By John Lovaas/Reston Impact
Producer/Host
#COMMUNITY NOTE: Reston
Association election ballots must be returned for counting by COB Monday, April
4. There is only one real race—the At-Large seat. I suggest John Bowman, a
person of integrity, knowledge and experience who cares about the community
first. There is only one candidate for the other two posts. Both are excellent,
not conflicted. Sherri Hebert is great, new blood for Lake Anne; Danielle La
Rosa deserves a second term for North Point.
#Remember the Ad Hoc Commission
to Review Police Practices created by Chairman Sharon Bulova after the 2013
police killing of unarmed John Geer and the outrage after two years of
stonewalling by County Police and silence from the Board of Supervisors (BOS)?
The 40-member Commission submitted its final report, with 142 unanimously
adopted recommendations, to the BOS last October. In the five months since, the
BOS has met just once to consider specific actions. It has agreed in principle
to adopt the Report of the Commission, but not yet acted to initiate
implementation of all its recommendations. The BOS just announced a second
meeting planned for 10 a.m. on May 10 in Rooms 9/10 of the Fairfax County
Gov’t. Center (Taj Mahal). Why the delay? In a recent Reston Forum on “Making
Justice Work”, Supervisor Cathy Hudgins erroneously stated that the Board had
in fact approved all recommendations, but additional careful consideration of
implementation was required. She said the Board was “having a hard time
organizing another meeting.”
#Meanwhile, the Washington Post
sharply criticized the BOS for the delay and for preparing to undermine the
Commission’s unanimous recommendation for oversight of police internal
investigations by an independent auditor and for a Civilian Review Panel to
receive citizen complaints about police abuses. In other words, it seems the
delay may not be because the Supes can’t organize their own meeting, but
because there are internal struggles going on over reform.
#Police organizations (would-be
unions) whose reps (including Fairfax Coalition of Police President sitting
across from me) voted for the Civilian Review Panel apparently are now trying
to kill it. At the one BOS meeting held to date, the President of the Fairfax
Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 77, Brad Carruthers, told assembled
Supervisors they should exercise caution in considering the recommendations
since the whole Commission was only created because of complaints “from ten
percent of the population who are anti-cops.” What!
#If reform is to be implemented
and effect real change, independent oversight and civilian review advisory
functions are indispensable for assuring the integrity of the changes. Experts
stress the importance of independence of oversight. Although Police Chief
Roessler and Chairman Bulova both say they support oversight and civilian
review, the devil is likely in the details. Specifically, the more extreme
voices are demanding that police be included on the Civilian Review Panel
because only they truly understand the work of the police. In fact, we are
where we are in Fairfax County today because there has been no oversight behind
the steel blue curtain. A Civilian Review Panel is exactly that—civilian. It
represents the community and provides an independent view. Let’s hope Chairman
Bulova, Supervisor Hudgins and other Supervisors stand firm and are neither
distracted nor intimidated from transforming the Fairfax County Police
Department into a more responsive, topnotch force of which we all can be proud.
No comments:
Post a Comment