Restonreston 2015 ‘Blessed to Be a Part of It’ Graduations, Page 8
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Inside Graduations RestonReston 2015 ‘Blessed to Be a Part of It’ Graduations, Page 8 Classifieds, Page 14 Classifieds, ❖ Sports, Page 11 ❖ Entertainment, Page 12 ❖ Opinion, Page 6 Supervising The South Lakes Chorus Public Safety performed at graduation News, Page 3 at the Patriot Center, News, Page 3 Thursday, June 18. Reston Prepares For World Police and Fire Games News, Page 10 Photo by Ken Moore/The Connection online at www.connectionnewspapers.com www.ConnectionNewspapers.comJune 24-30, 2015 Reston Connection ❖ June 24-30, 2015 ❖ 1 2 ❖ Reston Connection ❖ June 24-30, 2015 www.ConnectionNewspapers.com News First meeting since 2011 includes Supervising Public Safety packed agenda, full house. By Mary Kimm duce the number of people with The Connection mental illness in jails. The new Community Services he Fairfax County Board facility, the Merrifield Center, Board of Supervisors was built to accommodate a 24- T Public Safety Commit- hour drop-off for people with men- tee, chaired by Gerry tal illness instead of having police Hyland (D-Mount Vernon), met on take them to jail, but more money Tuesday, June 9 for the first time and resources will be needed to since June 2011. Since then, there implement that, said, Tisha Deegah, have been six officer-involved executive director of the Fairfax- shootings in Fairfax County, includ- Falls Church Community Services ing the August 2013 shooting Board. death of John Geer. Police handling Cook pointed to an 80 percent re- of the communications and inves- cidivism rate for people with men- tigation of that shooting led to the tal illness who were incarcerated, formation in March 2015 of the Ad vs. a 20 percent rate with diversion Hoc Police Practices Review Com- to treatment, and the economic cost mission. associated with that. All 10 members of the Board of Hudgins expressed frustration Supervisors were in attendance, that the same goals were in place including Penny Gross, who ex- for mental health reform in 2007, cused herself after about 75 min- but the resources have not accom- utes saying: “I’m a little preoccu- panied the goals. “We actually sub- pied today,” to laughter. Gross (D- stituted the jail for mental health Mason) faced the first primary services,” she said. election challenge of her career, Rohrer said that the resource winning with 56 percent of the shortage wasn’t just on the part of vote over challenger Jessica county funding, but also state fund- Swanson. Presentation slide on body camera. ing and choices made by hospitals to close beds that could serve people POLICE BODY CAMERAS demands were so high,” Blakely said. Not Supervisors pressed Hershman to hold with mental illness in crisis. Many nights In a discussion of FCPD proposal to imple- all video would be subject to all the provi- additional public forums in other parts of every week, for example, officers are dis- ment body cameras for all patrol officers sions of FOIA, he said. the county, including Mount Vernon, Reston patched to deliver as far as Salem or Nor- Police Chief Edwin Roessler described cam- Roessler told the cautionary tale of the and Culmore. folk where a bed is available for treatment, eras as “another step to total accountabil- early days of dashboard cameras in patrol “This is a large county, this is a long-term tapping critical police resources, but also ity.” Cameras “capture officer’s actions cars which included VHS tapes, complicated issue,” said Cathy Hudgins (D-Hunter Mill). putting the person in crisis and that person’s whether they are good or bad … technol- chain of custody issues and a suspension of “I would like to know that we are going to family in greater difficulty, Rohrer said. ogy to hold ourselves accountable,” he said, the program while the technology matured. put it to bed as best we can with new poli- “This is for public trust and transparency,” “The moral to this is, ‘Nothing is simple,’” cies and procedures.” POLICE & FIRE GAMES opening ceremo- said Deputy County Executive David M. said Chairman Sharon Bulova. “This is com- Hershman responded: “Let me say this nies for the nearly 10,000 registered ath- Rohrer. plicated.” about putting this to bed once and for all ... letes from around the world, are about two But the draft policy and procedures ac- it’s healthy to review the state of policing weeks away, and organizers appeared be- companying Capt. Robert Blakely’s presen- POLICE COMMISSION every several years. It’s a never-ending pro- fore the committee with enthusiasm and a tation did not list transparency or account- Michael Hershman, chairman of the Ad cess.” small amount of trepidation. Opening cer- ability among the purposes of the body cam- Hoc Police Practices Review Commission Gross asked