Tag: university police

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In brief: Police problems, school sickness, and more

UVA Chief of Police Tim Longo came under fire recently for UPD’s treatment of a Black man on the Corner. PC: Eric Kelley

Under fire

Shortly before midnight on November 15, a houseless Black man named Lawrence was reportedly violently detained by both Charlottesville and University police on the Corner.

According to eyewitness accounts given to Defund Cville Police, three UPD officers pushed Lawrence into the brick wall in front of Cohn’s. A dozen more officers soon arrived on the scene, and slammed him to the ground. Four pinned him down with their knees, digging into his back and ribs.

While witnesses and Lawrence’s wife asked multiple times why the officers were detaining him, they reportedly did not provide a clear answer. One officer accused Lawrence of trespassing on UVA Grounds, while another said they needed to question him and resolve a dispute with his wife.

The officers then pressed down onto Lawrence’s neck, claiming he was biting them, though witnesses say he was not. They allegedly did not let him go until another officer arrived and deescalated the situation.

Lawrence was then allowed to sit up and answer questions, which were not related to the incident, claim witnesses.

Because of the extent of injuries, Lawrence reportedly could barely walk or stand. When he was taken to the hospital, it was revealed he had three broken ribs, and multiple cuts and abrasions on his arms, wrists, side, and feet.

After Defund Cville Police’s account of the incident sparked outcry on social media last week, UVA’s Chief of Police Tim Longo released a statement about the “difficult encounter,” failing to mention Lawrence’s extensive injuries, or the large number of officers reportedly on the scene.

According to Longo, a UPD officer witnessed a verbal altercation between Lawrence and a woman outside a store on the Corner. He approached the couple and asked for identification. While the woman provided it, Lawrence refused, and walked away, crossing University Avenue onto UVA Grounds.

Another officer soon arrived on the scene, and recognized Lawrence from a previous incident at UVA hospital, during which Lawrence “became disorderly” and was banned from coming back onto UVA Grounds.

The officers followed Lawrence, told him he was trespassing, and tried to detain him. Lawrence went back to the Corner, which is off UVA Grounds, and attempted to leave the scene. The two officers then pursued and restrained him “for further investigation,” resulting in “several minutes” of “active resistance and struggle,” Longo writes.

A UPD supervising officer later deescalated the situation, ordering that Lawrence be allowed to sit up for questioning and evaluated by medical responders before allowing him to leave the Corner.

“Upon review of the incident, the Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney has determined that none of the officers acted unlawfully,” stated Longo, who has now begun an internal UPD review into the incident.

One officer has been placed on administrative leave. Defund Cville Police demands every officer involved in the incident be fired immediately, and calls on the community to support Lawrence as he recovers from his injuries.

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Quote of the week

“Enough is enough. When do we start fixing it and stop covering up things?”

—South First Street resident Angela Barnes advocating for installing security cameras during a CRHA meeting last week, following a recent murder in the public housing community

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In brief

Get registered

Jackson P. Burley School, Charlottesville’s Black high school during the age of segregation, was added to the National Register of Historic Places last week. Burley opened in 1951, “part of an effort [by] many jurisdictions in Virginia to support segregation by constructing new and well-equipped separate but equal high schools for African American students,” reads the NRHP listing. The school was added to the Virginia Landmarks Register in September.

                                 Jackson P. Burley School PC: Skyclad Aerial

Cool your jets

Just after Thanksgiving, UVA’s football team flew down to Tallahassee, ready to take on the 2-6 Florida State Seminoles. But upon arrival, the team was told the game had been postponed due to uncontained coronavirus among FSU’s players. It’s the third time this season the Cavaliers have had an opponent cancel on them due to COVID.

School outbreak

Five students at Woodbrook Elementary School tested positive for coronavirus last week, and are currently quarantined at home. The students and staff who attended classes with the students were also asked to self-isolate for 10 days. On November 9, Albemarle County moved to Stage 3 of reopening, welcoming about 2,700 students—mostly pre-kindergarteners through third graders—into schools for hybrid learning.

Supply chain training

Virginia is running its first round of vaccine distribution tests, reports the Virginia Mercury. The state Department of Health is overseeing 50 sites around the commonwealth as they practice transporting COVID-19 vaccines, in hopes of being prepared when the first shipments of real vaccines begin to arrive later this month.

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Plea postponed: Judge wants report, photos in Korte child porn possession case

Walter Korte leaves court August 8, 2017, after a judge holds off accepting a plea agreement. Staff photo

 

One year after the arrest of former UVA film studies professor Walter Korte for the possession of child pornography sent the local cinephile community reeling, he appeared in court August 8 ready to enter a plea—and the judge asked for more information before okaying the agreement.

During his 46-year-career, Korte, 73, advised the fledgling Virginia Film Festival for many years, received a Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Milan, and was an expert on the work of Luchino Visconti and the Italian cinema.

The case began last summer when UVA police discovered a cache of porn in a dumpster on Grounds behind Bryan Hall on subsequent days. “The vast majority of the pictures depicted adult, transgender subjects, but a number of images included both clothed and unclothed young males,” said Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Amanda Galloway.

