Tag: Albemarle police

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In brief: Kaine on Iran, police withdraw cameras, speaking in CODE

Senator Tim Kaine speaks at Batten about US-Iran relations. Photo: Sanjay Suchak

Kaine argues for peace

War with Iran may well be on the horizon—but U.S. Senator Tim Kaine has a few objections. He spoke about his new war powers resolution and his hopes for a return to diplomacy during an event at UVA’s Batten School of Public Policy on January 17.

Kaine has recently managed to drum up bipartisan support for a resolution that would limit the president’s powers of war and put more responsibility back in the hands of Congress. The resolution will almost certainly be vetoed by President Trump, but Kaine argued that on some level the veto is beside the point. “Congress should do whatever we’re supposed to do, [regardless of] what the president does,” the Virginia Democrat said. 

Trump’s decision to walk away from the United States’ nuclear deal with Iran was “one of the worst decisions” the country has ever made, according to Kaine. “If you abandon diplomacy, you make war more likely.”

“We won the Iraq war, and yet looking back at it, most people say it was a catastrophic mistake,” said the senator, who serves on the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees.

Kaine delivered his remarks in his usual wonky, earnest style, invoking everything from Thomas Jefferson’s interactions with Barbary pirates to his own experience as a lawmaker with a child in the military. Ultimately, however, he made his opposition to war with Iran clear. “There is not a war scenario with Iran that is a simple, easy mission accomplished,” Kaine said. “There’s just not.”

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Quote of the Week

“Twelve handguns a year is more than enough, for most citizens. If you need more than that, go to Texas. They don’t have any laws.”

­—State Senator Dick Saslaw, speaking in favor of Virginia’s proposed one-handgun-a-month law earlier this week

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In Brief

A police camera hanging on a telephone pole near Westhaven.

Caught on cameras

C-VILLE reported last week that the city had installed four surveillance cameras near Westhaven and Prospect, two majority black public housing neighborhoods in town. Since the article was published, the police have removed those cameras just as quietly as they hung them up. When asked why the cameras were taken down, police department spokesman Tyler Hawn said any questions about the cameras should be referred to city spokesman Brian Wheeler. Wheeler has not yet responded to requests for comment. 

Bias unmasked

Only one arrest was made at Monday’s massive pro-gun demonstration at the state Capitol: Mikaela Beschler, a 21-year-old Richmond woman, was arrested for covering her face with a bandana. It’s a felony to wear a mask in Virginia, but many gun-toting protestors had also covered their faces. “It’s become abundantly clear that the mask ban, which was intended to combat the Klan, is now only enforced against anti-racist activists,” tweeted Delegate Lee Carter.

Speaking in CODE

Construction is chugging along on the gigantic CODE Building, the office and retail space coming to the west end of the Downtown Mall in 2021. At a press conference last week, organizers promised that the building will emphasize “entrepreneurial spirit and innovative ideas” as well as “the principles of wellness and sustainability,” foster “unplanned interdisciplinary cross-pollination;” and have spaces where people can “maybe do a webinar, film it, blast it out.” 

Don’t Byers it

Albemarle County Police Department sent out a warning this week about a telephone scam: A mysterious caller has been ringing up locals, identifying himself as Captain Darrell Byers, and telling the marks they have an arrest warrant on their head that can be resolved by wiring money. Don’t fall for it. The local police aren’t perfect, but we’re pretty sure they’re not that corrupt.

 

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False imprisonment: County settles lawsuit against five cops

Benjamin Burruss sits in the same truck he was in in 2013 when Albemarle police held him for two hours until a SWAT team exploded a flash grenade and broke his window. staff photo

Benjamin Burruss sat in his car in the Comfort Inn parking lot surrounded by Albemarle police. His employer had asked police to check on him when he didn’t show up for work. Burruss told the officers he did not intend to harm himself or anyone else, and the 12-gauge shotgun in his backseat was for a hunting trip.

For two hours, police refused to let him leave, then deployed a stinger—a strip that shreds tires—under his rear wheels, threw a flash bomb, smashed his car windows, dragged him out, and took him to the hospital for a 72-hour mental health hold.

