Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin Roessler Jr. defended his department’s longstanding use of force policies and commitment to the sanctity of human life as national protests call for dramatic police reforms.
At a meeting with county officials today (Tuesday), Roessler stated that FCPD’s policies surrounding use of force, the use of chokeholds, and de-escalation are well ahead of many reforms requested by protestors across the country.
Currently, chokeholds are not allowed as a use of force options. De-escalation is required when possible and officers are trained two times per year in order to reinforce the use of force continuum and training. Shooting at moving vehicles is prohibited unless there is a “threat of death or serious injury” to the officer or another person, according to police documents.
“These reform endeavors have not ended as we continue told ourselves accountable,” he said.
FCPD’s use of force policy aims to gain voluntary compliance from the other person using seven core pillars, which include principles like self-control, empathy, balance, realism, and a commitment to lack of humiliation.
A study on FCPD’s use of force culture is underway. The report, which is conducted by the University of Texas at San Antonio researchers, was prompted by another study that found roughly 40 percent of all use-of-force incidents involved Black individuals.
Earlier the month, FCPD officer Tyler Timberlake was charged on three counts of assault and battery in what FCPD said was an “unacceptable” use of force.
When prompted by Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay, Roessler noted that FCPD’s training requirements “typically exceed state mandates.”
The county is currently working on implementing a county-wide body-worn camera program. Although the Reston District Station and three other stations have body-worn cameras, the full implementation of the program was delayed due to budgetary concerns.
Recent events, including the killing of George Floyd, have prompted the board to expedite funding for the program. An updated plan will be developed by the end of the month, according to FCPD.
FCPD is also testing a new technology that would automatically turn on the body-worn camera when an officer takes a gun out of the holster.
Major Paul Cleveland noted that the department follows a co-produced policing model, which relies on community support and input to develop policing practices in line with community expectations.
Currently, the police department is taking a look at ensuring its internal culture emphasizes the well-being of officers and de-escalatory practices.
He says FCPD will continue to monitor ways to improve its practices.
“Reform is the right way to go,” he said.
Image via Fairfax County
(Updated at 6:25 p.m.) Locals way have to wait a little longer than expected for safety solutions along Shreve Road in the Falls Church area due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The road, which runs through the City of Falls Church and Fairfax County, has lately been the focus of safety concerns from local residents and the Shreve Road Community Working Group.
A study is underway by the Virginia Department of Transportation to address the road’s issues. Allison Richter, the liaison to Fairfax and Arlington counties for VDOT, gave an update on the study during a virtual town hall on Monday (May 4).
“We expect there are going to be some solutions that will have to take a little longer,” she said.
Richter said that the COVID-19 pandemic and Virginia’s stay-at-home order have hampered data collection.
“[VDOT is] not doing traffic counts because it’s not as it normally is,” she said. “We’re a little bit held back in some of our studies.”
Status of Projects Along Shreve RoadÂ
So far, the traffic engineering group has reviewed and replaced “obsolete signs,” Richter said.
Dalia Palchik, the Providence District representative on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, said during the meeting that the county is waiting for contractors to finish work near the intersection of Shreve Road and Virginia Lane.
Additionally, she said NoVa Parks is working with an engineer to address work at the W&OD Trail crossing and Shreve Road.
Palchik said that drivers should keep an eye out for lane closures near Gordon Road and Route 7 due to pipe installation.
Providence District School Board Member Karl Frisch said in his email newsletter today that 10 new parking spots have been added to Shrevewood Elementary School.
“Weather permitting, phase two will begin on May 15. When completed, about 17 new spots will have been added,” Frisch said.
Palchik said that the meeting that the new spaces will “help get the cars off of Shreve and into the school.”
Next Steps for Safety Solutions
The study is aiming to identify short- and long-term solutions, along with areas where upgrades are needed and people have continually reported issues, Richter said.
VDOT has lowered the speed from 35 to 30 miles per hour from Leesburg Pike (Route 7) to Wieland Place. Richter said that calls from residents to reduce the speed further to 25 miles per hour is still a possibility.
“I’m not going to rule that out, but we’ll also be looking at other measures like increasing enforcement or traffic calming tools,” she said, adding that a speed study was done in 2019.
People can expect the final report sometime in November, according to Richter’s presentation.
Public Support Sought for Grant Application
The Shreve Road Community Working Group’s website notes that people can submit comments on a grant application to Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA).
