Working group recommends police reforms
A Fairfax County police reform working group calls for more transparency, oversight, and integration with mental health professionals, among other recommendations.
Lee District Supervisor Rodney Lusk, chair of the Board of Supervisors’ Safety and Security Committee, convened the Police Reform Matrix Working Group in February to review a compendium of more than 300 police reform proposals. Those proposals had been submitted by community members in 2020 and were organized into a sprawling spreadsheet, known as the “matrix.”
The Matrix Working Group was tasked with reorganizing the recommendations in the matrix into a more actionable set of policy and program initiatives and proposing specific deadlines. It submitted its report to Lusk earlier this month.
The group streamlined the recommendations and organized them under eight topics. Here are some highlights:
Rethinking policing
- Expand the number of co-responder teams that include clinical and social service professionals along with police officers to address low-level crimes associated with mental health, substance use, behavioral disorders, and homelessness.
- Significantly expand the use of a “behavioral health first” approach for low-level offenses in the Diversion First program. Behavioral health personnel should have primary responsibility for the initial contact and transport for people who are intoxicated, mentally ill, disoriented, or otherwise in a behavioral health crisis. Police backup should be available upon request.
- Increase the number of clinical and support staff and treatment beds.
Use of force policy and accountability
- The Fairfax County Police Department should implement in full all of the recommendations by the Use of Force Community Advisory Committee or explain to the Board of Supervisors and the public why a recommendation should be revised or not implemented.
- Fairfax County should pursue legislation to allow police departments to adopt standards on the use of force that are more stringent than those underlying constitutional case law. For example, pointing a gun should be considered a reportable use of force.
- Set or improve standards for the use of chokeholds, strip searches, prone restraints, and similar practices.
- Adopt a foot pursuit policy with community input.
The report notes there were six police shootings in 2022 and two already this year. That compares to just 15 in the previous 10 years.
Independent oversight
- Strengthen the role of the Civilian Review Panel (CRP), and the Independent Police Auditor (IPA) by giving them the full authority allowed under state law.
- The CRP and IPA should develop coordinated plans with community input identifying the circumstances in which they would monitor FCPD investigations or conduct independent ones.
- The CRP would be required to review all FCPD administrative investigations involving allegations of bias or profiling.
Police officer excellence
- Ensure the FCPD is competitive in salary and benefits compared to surrounding jurisdictions.
- Provide incentives to officers for positive actions involving a demonstrated commitment to the duty to intervene, the use of de-escalation tactics, community partnerships and engagement, and crisis intervention skills and training.
- Prepare first responders for high-stress environments and provide mental health resources to help officers develop resiliency and overcome burnout and compassion fatigue.
- Assess the effectiveness of the early intervention system in identifying officers at risk of using excessive force.
Community engagement and participation
- Implement a comprehensive plan for strengthening police officers’ relationships with the community they serve.
- Establish a public protocol for regular community participation, including listening sessions and a community advisory group.
Transparency, data reporting, and data analysis
- Provide public access to demographic data through an online searchable database and annual reports for all key police actions, such as traffic stops, searches, warnings, summons, and use of force.
- For each use of force incident, provide detailed accounts of all interactions between civilians and officers in the order in which they occurred.
- Make public a summary of officer misconduct complaints.
Specialized police units
- Evaluate the roles and responsibilities of each of the 34 specialized police units in the FCPD and report annually on the demographic and disparity data on each unit.
- Limit the role of school resource officers to criminal investigations to serious violent offenses.
One of the FCPD’s specialized units is the Tysons Urban Team. A Black shoplifter was fatally shot by a member of that team in February.
Monitoring and evaluating program progress
- The county executive should report annually on the FCPD’s implementation of recommendations, policies, and practices.
The Matrix Working Group was facilitated by Phillip Neidzielski-Eichner, who chaired the Use of Force Subcommittee of the 2015 Ad Hoc Police Practices Review Commission and co-drafted the 2022 Use of Force Community Advisory Committee report. He currently serves on the Planning Commission.
The recommendations from the community in the matrix were requested in 2020 during a period of national and local outrage following the murder of George Floyd, a Black man by a White Minneapolis police officer.
10 responses to “Working group recommends police reforms”
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This is all woke newspeak. As my MIT friend told me three years ago, we are doomed. Occam’s Razor, people. You’re not a racist or a bad person for recognizing the obvious and preparing accordingly. My MPO FFX deputy friend told me this week he is quitting after 20+ years serving the county. Good luck and Godspeed.
L O L
I like how now they are saying rethinking instead of “reimagining”
Reimagining was kitschy in 2015. Our local nerds have just figured out it’s played out. Nice to see them catch up. In 8-10 years they will realize they should have just supported our police as they professionally enforce the laws our legislature enacted.
Phillip Neidzielski-Eichner has held several bloated bureaucratic government positions, yet from what I can tell, has no tactical background whatsoever. Use/escalation of force requires at least an elemental understanding of tactics, defense, and hand to hand combat. What on earth qualifies him for his role? I see nothing in his background. And no, no one is impressed with a counter terrorism desk job. Or if they are, in this context, I question their credentials to effectively and pragmatically serve on such a board. Yes, a board takes all types, but there is a severe lack of representation of the type above, across this country. It’s a huge problem, and skyrocketing crime and police numbers and morale prove it.
I have an earth-shattering idea. Instead of blaming cops, how about we take a fraction of the money and attention and focus it on people committing the crimes? Make consequences consequential again. That would be miraculous.
This is 100% accurate
It’s ironic how the actions of a few rogue police officers mean that all police are not to be trusted. If we took that logic and applied it to ethnic groups, that would be completely unacceptable. Yet the latter is the basis for the former. The height of illogic and hypocrisy.
These recommendations are the biggest load of codswallop I have ever seen. It is a disgrace that our tax dollars are being spent to come up with stuff.
Demographics – because the assumption baked in to all these garbage studies is the cops unfairly target certain groups. Give me a flipping break!! Could it possibly be, that for whatever reason, certain groups commit more crime than others? I wonder if this “board” would even consider that? Of course not. Complete and utter farce. I’ll pay for the Board members plane tickets to California so they can be with their elite friends. Stop destroying this once wonderful area with your horrendous policies.
Well color me stunned that a working group established by Fairfax County leaders on police would not say, “Gee, everything looks good.” Instead they come up with the same “recommendations” that are ruining big city law enforcement. There are always ways to improve everything, including policing, but we seem to have gone overboard in blaming them.
I’m shocked. People who chafe at any mention of police oversight by any political body think these modest proposals are a waste. But of course they have to be modest, because anything more than a gentle study is way too traumatic.
Happy to tell teachers how to teach, or tell doctors what they can and can’t do, or tell people how to dress and who to love, but any mention of telling the police how to do their job is borderline high treason.
Here’s an idea, how about really supporting the police? Instead of claiming to support the police while dismissing every other social service as unnecessary and asking the cops to just push their boots harder into the necks of anyone who they come across, you actually support the police by not asking them to simultaneously be babysitters, counselors, private security, neighborhood watch, and all of their actual job responsibilities?
You jerkoffs shout down the idea of sending mental health professionals out with the cops, but if the same professionals were wearing swat gear and given the title of police you’d be clamoring for an autograph.