Five years after the November 21, 2013, standoff that Burruss, 61, said left him with PTSD, the county and five police officers settled his lawsuit against them for an undisclosed amount.

“Hopefully this case results in the police not using emergency custody orders to detain people who are not mentally ill, have not committed any crime, and just want to be left alone,” says Burruss in a release.

Burruss says he’d missed a few days of work at Northrop Grumman, where he held a security clearance, because he was adjusting to a new medication for depression, and he was staying at the motel on Pantops because of some marital issues.

When surrounded by what he estimated to be a dozen cops, he refused to get out of his car and said he didn’t want to talk to them and wanted to leave. Officer Garnett “Chip” Riley at one point said, “We got nothin’,” and, “I got no reason to hold him,” according to the complaint.

But rather than release him, Officer Jatana Rigsby called Burruss’ wife and asked her to obtain an emergency custody order, alleging he was “acting irrationally,” according to court documents.

County cops Riley, Rigsby, Kanie Richardson, Robert Warfel, and Captain Pete Mainzer were defendants in Burruss’ lawsuit, along with Albemarle County. The suit was filed in federal court for unlawful seizure, false imprisonment, and battery.

In April 2016, Judge Glen Conrad gave the officers and the county qualified immunity for their actions after the emergency custody order was issued, but questioned holding Burruss for over an hour beforehand when they were aware they didn’t have probable cause to prevent him from leaving. The case had been scheduled for a four-day jury trial October 16.

Burruss was represented by the Rutherford Institute and Michael Winget-Hernandez. Rutherford founder John Whitehead describes the settlement as “favorable to us but we can’t give details.”

He blames the incident on police militarization and overuse of SWAT tactics in a situation that could have been handled non-confrontationally. “Obviously the police went too far,” he says. “They smashed his window and put him in a mental health facility.”

Whitehead says he hopes the settlement says to police in future similar situations, “slow down.”

When asked about the settlement and whether it would affect future police actions in similar situations, Albemarle County spokesperson Emily Kilroy says, “The orders that were entered by the court are a dismissal as to the county and as to the individual defendants. There is no further comment.”—

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In brief: Crime rates, questionable conduct and more

A matter of crime

“We’re safer than Charlottesville.”

Okay, we made up that quote. The crime rate for both Albemarle and Charlottesville is low, but according to the county police’s most recent report, Albemarle’s went down last year, while the city’s went up.

Albemarle arrests by race

The county is facing a lawsuit that claims an officer targeted blacks. While the majority of arrests—like the majority of the population—are white, you’re still more likely to get arrested if you’re black. Charlottesville’s similar annual report offers no data on arrests by race.

albemarle arrests race

—Albemarle County Police, Albemarle County

Desegregation plaintiff

JuliaMartin-Fariello
Julia Martin in 2004. Photo Jen Fariello

Julia Martin, a member of one of the 12 local families that sued the Charlottesville School Board to admit black children to white schools, died June 24 at 93. A judge’s ruling in the plaintiffs’ favor led to massive resistance in 1958, when the city shut down Venable Elementary and Lane High School rather than integrate. Her sons were two of the first three black students to attend Lane in 1959.

Murder-suicide

Jordan Cavanaugh-Jackson, 26, was found fatally shot around 4am June 25 on Creels Road in Barboursville. Police pursued his brother, 21-year-old Christian Cavanaugh, on Stony Point Road, where he crashed. Police say he died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

96th Klanniversary

June 28 marks the inaugural cross burning by the local Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in 1921 at Jefferson’s tomb at Monticello, a part of local history not usually celebrated. The event was reported by the Daily Progress, which noted that “hundreds of Charlottesville’s leading business and professional men” attended the midnight rites. That same year, the Knights also donated $1,000 to UVA.

“Armageddon begins the day Anthony Kennedy steps down. It’ll be biblical. My sources: Two Corinthians.”—UVA Center for Politics’ Larry Sabato

Potential trainwreck

If the current proposed federal budget is approved, two-thirds of the trains that currently serve the local Amtrak station could be cut, according to protesters with CvilleRail, who gathered at the station June 23. They say the Cardinal and Crescent trains, which run from New York City to Chicago and New York City to New Orleans, respectively, will no longer run through Charlottesville.