According to the group’s website, the $6.9 million transportation grant would be used to:
- install a 10-foot multi-use path and 6-foot planting strip along Shreve Road
- add a crosswalk near the intersection of Shreve and Gordon roads
- add a landscape buffer and lighting changes
People have until May 24 to submit comments online or via email at [email protected].
Image via Google Maps
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors plans to tackle traffic problems along Old Meadow Road as the Tysons One East project advances.
Yesterday, the board approved a rezoning request to increase the floor area ratio for a planned office tower near the McLean Metro station.
Akridge and the Ronald D. Paul Companies are plan to develop 1690 Old Meadow Road, a triangular spot between Dolley Madison Blvd and the Old Meadow Road, into a 15-story tower with Class A offices, restaurant, retail space, parking podium and outdoor terrace.
The development was held up by the acquisition of a public right-of-way.
“This application was filed on land area inclusive of VDOT right-of-way which was in the process of being acquired by the applicant,” according to county documents. “While VDOT on behalf of the Commonwealth concurred in the filing of the application, they generally will not sign the proffers, and would not in this case.”
Now that the right-of-way woes have been resolved, the county, developers and residents are trying to find ways to change the Old Meadow Road.
Scott Adams, the attorney with McGuireWoods who is representing the developer, said that the project includes a proffer for a traffic signal improvement at Colshire Meadow Drive and funds to build and improve roads in Tysons.
Amy Tozzi with the Old Meadow Coalition told the county officials during the public hearing yesterday that nearby residents have traffic and safety concerns that they worry won’t get addressed by the project.
“We understand all development is messy, but it shouldn’t imperil existing communities,” she said.
In response to Tozzi, Adams said that issues with the grid of streets in Tysons and accessing Old Meadow Road from Route 123 are too large for the project to address.
“Some of the concerns that they have are broader in scope than the smaller application we have,” he said.
As part of the board’s approval, county staff will work to create a plan to speed up transportation improvements to calm traffic along Old Meadow Road.
The changes could include:
- realigning the Old Meadow Road and Route 123 intersection
- constructing Lincoln and Roosevelt streets from Old Meadow Road to Magarity Road
- advance previously approved proffered transportation commitments like the traffic signal at the intersection of Old Meadow Road and Colshire Meadow Road and the Tysons East grid of streets
“In identifying improvements and solutions, staff should coordinate with stakeholders on Old Meadow Road, including residents and business owners and property owners,” according to county documents.
Image via One Tysons East
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors recently approved changes to improve road safety for pedestrians and bicyclists.
At the board’s Tuesday meeting, Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn and Lee District Supervisor Rodney Lusk jointly unveiled a proposal to initiate a review of the county’s Department of Transportation’s ActiveFairfax planning process.
ActiveFairfax is a transportation plan that includes a Bicycle Master Plan and Countywide Trails Plan Update for the county.
“Sixteen pedestrian fatalities in our county in 2019 is too many,” Alcorn said. “Most of our built environment is still designed for moving vehicles, which creates obvious conflicts and we need to evolve toward safer walking and cycling.”
More from the board matter:
The commitment of Fairfax County to address this is clear, including more than $300 million in funding approved for stand-alone bike and pedestrian infrastructure projects over the past decade.
Most of these projects have been implemented, while some are still in progress. It should be noted that the $300 million in funding doesn’t include bike and pedestrian projects that are being implemented as part of larger roadway projects, or in VDOT’s repaving schedule…
Due to the General Assembly reallocating funding for Metro’s State of Good Repair Initiative, the Board deferred a number of bike and pedestrian projects last year. And we all have examples of more bike and pedestrian projects to be done, if more funding were available.
Fortunately, the General Assembly is looking at options for increasing transportation funding, but currently they don’t go far enough.
Alcorn and Lusk want the county’s departments and the Virginia Department of Transportation to coordinate their efforts and also want FCDOT to review the following:
- working timeline for the ActiveFairfax Plan
- external communications strategy for the planning process
- evaluation of the current approach for funding pedestrian improvements
- examination of how tech can improve pedestrian and bicycle safety ahead of ActiveFairfax
- whether the county can achieve measurable safety goals like Vision Zero
Lusk called recent pedestrian-involved fatalities and injuries along county roads a “public safety crisis.”
The Board of Supervisors will continue the discussion about the ActiveFairfax Plan at the transportation and public safety committee meetings, according to a press release.
