• Dec
27, 2016
Dear Editor,
If you’ve not been following the
Fairfax County Supervisors’ actions to implement the recommendations from the
Ad Hoc Commission on Police Practices for the last 14 months, let’s briefly
catch you up.
The Commission, consisting of 36
members including 10 active or retired police, submitted its final report to
the Fairfax County Supervisors in October 2015. The report contained 202
unanimous, transformational recommendations to restore accountability and
public trust in the Fairfax County Police Department.
To date, the FCPD and other
county offices have implemented, or “implemented with modifications” over sixty
per cent of the recommendations. Another 25 per cent were approved in
principle, with details, some critical, still to be finalized. Ten per cent
more complicated or contentious ones are still under review. Four percent were
not implemented.
In sum, this is better progress
than many of us expected. Supervisors deserve credit for pushing ahead in the
face of often strong resistance from three unions.
Recommendations “implemented with
modifications” include some major changes from Commission proposals. For
example, the “independent police auditor” lost some independence and had its
role in criminal investigations restricted. Proposed reforms calling for more
transparency and accountability to the public face stiffest opposition and
delay. Examples include proposals to require prompt disclosure of names of
officers killing citizens and, to adopt body cameras for all officers. The
former was finally approved but with lots of wiggle room, and the latter is
still awaiting even a limited pilot test, perhaps in 2017.
A recommendation to encourage the
use of less lethal force by requiring all officers to carry Tasers (in addition
to guns) is still being debated. While overall percentages look good, a closer
look reveals critical, not cosmetic, exceptions.
There is one area where I believe
the Commission failed to deliver recommendations likely to lead to change. The
Commission was charged with reviewing the composition of the force and making
recommendations to improve its diversity. The force is a bastion of white males
in a diverse county. Women and minorities are grossly underrepresented, a
situation which has not improved in the last several years.
Whites make up only 63 % of the
county population, but 83 % of the force (only 1 in 8 of are women); blacks
make up 9 % of the population, but only about 7 % of the force; Latinos are 16 %
of the population, but are just under 5 % of the force; and Asian Americans
make up over 10% of the population, but only 4 % of the force.
The Commission’s subcommittee on
Recruitment and Diversity offered only two recommendations to improve
diversity:
1) establish a diversity goal for
each (of 8) commanders; and,
2) educate and train recruiting
and selecting officers about implicit bias.
That’s it, nothing more. The
supervisors adopted both verbatim, thus apparently deferring action toward a
force composition reflecting the community they serve. Perhaps the board’s
number one New Year’s resolution should be to formulate and implement some serious
affirmative action in the FCPD.
To see the Commission’s
recommendations and implementation progress to date, go to
www.fairfaxcountypolicecommission and scroll down to “progress report”.
Happy New Year to all!
John Lovaas
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