WP: Fairfax County Favors Independent Police Reviews Amid Concern Over Black Arrests
By Antonio Olivo and Justin Jouvenal July 19 at 8:55 PM
Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors on Tuesday signaled support for creating more civilian scrutiny of instances where officers use force, a day after a report revealed that African Americans in the county are disproportionately affected in such cases.
Proposals to create a civilian review panel for police abuse investigations and to hire an independent auditor in cases involving death or serious injury stem from recommendations made by a police advisory commission created in response to controversy over the 2013 fatal shooting of an unarmed Caucasian man.
However, tensions nationwide over how African Americans are treated by the police spilled into a Tuesday meeting about the proposals, which the county board will likely vote on in the fall.
“Black lives matter!” an activist shouted, while others held signs that referred to the report released this week that showed more than 40 percent of use-of-force cases in the county last year involved African Americans, who represent about 8 percent of Fairfax’s population of 1.1 million residents.
more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/fairfax-county-favors-independent-police-reviews-amid-concern-over-black-arrests/2016/07/19/19985158-4d42-11e6-aa14-e0c1087f7583_story.html?hpid=hp_local-news_fxpolice757pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
NOTE: I believe the report to which the article refers is here, but it doesn't open properly in my browser, so I am not certain.