Officers also found magazines and junk mail with Korte’s address.

Police set up surveillance on the dumpster, and on August 1, 2016, spied Korte at 6:43am dumping bags filled with more images. Yet another dump August 2 included poster boards of ‘70s teen heartthrob Leif Garrett, Galloway told Judge Cheryl Higgins in Albemarle Circuit Court.

Korte was arrested August 2, charged with two counts of child porn possession and held in jail for over a month. In February, Higgins ruled that the search warrant did not support probable cause because most of the images were legal adult porn or teens not engaged in sex acts, but she allowed the admission of the thousands of images as evidence anyway.

“The vast majority of the images contained legal, adult pornography,” said Galloway.

Questionable images were sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to be run against their child pornography database, which found one known child porn image, and to the state attorney general’s office, “which identified 695 images as legal ‘child erotica,’ not meeting the definition of child pornography under Virginia law,” Galloway told the judge.

The AG’s office also found 16 potential child porn images of pubescent males, but none matched the national database, their ages could not be determined and the images came from adult porn sites, said the prosecutor.

During the yearlong investigation, no hands-on victims were found, and a psychosexual evaluation determined Korte was not a threat, said Galloway. Because he had no criminal history and because of his age, the commonwealth agreed to a plea in which he could serve a maximum of 12 months and would become a registered sex offender, she said.

Galloway also pointed out that had Korte been convicted of possessing one image from the national database, sentencing guidelines would recommend probation, no incarceration and no sex offender registration. “The agreement allows for finality,” she said.

Higgins, however, was not ready to close the case. “I am concerned about the court being tied” to the agreement, she said. She also said she had “great reservations” about the photos, and asked to see the two alleged child porn images, which are under seal, and to have a pre-sentence report.

Korte will be back in court November 14 to learn her decision.

 

 

 

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I spy: Changes in local police surveillance

Officer Ben Rexrode with the UVA Police Department has been wearing a body camera since July 2015. Photo Eze Amos

When photos of Danville police popping the hoods of their patrol cars spread on social media last month, so did speculation that it was being done to shield dash cams from filming officers’ interactions with civilians. While that city’s department explained that their cars have had a continual issue with overheating and it has vowed to stop the hood popping, a look at hyper-local police camera usage shows that surveillance is more than meets the eye.

Every uniformed officer and security guard in the University of Virginia Police Department has worn a body camera since July 2015.

“When we started putting these out, there was no pushback,” says Officer Ben Rexrode, the department’s crime prevention coordinator. “The cameras can work both ways because they hold officers accountable, but they also protect us if something is being alleged.”

Highly criticized police shootings, such as the killing of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, have pressured law enforcement agencies all over the nation to adopt this new body-worn technology. But Rexrode says that wasn’t what encouraged his department to try it out.

“Why wouldn’t we?” he says. “It’s a good thing to have.”

Cameras are clipped on an officer’s uniform over his heart. They stay on standby mode until a button in the unit’s center is double clicked. Then, the camera begins recording with audio and recalls the previous 30 seconds of soundless film.

It is the UVA Police Department’s policy that officers use the cameras during any enforcement action, such as a traffic stop, disturbance or suspicious incident, Rexrode says. Every recording is stored for 90 days and if it is being used in an investigation or court case, it will be saved longer.

While researching different camera models, drafting a policy and training officers to use the cameras takes a good deal of time, Rexrode says the toughest part for most departments is the financial commitment.

For 150 cameras and on-site training, UVA paid $363,000. A five-year contract for camera maintenance, licenses and storage costs an extra $150,000 per year.

At the Charlottesville Police Department, Lieutenant Tom McKean says officers are currently testing 40 body cameras before a full deployment, though that date is not set.

The transition to body cameras began under former Police Chief Timothy Longo, and the first cameras were deployed at the beginning of this year.

And CPD’s Lieutenant Steve Upman says there are no dashboard cameras currently in operation—their old system is no longer supported, and they are starting to spec out new systems.

Over at the Albemarle County Police Department, each patrol car is equipped with a dash cam that is always rolling, according to spokesperson Madeline Curott. At any time, officers can choose to record with audio, and both video and audio will automatically record when an officer activates the car’s lights and sirens or the car hits 85 mph.

The video is archived and entered into evidence if it’s part of an investigation. If not, it’s thrown out after 60 days. Video is reviewed quarterly and periodically by the department’s Office of Professional standards and patrol shift supervisors.

While those at the ACPD have been working on implementing body cameras for well over a year, Curott also notes the expense of the equipment and says they’re working on a policy pertaining to juveniles, schools and privacy issues. Next, patrol officers will start training on them.

But, from experience, Rexrode notes that the training can often take longer than one would expect, and a “grace period,” he says, is necessary for police to get used to wearing them.

“We’re not robots,” he says.

“When we started putting these out, there was no pushback,” says Officer Ben Rexrode, the UVA Police Department’s crime prevention coordinator. “The cameras can work both ways because they hold officers accountable, but they also protect us if something is being alleged.”