• By NED OLIVER /
Virginia Mercury
The white state trooper
leaned into the Black driver’s car. “You are going to get your ass whooped,” he
said before pulling the man from the car.
Virginia State Police Superintendent Gary Settle offered a swift
condemnation of the behavior when video of the incident in Fairfax County was
released earlier this month, promising a criminal investigation.
But otherwise, the state police department has refused to
release details about the trooper, Charles Hewitt, seen in the footage of the
2019 arrest, declining to say whether he has faced other complaints in the past
or to provide reports detailing them.
In many states, such information would be a matter of public
record, including Minnesota, where Minneapolis police quickly disclosed that
the officer filmed kneeling on George Floyd’s neck had been the subject of 18
prior complaints, two of which resulted in discipline.
Virginia, however, is one of 23 states in which records of
police misconduct are effectively confidential, according to a nationwide
review by WNYC.
Under Virginia public records laws, police agencies can choose
to release records detailing complaints. But in practice, they almost never do.
Even prosecutors have said they struggle to obtain personnel records from
departments when officers face investigations or allegations of misconduct.
It’s not just police misbehavior that Virginia law shields from
public view. Basic information about how officers use force on a day-to-day
basis is hard to come by in the state. Only 15 percent of the state’s law
enforcement agencies participate in the FBI’s voluntary use-of-force reporting
program. And in a survey of the state’s 10 largest cities and counties, only
one police department provided use-of-force reports requested by the Virginia
Mercury under state open records laws.
Facing questions last week from lawmakers about how troopers are
held accountable following complaints, Settle detailed a multi-layered internal
review process — variations of which are employed in police departments around
the state.
But some lawmakers wondered how those measures square with
videos they see of officers brazenly using excessive force or otherwise
violating department standards, most recently in the case of Trooper Hewitt.
“Some of the officers look so confident in wrongdoing, it’s as
though they know that there will be no repercussions,” Del. Don Scott,
D-Portsmouth, told Settle. “It looks like the policy and procedure is enough to
get rid of folks like that, but nobody does anything about it. … It looks like
no one is enforcing it.”
‘Watch the show folks’
In addition to threatening an “ass whooping,” Hewitt is seen
describing himself as “a f—ing specimen,” turning to the camera Derrick
Thompson was using to film the interaction and saying, “Watch the show, folks.”
He then forcefully pulled Thompson, who had been pulled over for an expired
inspection sticker, from the car. Officers said they smelled marijuana in the car
but found none.
Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller issued a
blanket denial when asked for information about or copies of complaints Hewitt
has faced in the past. Geller cited three exemptions in Virginia’s public
records laws that she said allowed them to withhold information about Hewitt,
saying the department considers them investigative files, personnel records and
records of background investigations.
“The department has considered your request,” she wrote, “and
opted to exercise its statutory discretion … not to release the documents.”
The decision is not exactly surprising. Police in Virginia
rarely choose to release such information. Sometimes, information about police
misconduct stays under wraps even when prosecutors pursue criminal charges
against officers.
This month, Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Collette McEachin
acknowledged that her office and the police department had not been publicly
announcing when grand juries handed down indictments for criminal misconduct
against officers.
She said that would change going forward, but then refused to
provide the name of a city police officer who was recently indicted and is
scheduled to be tried next month, meaning for the public to find out about the
case, they would have to cross-reference hundreds of court records with a
roster of the local police department’s more than 700 officers — a list of
names that is not readily available.
“You’re welcome to find it,” McEachin told reporters. “The
officer's name is not hidden, it’s on the public indictment. … Literally, it’s
in this courthouse.”
In response to questions from the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the
Richmond Police Department subsequently identified the officer as Lance
Falkena, who is charged with misdemeanor assault and battery.
In other jurisdictions, some commonwealth’s attorneys have
lamented that not even they can get records of police misconduct from their
local departments. Members of the newly formed Progressive Prosecutors for
Justice are backing legislation that would grant them unrestricted access to
police reports and disciplinary records.
“One of the things we do not get access to is personnel issues
such as complaints for use of force or integrity issues,” said Hampton
Commonwealth’s Attorney Anton Bell. “As the chief law enforcement officer, we
want to be preventative instead of being in a position where we have to respond
only after something bad has happened to our communities.”
Use-of-force data often shielded
Residents in some localities have pushed for more transparency
not just in misconduct complaints, but how police are using force on a daily
basis.
In Norfolk last month, protesters staged a six-day sit-in
outside City Hall to demand the city begin releasing reports detailing
incidents in which officers shoot, tase, wrestle or otherwise lay hands on
someone in the line of duty.