Blue balls

A heavyset and bearded white man between the ages of 40 and 60 was allegedly seen watching young girls at an Orange County camp near Route 20 and Zoar Road June 22. Authorities, who are asking for help identifying him, said he drives a dark-blue SUV with blue letters across the back window that spell out “BLUE BALLS.”

Make room

Projections recently released by UVA’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service show that Virginia is expected to become the 10th largest state by 2040. (It’s currently ranked at No. 12, according to 2010 census data.) Albemarle’s population will rise from the 2015 U.S. Census estimation of 103,108 to 141,221 in that time, and while the county is projected to remain as white as ever, you may be surprised to learn the second-largest ethnic group by then could be Hispanic.

Total population

2040: 141,221

2015 (estimate U.S. Census): 103,108

White

2015: 87,007

2040: 72,231

Percent change:

-17%

Hispanic

2015: 5,851

2040: 39,454

Percent change:

574%

Asian

2015: 6,110

2040: 17,802

Percent change:

191%

Black

2015: 11,097

2040: 8,016

Percent change:

-28%

Other

2015: 2,404

2040: 3,718

Percent change:

54%

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‘Outrageous’ search: County argues to drop lawsuit against cop

Attorney Jeff Fogel says he received 13 phone calls from African-Americans who said they had been targeted by Albemarle police officer Andrew Holmes. Staff photo

A federal judge heard Albemarle County’s motion to dismiss three lawsuits that allege Albemarle police officer Andrew Holmes targeted African-American males for unreasonable searches.

At the June 20 hearing, Judge Glen Conrad focused on the suit brought by Bianca Johnson and Delmar Canada for a midnight search of their home in 2014 after Holmes ticketed Canada for driving with a suspended license. Holmes obtained a search warrant with an affidavit that claimed, “based on my training and experience I am aware that individuals keep, store and maintain motor vehicle documentation and suspension notification forms in their possessions, residence, surrounding curtilage and inside of vehicles.”

“That’s preposterous,” said the plaintiffs’ attorney Jeff Fogel, who said Holmes already had enough to convict Canada without the notification from the Department of Motor Vehicles and that there’s no training for finding where people keep documents. “He knew the license was suspended. He had the information he needed. He didn’t need to go there.”

Albemarle’s attorney Bret Marfut argued that Holmes had qualified immunity as well as probable cause for the search, which was backed up by the magistrate issuing a search warrant.

What if the search was “outrageous,” asked Judge Conrad, particularly because it happened at night and the plaintiffs’ home was searched for a “meaningless document”?

Conrad also suggested that if the search was motivated by racial bias, that would make Holmes’ claim of qualified immunity “suspect.”

AndrewHolmes2_HawesSpencer
Officer Andrew Holmes in 2011 after being convicted of improper driving. Photo Hawes Spencer

Marfut said Holmes’ actions were supported by a warrant that a magistrate issued independently.

“The magistrate didn’t tell the officer to make the search at night,” said Conrad. “The plaintiff says that was done to harass.”

While Marfut argued that the search warrant, which was executed nearly a week after the stop, authorized a night search, Fogel contended that the language on the warrant that said a search could take place day or night was “boilerplate,” and that Holmes’ search of Canada and Johnson’s home was “over the line.”

Fogel also said the county had numerous complaints about Holmes. “He has targeted black males,” he said. “That’s a fact.”

Rodney Hubbard was driving his mother, Savannah Hubbard, on U.S. 29 September 11, 2015, when Holmes pulled him over. According to the suit, Holmes claimed he smelled marijuana, searched Rodney Hubbard, including in his groin, handcuffed him, searched Savannah Hubbard and held them for two hours without finding any drugs.

Leon Polk and UVA football player Malcolm Cook allege a similar encounter in their suit, in which Holmes claimed he smelled pot, ordered them out of the car at gunpoint and held them for two hours while he searched the car without turning up any drugs.

Conrad said he would rule on whether all three suits go forward.