whether Hershman was emonies will be Friday, June 26, at RFK sta- eras. reported to the committee that the com- comfortable with diversity on the commis- dium, including lighting of a cauldron and Purposes listed included: to capture crimi- mission is undertaking a large scope of sion. a flyover. Tickets to the opening ceremo- nal events and provide evidence of those work in a short time frame, using five sub- “We weren’t satisfied with the diversity nies are free, available at http:// events in court; to document crime scenes; committees: Use of Force; Communica- … of the commission,” Hershman an- fairfax2015.com. to document victim, witness and suspect tions; Mental Health; Investigations and swered. “No, I’m not comfortable. But we Athlete’s Village, the social hub for the statements; to act as a deterrent for pur- Oversight; and Recruitment and Vetting. have worked very, very hard, and we’re not games, will be in Reston, with major ven- poses of officer safety; to reduce unreason- There are 35 members of the commission, stopping, at every turn we reach out.” ues around the county. able and/or false complaints against offic- plus an additional 25 members of subcom- John Cook (R-Braddock) cited recent sta- The public can attend any of the 1,600 ers; to provide training and “performance mittees. tistics indicating that at least 25 percent of medal events in more than 60 sports at more mechanism to ensure the professionalism In addition to reviewing internal policies people shot by police in the U.S. were than 50 venues for free, no tickets required. of all officers.” and data, the commission is looking at other people with mental illness: “I want to make See http://fairfax2015.com/schedule Cost estimates were $4 million for startup localities, reading independent reports, and sure that we are looking at that issue as a More than 5,800 volunteers have signed and acquisition with ongoing operating reviewing best practices. national phenomenon.” up to fill some of the 18,000 shifts, said Bill costs of $4 million a year. Estimating that “We’re trying to do a better job of being All meetings of the Police Commission Knight, executive director of Fairfax 2015. cameras could capture an hour of video for transparent and sharing information,” said and subcommittees are open to the public, There are more than 930 medical volun- each 8-hour shift for each officer, Blakely Bulova. and the documents and data gathered by teers. pointed to the need for massive data stor- “We have a commitment to finish and give the commission are available online. See Closing ceremonies will be at Wolf Trap, age of more than two petabytes of data you recommendations in October, and we http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/ Sunday, July 5. annually. That’s more than 20,000 will be doing that,” Hershman said. policecommission/ for schedule and mate- The committee also heard plans to de- terabytes. Costs include the addition of It’s a complex, emotional topic, and there rials. velop legislation on animal cruelty that eight-to-10 positions including a redaction are differences of opinion among members would include regulations on dog tether- specialist and three Freedom of Informa- of the commission, he said. But “the dis- CRISIS INTERVENTION/PEOPLE ing. Currently the county can enforce state tion clerks. And three “might not be agreements we’ve had have been very civil.” WITH MENTAL ILLNESS IN JAIL laws. enough,” Blakely said. “It’s very possible there will be majority The committee heard about police depart- Some jurisdictions “had to take action to findings and minority findings when we ment goals to train 100 percent of its offic- Disclosure: Mary Kimm is a member of block certain aspects of FOIA because the bring our report to you.” ers in crisis intervention, and efforts to re- the Ad Hoc Police Practices Commission. www.ConnectionNewspapers.com Reston Connection ❖ June 24-30, 2015 ❖ 3 Schools Wearing ‘Graduation Hats’ at Lake Anne Lake Anne Elementary has a sixth grade tradition of the students making up a “graduation hat” in their art rooms with the art teachers. On the last day of school, the sixth graders don their hats and walk the hall- ways of the school for one last time, while the staff and other students line the halls and give them a clapping ovation. Photo by Sue Gar Photo rison Lake Anne Tradition: Students vs. Teachers Volleyball Games For the past few years at Lake Anne Elementary, the teachers play the sixth graders in several games of volleyball to see who has the better players. This year was no exception as Lake Anne sixth grad- ers and their teachers along with other Lake Anne staff members ended the school year by playing volleyball while the rest of the student body and staff cheered them on. At last count the teachers were actually ahead by several points.