Awaiting Advice
Long-awaited recommendation on citizen review board for police expected this month.
By Michael Lee Pope
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Advocates for a citizen review board to the Fairfax County Police Department have been waiting more than a year for some kind of action on their request. Now, finally, their day has arrived. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll get the answer they asked for or what they want.
Later this month, County Executive Anthony Griffin will present his recommendation to the Board of Supervisors. His presentation will include a series of options Police Chief David Rohr forwarded to the county executive last week, although county and police officials have declined to share any details from the secret memorandum.
"The conversations I’ve had with the county executive seem to indicate that he is going to recommend some kind of review process," said Mount Vernon Supervisor Gerry Hyland. "I think in all likelihood we will come out of this with some kind of process to handle the issues that have been raised."
The push for a citizen review board to the police department began in February 2010, shortly after Fairfax County Police Officer David Ziants shot and killed an unarmed driver on Richmond Highway. Police officials failed to release the incident report or the dashboard video footage of the incident, even when the information was requested in a Virginia Freedom of Information Act request. That led retired D.C. detective Nicholas Beltrante to begin advocating for a citizen-led review board that would be able to investigate complaints against the police.
"Citizens should have the opportunity to investigate these matters," Beltrante said in a March 2010 interview. "But the way things work now, the process is biased in favor of the police and citizens don’t have any input."
THE MOVEMENT WAS SLOW to catch on, and it received some early resistance. When Beltrante approached the Public Safety Committee of the Mount Vernon Council of Citizens’ Associations, the panel declined to even consider the issues. And Hyland interpreted the lack of interest among members of the council as an indication that the effort had scant community support.
"We’ve already got a lot of commissions, and most of them just end up making paper," said Dallas Shawkey, chairman of the Public Safety Committee of the Mount Vernon Council of Citizens’ Associations. "If someone feels they’ve been wronged, they can file a civil complaint."
But Beltrante was not alone. In May, he and others who were concerned about a lack of oversight at the Fairfax County Police Department formed the Citizens Coalition for Police Accountability. Central to the mission of the coalition was the effort to advocate for a citizen review board, a concept which has been endorsed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP and the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement.
"The problem is that there’s a lot of police misconduct in Fairfax County," said Shirley Stewart, a member of the Fairfax NAACP. "And it’s getting swept under the rug."
IN A CLOSED EXECUTIVE session last year on May 25, members of the Board of Supervisors discussed the issue with Chief Rohrer. According to Chairwoman Sharon Bulova, the meeting concluded with the chief agreeing to consider a process for community discussion on how such a review mechanism might be structured. The chief promised to return with some models and strategies as well as a timeline for engaging the community.
"I think it would be helpful to assure ourselves and either confirm that the right decision was made or to be able to go back and correct something that may not have gone as well as it should have," Bulova said in October.
Since that time, it’s been a waiting game. Supporters of the citizen review board have been eagerly anticipating the police chief’s recommendation. In December, police officials decided they would not be making a public recommendation. Instead, the chief of police would make a secret report to the county executive, who would then make a final recommendation to members of the Board of Supervisors.
"The Police Department is just one of many stakeholders in this issue and the recommendation will come from the county, not the police chief," said police spokeswoman Mary Ann Jennings in a December e-mail. "That will happen after all the discussions and considerations are complete."
NOW, AFTER MORE than a year of waiting, the county is finally ready to move forward with a recommendation. But it’s unclear what kind of research has been conducted by county officials in advance of the March 29 meeting. For example, leaders of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement say they have never been contacted by anyone from the police department or county government.
"Maybe they are getting solid advice from people outside the citizen oversight world," said Phillip Eure, immediate past president of the association. "It’s not at all clear to me that Fairfax County officials have consulted with the people who are most knowledgeable about police review boards, although we remain ready, willing and able to help them at any time."