Fogel said after he filed the lawsuits he got phone calls from 15 people, 13 of whom were African-Americans, who complained they were targeted by Holmes.

“I’m happy everyone is becoming aware,” said Johnson, who is retail advertising manager with C-VILLE Weekly. “This is a big issue in the African-American community. People in this community need to be aware laws are not being enforced in a fair manner.”

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Lantz sworn in as new Albemarle police chief

New ACPD Chief Ron Lantz gets pinned by wife Rosanna with the badge that belonged to his predecessor. Photo Ézé Amos

Albemarle County Police Department got its fifth police chief since the department was formed in 1983 (and second one from Fairfax County) when Ron Lantz was sworn in today at an SRO ceremony that included much of the county brass at the department headquarters .

Lantz has been with Albemarle since 2012, and he succeeds Steve Sellers, also a former Fairfaxian, who attended in civilian attire. Lantz cited Sellers’ mentorship about half a dozen times during the ceremony, and he was moved after his wife of 28 years, Rosanna, pinned Sellers’ badge on him.

“I’m getting emotional,” said Lantz. “I’m trying to think of ice cream”

Lantz also admitted he’s a hugger as he greeted attendees before the ceremony began.

And he’s a guy who says he doesn’t like the spotlight. “I don’t like the notoriety too much,” said Lantz. “I like going to work.”

Lantz was sworn in by Clerk of Court Jon Zug. Also present were supervisors Liz Palmer, Brad Sheffield, Diantha McKeel and Norman Dill, county exec Tom Foley, Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Tracci and Charlottesville’s new chief Al Thomas.

Correction June 6 of embarrassing misspelling of Steve Sellers’ last name.

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Exit interview: Steve Sellers sets the record straight

Albemarle Police Chief Steve Sellers says it wasn’t his idea to be called “the colonel.” Photo Mina Pirasteh

When Steve Sellers took the job as chief of Albemarle County Police in late 2010, he came to a department where, earlier that same year, four officers had been disciplined for inappropriate behavior on the job. He took over an organization where a dashcam video of an officer listening to the Black Eyed Peas’ “My Humps” while mowing down artist Gerry Mitchell in a wheelchair in a crosswalk in 2007 went viral, one where a jury found another officer “grossly negligent” in 2006 for the fatal 1997 shooting of Frederick Gray.

Sellers acknowledges that the department’s reputation was in shambles and morale was low when he came in from the Fairfax County Police Department. During the December 13, 2010, announcement that he was taking the Albemarle police top job, Sellers said, “I don’t support or condone any behavior that erodes the public trust. I have 28 years with a highly regarded, ethically sound police department. Truthfulness is an absolute must. Truthfulness, integrity and public trust are very high on the list.”

Almost exactly five years later, after Sellers, 54, has announced he’ll retire June 1, he sits down to set the record straight with a reporter who was there during his first press conference and who wrote a 2013 article following three Albemarle police shootings that year called “Code of Silence: County clams up when cops open fire.” The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

C-VILLE: First of all, what’s with “colonel”? Why do you have that as your job title?

Sellers: Thank you for asking. Colonel—that wasn’t my idea at all. I was a lieutenant colonel in Fairfax before I came here and people called me colonel. For some reason, the first media interview I did when appointed here in 2010, somebody called me colonel. I told people they could call me colonel, chief, Steve, I don’t care. For some reason “the colonel” stuck. My name is not “the colonel.” It’s Steve.

C-VILLE: Is there anything that’s been in the media that you want to clear up?

Sellers: It’s really a matter of being able to defend police officers when they’re correct in their actions, but not in the time frame of the media. I’ll give you an example—the infamous Hook front page. You wrote the article. That was on the heels of a police shooting.

C-VILLE: Two police shootings.

Sellers: Having to defend the actions of those officers and knowing what the actions are, but not being able to do it on the time frame of the media, that was frustrating. It’s like fighting a fight with both your hands handcuffed behind you. You know the information is going to get out. It’s just not going to get out on your time frame. I understand there’s a balance there with transparency. And that’s just frustrating for me because I want to tell the story but I can’t tell the story for a variety of reasons. It’s not that things are being reported inaccurately. I wouldn’t characterize it as that at all. It’s just it’s only being reported from one side of the story.

