Petition seeks recall of new police chief Kevin Davis

Police Chief Kevin Davis

More than 1,000 people have signed a petition seeking the recall of Police Chief Kevin Davis, citing his past history in the use of force incidents and other misconduct during his career in policing. 

Davis was sworn in as head of the Fairfax County Police Department on April 23

The petition was initiated by Kelly Hebron, chair of the Fairfax Democratic Black Caucus, and is directed to Board of Supervisors Chair Jeff McKay and supervisors Penny Gross (Mason) and Rodney Lusk (Lee). The Fairfax County Democratic Committee has neither voted on nor issued a resolution on the petition. 

The petition notes that when the BoS hired a police chief in 2013, it used a community screening panel as part of the selection process. In 2021, when the board selected Davis, it did not use such a panel and instead entered into a non-disclosure agreement with one or more candidates. 

The petition lists a series of news accounts and court documents that cast doubt on Davis as an effective leader of the FCPD and should have disqualified him:

• In 1993, Davis attacked Mark Spann, an African American White House intern, in the driveway of his home, slamming his face to the ground while using racist slurs, and epithets. Spann, who was bleeding from the head after the encounter, won a judgment against Davis for $12,500. 

Related story: Public engagement, transparency lacking in selection of new police chief, NAACP charges

• In 1999, Davis was one of six narcotics officers who kidnapped Brian Romjue, the boyfriend of the niece of the deputy chief, and held Romjue, without a warrant, for more than five hours. Davis slammed Romjue’s head against a window repeatedly. Romjue sued and won a judgment for $69,000 plus punitive damages of $5,250. 

• In August 2016, it was discovered that Davis authorized a private company to conduct secret drone surveillance of the people of the City of Baltimore. The program was only halted when it was discovered by citizens. 

• In November 2017, after the death of an African American Baltimore detective who was killed by a bullet from his own service weapon on the day before he was to testify to a federal grand jury regarding corruption in the Baltimore police force, Davis imposed a lock-down on a six-block area of the Harlem Park neighborhood of West Baltimore. Residents of the lockdown were required to show identification proving they lived in the area to enter the six-block cordon. Area residents were subject to pat-downs without probable cause. Their homes were subject to non-consensual searches without search warrants, and non-residents were barred from entering the area. This lockdown went on for six days. 

• In 2018, Davis discussed his outdated views of the juvenile justice system and advocated for stricter sentencing of juveniles. 

• In July 2020, mere weeks after the murder of George Floyd and during the Trump Administration, Davis published an op-ed in the Baltimore Sun calling for a national secretary of police, the elimination of union due process protections for officers under investigation for wrongful acts, and the elimination of U.S. Department of Justice consent decrees that are only entered into when DOJ finds a pattern and practice of abuses within a police agency. 

• In a July 2020 interview on Baltimore public radio, Davis used the white supremacist “dog whistle” phrases “silent majority” and “cancel culture” and denigrated the proposals of civilian police reform advocates.

The petition notes that when given the opportunity to address these concerns on May 6, Davis did not provide specific explanations for his prior words and actions nor explained whether Fairfax County residents, especially people of color, can expect to experience these kinds of police practices in the future. View a video of the community input session here. 

According to the petition, these incidents demonstrate that “Kevin Davis is not an appropriate leader to build community trust among Fairfax’s citizens, especially its communities of color, or implement the reforms necessary to change the Fairfax County Police Department to meet the expectations of all Fairfax citizens in 2021 and beyond.”

The Fairfax County Democratic Black Caucus calls upon the Board of Supervisors to reopen the search for a new police chief and implement a screening committee comparable to the one used in 2013.