By Brian Trompeter
Fairfax County police have implemented numerous changes in recent years, but recent officer-involved shootings highlight the need for further improvements, members of the Police Reform Matrix Working Group said at the May 16 meeting of the Board of Supervisors’ Safety and Security Committee.
“Black and brown individuals are more likely to experience force,” said group member Dr. Vernon Walton, who is senior pastor at First Baptist Church of Vienna. “Disparity in arrests and population demographics is significant and can indicate a pattern of police behavior or racial profiling. A dramatic rise in police shootings over our 10-year average is cause for concern and warrants reflective conversation about the sanctity of all lives.”
In addition to Walton, the working group consists of convenor Phillip Niedzielski-Eichner, Diane Burkley Alejandro, Sadaf Atashbarghi-Nehr, Dirck Hargraves, Prince Howard, Mary Kimm, Jennifer Lockwood-Shabat, Adrian Steel and Eric Ubias. Ex officio members include Fairfax County police Deputy Chief Eli Cory and Capt. Robert Hines, Steven Richardson of the Office of Civilian Review Panel and Independent Police Auditor Richard Schott.
The group used four criteria for its recommendations: Do they stem from evidence, provide direction that can be acted upon by supervisors or the police chief, have potential for significant positive impact and comport with national best practices? Recommendations included:
• Rethinking policing: The group recommended police shift non-safety-related responsibilities to clinical and social-service professionals in instances involving mental health, substance abuse, behavioral disorders and homelessness; fully expand Diversion First and co-responder programs (bringing counselors to incidents); and be open to other models of policing.
“Historically, police have, largely by default, been tasked with being the first responders when behavioral-health crises arise,” Niedzielski-Eichner said. “This unduly burdens police officers, pushes them to perform tasks for which they are not professionally trained and unfairly criminalizes the affected population.”
• Use-of-force policy and accountability: The plan stated police should find an alternative to the “objective reasonableness” standard for police use of force, report and document weapons pointing as uses of force, and assess and strengthen implementation the department’s use-of-force policy.
The group also recommends that county police, with community participation, implement a foot-pursuit policy within 30 to 45 days, Walton said.
• Independent oversight: The plan calls for giving investigative authority to the Fairfax Civilian Review Panel and independent police auditor and having them draft a coordinated plan.
• Police-officer excellence: The plan recommends county police recruit and retain high-quality, well-trained, resilient officers who reflect the county’s population. County police also should monitor the department’s operating culture, “including attitudes about work, leadership, training and equipment, along with any perceived barriers to officer performance, consistent with the departments values and policies,” Niedzielski-Eichner said.
• Community engagement and participation: Police-reform efforts should build on the county’s One Fairfax equity policy and have robust community involvement, including customer-service audits with community members who have just interacted with police officers. Those audits would be reviewed a community advisory group and published annually.
“Community partnerships are vital to build our success,” Walton said. “Engagement is how we build trust. People love to feel heard and there’s a tremendous sense that many voices are not being heard.”
• Transparency, data reporting and data analysis: While county police provide helpful data “dashboards,” these discourage year-over-year comparisons, lack standardized formats and rarely include measures of disparate treatment among classes of community members, Niedzielski-Eichner said.
The panel urged police leadership not to offer premature judgments or information about incidents that would seem to exonerate officers or implicate persons of interest because of their previous history of involvement with law enforcement.
• Specialized police units: There are 34 such units and the plan recommended that the county evaluate their value, impact and practices, especially regarding disparate impact on people of color.
• Monitoring and evaluating program progress: The plan recommends evaluating police policies on whether they achieve better policing, accomplish their purpose and use their resources well.
The group conducted its work during two simultaneous national crises, the pandemic and racial unrest following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Walton said. In the wake of resulting protests, the public and advocacy groups looked closely at police reform, including use-of-force policies, he said.
An erosion of trust harms communities, said Walton, who said the names of Jasper Aaron Lynch and Timothy McCree Johnson – unarmed people fatally shot by county police after, respectively, charging officers during a mental-health-related domestic incident in McLean and fleeing police after allegedly shoplifting in Tysons – should propel people to “greater reflection, rigorous reform, practical policy and a more caring community,” he said.
“There’s a lot to chew on here,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay (D) said of the report. “I think the work and the product is outstanding.”
Supervisor Penelope Gross (D-Mason) said she did not want officers second-guessing themselves in emergency situations.
Police reform is “complex and fraught with emotion,” said Supervisor Walter Alcorn (D-Hunter Mill), but the county’s recent spate of officer-involved shootings is “not acceptable.”
Supervisor Patrick Herrity (R-Springfield) favored some of the training proposals, but hoped there would be wider community input before the county delivered the report to the police department.
“This report does not indicate, by any stretch of the imagination, that we do not have confidence in our officers,” Walton said. “We are grateful for our officers and think that every officer who serves should be applauded [and] every officer deserves the right to go home.”
