I’d been saying how pleasantly surprised I was that Fairfax County PD had made itself rather small and invisible the past two weeks, rather than making things worse as many other departments had done.

The chief even put out a statement that at least said all the right things.

Then yesterday, one of the officers was arrested and charged with three counts of assault & battery after tasering a man in crisis.

The incident was Friday afternoon, charges were placed Saturday. Police shouldn’t be responding to folks in crisis in the first place, but the department and Commonwealth’s Attorney have done some things right in the aftermath:

– Criminal Charges
– Other officers involved removed from duty
– Body camera footage released
– Administrative review for the officer (ie, he’s getting fired, but they have to go through the steps)

Fairfax County literally **just** started body cam use in three districts at the beginning of May.

What would have happened without the footage? And how many of these incidents do we have no idea about, because there is no footage?

When the officer is fired, could we send the budget for his salary over to county mental health services?