The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will take up a complaint long brewing in the community that the police department operates without sufficient oversight. Numerous incidents throughout the past decade have cast question upon the Fairfax police, said Ronald Koch, president of the Virginia Citzens Coalition for Police Accountability.
In February 2008, for example, an officer raced through a red light without her sirens on, hitting and killing a county teacher’s aid. The officer later resigned, but not because of the incident. The county awarded the victim’s family $1.5 million.
In 2006, an unarmed eye doctor suspected of illegal gambling was shot and killed outside of his home during a police raid. The county prosecutor did not press charges against the officer who fired the shot, but the county later awarded the victim’s family $2 million.
“We support the police — God knows they have a very difficult and at times very dangerous job,” Koch said. “But when you go through all of the cases, too many people are being killed with no results.”
Koch’s organization will push for a citizen review board before the Board of Supervisor’s Public Safety Committee. The citizens board would oversee complaints against the police department and investigate misconduct. Currently, allegations of police misconduct are handled internally — a case of the “police policing the police,” Koch said.
Instead of a citizens board, Fairfax County Executive Anthony Griffin has proposed adding a police oversight and review function to the county auditor’s office.
Fairfax spokeswoman Merni Fitzgerald said the move would allow for an independent look at alleged police misconduct without the added expense of a new advisory body, and “without interfering with the rights of police officers.”
Supervisors have been sympathetic to the need for an investigative arm outside of the authority of the county executive, Koch said.
Like Fairfax, neighboring Montgomery County handles complaints of police misconduct internally. Prince George’s County and Washington, D.C., both have independent bodies to look into allegations.
“Fairfax is notable because it’s such a large jurisdiction without any citizen oversight,” said Philip Eure, executive director of the District’s Office of Police Complaints and past president of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement.
“It’s good that they’re looking at different options — but they’ve been dragged kicking and screaming,” Eure said.
