. “I think that makes him dangerous.”

Judge Shannon reminded that, “We’re not here to decide the merits of the case today, solely the bond.”

Citing “some indications at the time of the incident of a deteriorating mental state,” Shannon denied Carroll’s request for a bond to be set.

Torres and the attorneys were asked to stand while the details of his trial were negotiated. Carroll hoped to start early in 2016 while Morrogh was intent to begin as soon as possible.

The two parties settled on Dec. 14 to begin the trial, which Morrogh said he expected would last about a week. As the date was reached, Torres suddenly collapsed backward and fell to the ground.

Judge Shannon cleared the entire courtroom as the bailiffs rendered first aid and called a rescue team.

Torres was taken to a nearby hospital, Morrogh said afterwards, and his vitals were said to have returned to normal. The attorney said it’s not unusual for individuals to faint or pass out in the courtroom.

Outside the courthouse, Morrogh commented to reporters that though he’s prosecuted judges and lawyers in his career, “It’s rare to see a case like this — there’s certainly no joy in it.”

As for Torres being the first Fairfax County Police officer in 75 years to be charged with such an offense, Morrogh said he thinks “it’s a really good thing that we don’t have many of those.”

“It’s just the length of time this case has taken, that’s not right,” Morrogh said. “We have to have a finality to this.”

Fairfax County had withheld much of the information about the case, including Torres’ name, until Geer’s family filed a $12 million lawsuit against the Police Department. Torres had been taken out of field work but remained employed by Fairfax County until he was fired in July of this year.

The county justified not releasing the information previously due to ongoing investigations by Police Internal Affairs, the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office and the U.S. Department of Justice.

Jeff Stewart, Geer’s best friend who witnessed the shooting and became a member of the Fairfax County ad hoc commission to review police practices, sat directly behind Torres during the arraignment. He had never seen the man face to face prior to that morning, and expressed sympathy for Torres and members of his family who were present at the hearing.

Stewart described having “mixed emotions” since the indictment. “I feel good for the process, and bad for the man,” he said.

Torres’ wife and family members declined to comment after the hearing.

Editorial: Police transparency needed in officer-involved shootings

BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

John Foust. Because even moral cowards need a job

About Supervisor John W. Foust

However he did find time to run for reelection several times and run a losing bid for congress.

BY THE FREE LANCE-STAR EDITORIAL

King George County Sheriff Steve Dempsey had never had to deal with a deputy fatally shooting someone in the 36 years he’s been with that department.

That changed Saturday evening when a deputy shot and killed a 64-year-old man who was coming at him with a knife, Dempsey said.

Police-involved shootings have been in the news in the past year, and often that news has reflected poorly on the law enforcement profession. Too often, police agencies provide scant information about the circumstances of the shootings and refuse to respond to questions about the incidents.

As a result, the public is left in the dark about what occurred, and silence invariably breeds suspicion and speculation.

Dempsey, sheriff since early 2011, didn’t follow that path. Instead, he provided details about what led up to the shooting and the step-by-step confrontation between the deputy and the man he shot in his home following a standoff with police. Dempsey even provided background about how many 911 calls his office had previously received involving that man, including details of earlier dealings that deputy had with 64-year-old Kenneth Henry Morgan.

And most important for credibility is the decision Dempsey made to immediately call in the Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation to investigate the shooting.

The state police has a team of agents trained for such investigations in each of its seven divisions. They’ve investigated 11 officer-involved shootings so far this year.

Whether it’s fair or not, there is a natural skepticism, especially for a small department, about objectivity when officers investigate their fellow officers.

Contrast Dempsey’s response to several fatal shootings by officers of the Fairfax County Police Department. The August 2013 incident involving John Geer, an unarmed Springfield man who was shot to death by a Fairfax officer as he stood in the doorway of his residence.

After a press release was provided shortly after the shooting, Fairfax police went 16 months without providing any additional information. Even Fairfax’s chief prosecutor was unable to get the details he needed to make a decision about the case.

Geer’s family eventually filed a civil lawsuit and a Circuit Court judge ordered files in the case turned over to them. The officer who did the shooting is no longer with the department and has been charged with murder.

That isn’t the first time Fairfax has stonewalled information about officer-involved shootings. In 2009, a Fairfax police officer shot and killed a Fredericksburg man during a traffic stop because he was suspected of stealing a plant from in front of a business.

David A. Masters, a former Green Beret, was unarmed and in his car when he was shot. Reports said the officer who pulled the trigger thought Masters was in a stolen car and was reaching for a gun, neither of which was true. No charges were filed but the officer was fired about 18 months after the shooting. In May, nearly five years later, Fairfax released the dashboard camera video of the shooting.

Earlier this year, a police review commission was appointed to study Fairfax police procedures and its communication policy.

The report from a communications subcommittee calls for a culture change to favor releasing more information, adopting a predisposition to disclose, with records presumed to be public and exemptions strictly and narrowly construed. That approach essentially mirrors state law, which states:

“The affairs of government are not intended to be conducted in an atmosphere of secrecy since at all times the public is to be the beneficiary of any action taken at any level of government.”

It’s not too much to ask that the state law be followed. The King George Sheriff’s Office has done its part so far in the case of Saturday’s shooting.