C-VILLE: That was 2013 and there were two police shootings, and it was a number of weeks before the name of the officer who shot and killed Greg Rosson was released. Since that time, police have come under a lot of national scrutiny. Is it still a good idea to not reveal the name of someone who’s on the public payroll who’s killed someone or wounded someone, even if he’s cleared later on?

Sellers: It depends on the situation. I think eventually it has to be released and it is our policy to release, but there are certain checks and balances that must be checked off before that’s done. No. 1, is there an eminent threat of retaliation against the officer or their family? We do a risk assessment immediately after a police shooting. If there is, it is in the best interest to sit on that information for a while to resolve or mitigate it. I’m a proponent of releasing the name, but I think there are certain precautions you have to take before you do that. I understand the need for transparency. I get that.

C-VILLE: A recent article said you fired 50 officers.

Sellers: So that’s incorrect. I fired 14 officers since I’ve been here. I’ve hired 50 officers.

C-VILLE: How would you characterize the difference in the reputation of this police department from when you came here?

Sellers: I think the reputation is better. I think the police officers are better. I think the training is better. I think in every iteration of a new police chief, it evolves.

During Chief [John] Miller’s 21-year tenure, it got systematically disassembled because of the recession. There were 106 officers when I got here and we have 136 now and can hire up to 139. It’s dangerous to be in remote areas of the county like Greenwood or Scottsville or Boonesville with backup 20 minutes away. You have to be extremely good with this. [He points to his mouth.]

C-VILLE: What would you say you’re most proud of during your time here?

Sellers: I’m most proud of the change in culture the officers and civilian employees embraced through my tenure here. It was a significant change for them to go toward community-first mentality, citizen-first mentality from where they were when I got here, which was traditional response-driven policing, going to call, to call, to call. I’m proud of the men and women who changed the way they police. I think the opportunity to start over again has helped them understand they need to evolve with policing in the 21st century and I think they’ve done a great job.

You can ask any citizen out there. I hear it all the time. It’s not the same police department as when I got here. And that was my goal. I’m a change agent. I came in here to take the department to the next level, and I hope the next person to come in here takes it to the next level. Policing has changed in the past two years. You’ve seen it.

Along with geo-policing, there are four significant changes coming in the next six months. A new records management system will change how we do business as police officers. Computer-aided dispatch will improve the effectiveness and timeliness of things we do in the field. The new police firearms training facility will improve our training on use of force significantly so these critical decisions will be consistent. And training will be consistent in all three departments [Albemarle, Charlottesville and UVA police], so if there’s an active shooter, we’ll all be on the same page. That’s a huge community change. That wasn’t me. That was the three departments getting together.

C-VILLE: Did you and [Charlottesville Police Chief] Tim Longo coordinate your retirements?

Sellers: My retirement was known on day one when I was hired. Tim did confide in me about a month in advance of his announcement.

C-VILLE: And what are you going to do during retirement besides woodwork?

Sellers: I’m going to be a squeaky wheel.

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SWAT PTSD: Albemarle police sued for false imprisonment

Benjamin Burruss sits in the same truck he was in in 2013 when Albemarle police held him for two hours until a SWAT team exploded a flash grenade and broke his window. staff photo

How many cops does it take to check on a man when his employer is concerned that he hasn’t shown up for work?

At least a dozen, by Benjamin Marshall Burruss’ estimate.

According to his November 19 lawsuit filed in federal court, Albemarle County Police held Burruss for two hours in his truck after he said he was fine, had no intention of harming anyone and didn’t want to talk to police, then used a flash grenade, bashed in his window, hauled him out of the truck and had him committed for psychiatric evaluation for more than 72 hours.

“I didn’t understand why this was taking place,” he says in an interview at the Rutherford Institute, whose attorneys have filed suit against Albemarle County and five police officers. “It was a nightmare.”

