To the Fairfax County Community,
I wanted to take a moment to address the many questions I have received on the Fairfax County Police Department. As I mentioned on Monday, we are truly lucky to live in Fairfax County. This also speaks to our police, who are a well-trained workforce guided by a desire to always improve. Below, you will see details on some of the actions the County has taken to ensure all of our community members feel safe and welcome.
- All FCPD officers go through de-escalation, anti-bias, and use of force training.
- These measures were reviewed in 2015 by the County's Ad Hoc Police Practices and Review Commission.
- The 202 recommendations that came from this review can be found here.
- Knee holds and choke holds are not acceptable uses of force.
- The Board created the Police Civilian Review Panel and empowered it to review police investigations into allegations of "abuse of authority" or "serious misconduct".
- The Board also launched an Independent Police Auditor position who reviews certain police investigations into incidents involving the use of force or resulted in death or serious injury. They are currently working with a research partner to study racial disparities in use of force incidents.
Finally, as a reminder Fairfax County is led by One Fairfax, which requires that all policies be created with a lens of equity and an understanding on how it affects residents of all backgrounds.
See below for the full June 5 edition. For the resources mentioned in past newsletters, visit my website. If you have a friend who would like to sign up for this newsletter, they can do so here.