Policing Through Change: Officers
leaving the job fear prosecution, not reforms
Megan Cloherty | @ClohertyWTOP
Despite a largely peaceful
Inauguration Day, police officers remain anxious following the attack on the
U.S. Capitol, where rioters targeted officers. Threats to their safety are just
the latest concern in what has been a tumultuous year in policing.
Three of the four officers
interviewed for this series said they wouldn’t recommend being a police
officer, mostly due to the fear they have of being prosecuted for what happens
on the job.
Officers said that while part of
the career they chose requires them to willingly risk their personal safety,
they had felt a measure of protection in the support they got from their
department and elected leaders.
That support has now abated, they
agreed: The loss of administrative backing, coupled with what they perceive to
be an increased risk of prosecution, has some officers questioning whether the
risk they assume is too great.
“A lot of officers who are
eligible for retirement are just leaving. That’s 100% happening,” one officer
from a Maryland police department said.
In Fairfax County, an officer
with less than a decade with the department said he knows of colleagues with
only a few years of experience who are transferring to other roles so as not to
lose their time earned: “They’re kind of like: ‘I have nothing invested in this
to this point. I’m going to get out while I can and start something else that’s
easier.’ They don’t want to risk it.”
Some are transferring their
skills to become county firefighters. The last fire academy class “was made up
mostly of former police who were just doing a lateral over there,” the officer
said.
“We have no support,” said an
officer with more than a decade of experience who wanted to remain anonymous.
“We are more in fear of ourselves and our department and prosecution than we
are of the job, [of] a bad guy coming up and shooting or hurting us.”
For example, he said, he thought
twice during a recent domestic violence call about putting his arm up to stop a
woman from walking toward him out of fear he could be charged with assault.
“It’s just too risky … because
we’re being prosecuted left and right for doing our jobs. It’s just risk versus
reward. It’s high risk and like no reward,” the officer said.
He was so fearful of retaliation
he asked not only his name but the name of the department he works for be
withheld.
Area officers facing charges
In Anne Arundel County, two
officers were prosecuted in 2020. Only one of them, Jacob Miskill, was charged
with crimes while he was working; he was accused of stealing firearms from a
resident’s home. He’s facing felony burglary, theft and misconduct in office
charges.
In Fairfax County, officer Tyler
Timberlake was indicted on three counts of misdemeanor assault and battery for
his treatment of a man in custody. WTOP has reported Timberlake plans to sue
the department, chief and prosecutor over the charges.
Six Prince George’s County police
officers were indicted or charged with crimes in 2020, according to the
department, and two of them involved the use of force: Pvt. Bryant Strong for
assault and Cpl. Michael Owen for murder. (Also charged were Cpl. Tristan
Thigpen for child sex abuse, Cpl. Luis Aponte for a theft scheme, Cpl. Brian
Newcomer for attempted rape, and Cpl. Ivan Mendez for misconduct in office.)
‘They don’t want to risk it’
Meanwhile, police reforms are
going into effect in Virginia and will be taken up by lawmakers in Maryland
during the current legislative session.
Virginia lawmakers finalized the
sweeping criminal justice reform package during a 12-week special session last
year, while lawmakers in Maryland are set this year to consider a working
group’s approved recommendations.
In D.C., Council members made
more immediate changes to policing policies through an emergency order last
summer.
The reforms in Virginia, which go
into effect in March, include a ban on no-knock warrants, the establishment of
a statewide code of conduct for police, and a limit on the use of neck
restraints.
It’s not the reforms that have
Fairfax County police officers nervous, the officer from that county said: “I
can’t think of a circumstance where you’d be justified in choking someone,
basically; that’s not what you’re taught.”
Rather, it’s a perceived lack of
support from their department and county leaders — and the possibility of being
prosecuted — that is raising their anxiety.
“Nobody knows right now, because
of the situation with our chief, what’s going to happen if you fight with
somebody and there’s a bad outcome. They pull a knife and you pull a gun — are
you going to be charged with a crime? Are you going to end up in handcuffs?” he
said.
These questions linger, he added,
due to outgoing Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin Roessler’s decision to
publicly support charging Officer Tyler Timberlake for using a stun gun on an
unarmed Black man. Roessler called the officer’s use of force “unacceptable and
criminal.”
Roessler is retiring next month,
but the officer said his colleagues’ attitudes won’t change as long as Steve
Descano is serving as commonwealth’s attorney.
“There would still be a little
apprehension with the commonwealth’s attorney because he’s shown he’s very
anti-police. He’s basically trying to be the commonwealth’s attorney and the
legislative branch.”
Told of the anonymous officers’
opinion, Descano responded: “I’m committed to the call for change in our
criminal justice system that our community has been demanding, which means I’ll
always bring their values to the courthouse, regardless of the resistance I
encounter from those who may not share them.”
It is unclear whom the Board of
Supervisors will name to replace Roessler when he retires, but the officer said
he wants a chief who will represent officers’ interests.
Fairfax County is not the only
police department in the midst of a leadership change. Arlington County and
Prince George’s County are expected to name new chiefs of police this year.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser named Assistant Chief Robert Contee to succeed Peter
Newsham.