Burruss, 58, was born in Charlottesville, graduated from Albemarle High and was employed at Northrop Grumman for 32 years, starting when it was still Sperry Marine. He had a security clearance and worked in logistics, supplying Northrop’s security products to people around the world 24-7, 365 days a year, he says.

“He was an exemplary employee,” says his attorney, Michael Winget-Hernandez. “This event put an end to his career.”

Burruss says he’d missed a few days of work because he was adjusting to medication his doctor had given him for depression. And because of marital problems, he was staying at the Comfort Inn on Pantops.

“I needed some space,” he says. And he decided to go to Montana for some bird hunting.

According to the complaint, Northrop Grumman contacted Albemarle police the morning of November 21, 2013, and asked officers to do a welfare check on Burruss. Police were told he was at the Comfort Inn, was planning to go hunting, may have a firearm but had not made any statements that he wanted to harm himself or others, says the lawsuit.

Burruss checked out of the hotel, and in the parking lot, officers in a police car said they wanted to speak to him. “I said I didn’t want to speak to them,” he says. “I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong.”

The officers kept saying they wanted him to get out of the truck and talk to them, according to the complaint. Burruss kept saying he didn’t want to talk to them unless they had a warrant, and that he wanted to leave.

“I didn’t want to get out with all these police around me,” says Burruss. “I said, ‘I can hear you through the window.’”

Burruss had a 12-gauge shotgun in the backseat for bird hunting “in plain view with the action open,” says his attorney. “Any police would know it couldn’t be fired. That’s the safety position.”

For two hours, Burruss refused to get out of his truck and Albemarle police refused to let him leave and put a stinger under his tires, according to the lawsuit. Officer Garnett “Chip” Riley, who talked to Burruss throughout the stand-off, at one point said, “We got nothin,’” and “I got no reason to hold him,” claims
the suit.

Officer Jatana Rigsby then contacted Burruss’ wife, who also said he’d made no statements that he intended to harm anyone, according to the complaint. Kelly Burruss was told to get an emergency custody order because her husband was “acting irrationally,” says Winget-Hernandez. After seeing a magistrate and getting an ECO, she also brought police an extra key to Burruss’ truck.

Winget-Hernandez notes that the sworn petition Kelly Burruss filed has never come to light, although it’s the legal grounds for detaining Burruss. “Either it never existed or it disappeared,” he says.

Burruss told police he was tired and was going to take a nap, says Winget-Hernandez. That’s when the SWAT team exploded the flash grenade, busted his driver’s side window and yanked him out of the car, says Burruss.

“I saw four to six SWAT guys coming at me with assault rifles,” he says. “I thought I was going to die.”

Burruss was handcuffed, relieved of his pocketknife and put in a police car, still not knowing why police were detaining him and thinking it was a case of mistaken identity and that he was headed to jail, he says.

Instead, he was taken to UVA Medical Center and held for more than 72 hours.

It was afterward that his health problems began. “I started seeing counselors and was diagnosed with [post-traumatic stress disorder],” says Burruss. He struggled to sleep and with flashbacks. “I couldn’t get any of this out of my mind,” he says two years later.

“I was battered,” he says. “I was robbed. I was stripped of my family, my home, my dignity”—here his voice breaks—“and my self worth.”

Says Burruss: “To this day I don’t understand why they took the approach they did.”

He says his suit against officers Riley, Rigsby, Kanie Richardson, Robert Warfel, Captain Pete Mainzer and the county is to hold them accountable. “I hope this never happens to anybody else,” says Burruss. “I wish it hadn’t happened to me. I wish they’d been better informed and better trained. They made some terrible decisions.”

Albemarle officers receive 40 hours a year of crisis intervention training to learn to de-escalate non-violent situations, says police spokesperson Madeline Curott. They may also elect to take other mental health training. Curott says the department has not been served with Burruss’ lawsuit.

“This is just one more example of how a relatively benign situation—a routine welfare check—gets escalated into something far more violent and dangerous through the use of militarized police armed to the teeth and trained to act combatively,” says John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute and author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People.

For Burruss, along with the emotional trauma and financial impact on his family stemming from the encounter, he also had to pay for his involuntary stay at UVA Medical Center. And he has to deal with people wondering what’s wrong with him. “It’s unjust,” he says. “I’ve never hurt anyone. I’ve been violated.”

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John Wayne Jordan escapes by Gator—briefly

John Wayne Jordan is back in custody after a brief Gator getaway. Photo Albemarle Police

John Wayne Jordan, 50, a trustee at the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail, disappeared on a John Deere Gator and was on the lam for about 11 minutes from the time he was reported missing until he was captured November 24.

Jordan was working for the Virginia Department of Forestry on Natural Resources Drive and was asked to get a Gator. About an hour later, when he hadn’t returned, Albemarle County Police were alerted at 3:42pm.

Charlottesville Police found Jordan at Jefferson Park Avenue and Monroe Lane at 3:53pm. He’d ditched his jail attire at Stribling Avenue, and the Gator was found at JPA and Shamrock Road, according to police.

Most of Jordan’s lengthy arrest record is for drunk in public charges, but he was serving 18 months in the regional jail for petit larceny and for assaulting an officer in March.

His break for freedom has resulted in additional felony charges, including grand larceny.

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Candid cameras: Albemarle police hear citizen concerns on body cams

Lieutenant Mike Wagner is evaluating body cams for Albemarle police and getting stakeholders on board. Staff photo

In January, C-VILLE reported that body cams were “imminent” for Charlottesville police. Nine months later, city cops still are not sporting the cameras and the University Police Department became the first local law enforcement agency to outfit its officers. The Albemarle County Police Department is moving toward the cameras as well, and approximately 50 people attended a citizen forum September 15.

“I think the community was a bit startled at how complex this issue is,” says Albemarle’s chief, Colonel Steve Sellers. His department piloted the cameras last winter, and is working to get the policy right. “Some departments rushed into it,” he says. “They’re regretting it now.”

A key consideration is when the cameras get activated. Privacy of victims is a big concern, as is footage shot in a home that is not a part of a criminal investigation or that includes a child.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Denise Lunsford stressed the importance of policy so “we all know what the policy is and when an officer is supposed to activate them and when they’re supposed to turn them off.”

Some wondered about privacy under the Freedom of Information Act and whether their neighbors can request video from the night the police showed up at their door.

“These videos are a public record,” says John Blair with the county attorney’s office. But the average citizen’s ability to access them could be limited under the criminal investigative files exemption, he says.

Some attending wanted to know if they could have a private conversation with an officer without being recorded. Richard Lloyd, Republican candidate for the Albemarle Board of Supervisors, said, “If you want to have a private conversation with an officer, you should be able to do that.”

Albemarle resident Fred Scott wanted to know if there was a problem in the community with police use of force or was Albemarle doing it “because everyone is doing it?”

Other police departments have discovered that everyone behaves better when they know they’re being recorded, and citizen complaints about officer misconduct and incidents of police use of force both dropped dramatically, said Lieutenant Mike Wagner.

For example, the Rialto Police Department in California conducted a one-year study after its cops started wearing the cameras, and found that citizen complaints of officer misconduct fell by 87.5 percent, while uses of force by officers fell by 59 percent.

In the current draft policy, an officer would have to account for why the camera was turned off, said Sellers. He also said that for every dollar spent on body cameras, “we can save the county $4 in litigation.”

Sellers sought buy-in from his officers. “Overwhelmingly the vast majority wants them,” he said. He compares the cameras to equipment like protective vests that no one relishes wearing on a 90-degree day. “Officers really do want to do the right thing,” he said. “And these provide them some protection” from unwarranted complaints.

The cameras themselves are not the big ticket expenditure, it’s the storage, said Sellers. He’s anticipating spending around $45,000 for the body cams, while the storage of the video will be about $66,000 a year. He said he’ll also need a person to be in charge of the data and will include that in his budget request to the Board of Supervisors this fall.

As beneficial as the technology can be, Sellers warned about what it couldn’t do: “Body cams don’t measure the hair on the back of a police officer’s neck when he hears someone coming up behind him. It doesn’t tell the whole story. It helps tell the story, but it doesn’t tell the whole thing.”