The Virginia Department of Transportation is gearing up to study Shreve Road in the Falls Church area.
The Shreve Road Community Working Group announced yesterday (Tuesday) that VDOT identified funding for the study.
“VDOT is in the process of scoping a planning study on Shreve Road between Lee Hwy (Route 29) and Leesburg Pike (Route 7),” Jennifer McCord, a VDOT spokesperson, told Tysons Reporter. “This study will follow up on the recently completed speed study, seek community input and identify potential improvements along the corridor.”
The study is expected to start in the spring and take about six to 10 months, McCord said.
“The cost of the study is still being finalized, but these studies typically run between $50,000 and $100,000,” McCord said.
“As part of the project, a traffic engineering consultant from VDOT will review Shreve Road from Route 29 (Lee Highway) to Route 7 (Leesburg Pike), obtain input from local residents, and identify possible safety and traffic solutions,” according to the working group.
The working group has been advocating for efforts to improve the road after a fatal hit and run near the intersection of Shreve Road and Hickory Street in August.
“The Shreve Group has prioritized the need for pedestrian infrastructure so that children can safely access Shrevewood Elementary School, and cyclists and pedestrians can securely approach crossings for the W&OD trail,” according to the group. “The Shreve Group has also highlighted the dangers at multiple 90-degree turns along the road.”
Back in December, the working group held a town hall with elected officials to address safety concerns along the road, which runs through Fairfax County and the City of Falls Church.
Earlier last fall, VDOTÂ reduced the speed limit from 35 to 30 miles per hour from Leesburg Pike (Route 7) to Wieland Place. At the town hall, several attendees called for lowering the speed limit.
Following the town hall, VDOT sent a letter to Del. Marcus Simon (D-53rd) on Jan. 6 saying that Fairfax County’s transportation department received a grant for pedestrian improvements around Shrevewood Elementary School and that VDOT is working with Fairfax County.
“[VDOT is] also in contact with the Northern Virginia Regional Parks Authority, regarding their plans to possibly redesign their roadway crossings of the Washington and Old Dominion(W&OD) Trail,” the letter says.
Image via Google Maps
Dozens of community members gathered at Shrevewood Elementary School last night to hear about the latest work to address safety concerns along Shreve Road.
The road, which runs through the City of Falls Church and Fairfax County, has been the focus of a push for improved safety from the Shreve Road Community Working Group, a coalition of residents and community associations advocating for improvements to the corridor, along with elected officials and residents.
“What brought us here originally is the terrible tragedy,” Jeremy Hancock, the co-founder of the Shreve Road Community Working Group, said at the meeting, referring to the Falls Church resident who died from a hit and run near the intersection of Shreve Road and Hickory Street.
Hancock said that 140 people submitted feedback about the road in a survey and that the group is pushing for changes to both specific things, like crosswalks for the school, and also address systemic issues, like speed.
“We have heard for a long time the concerns along Shreve Road,” Hancock told Tysons Reporter. “Our greatest impact is getting the community together.”
Del. Marcus Simon (D-53rd) kicked off the town hall informing locals about accomplished and upcoming actions by local officials for the road “right now.”
Here are some of the things locals can expect, according to Simon and Allison Richter, the liaison to Fairfax and Arlington counties for VDOT:
- lowered speed from 35 to 30 miles per hour from Leesburg Pike (Route 7) to Wieland Place
- replacing older signs that weren’t reflective anymore
- trimming back vegetation covering the signs
- reducing sign clutter by taking out old signs that are no longer needed
“At the end of the day, there was good reason to decrease the speed limit on that portion, but traffic engineers found other speed limit was adequate,” Richter said about the recent speed study.
New signs with the new speed limit will be up soon, she said.
Even with the speed reduction in the one area, several attendees in the audience voiced concern that the speed is too high and dangerous.
“Speed is a big factor to results of a crash,” one person said.
“We want to make sure we don’t artificially lower the speed limits,” Richter responded to attendees’ comments. “People drive the speed they want to drive and then it becomes a burden on the police department.”
An attendee who claimed to be a former police officer with Fairfax County said that drivers can often go up to 10 mph above the posted speed limit without fear of getting a ticket. The police representatives at the meeting declined to comment on the attendee’s comment.
In response to concerns about the sharp turn on Shreve Road near Oldewood Drive, Richter said, “If we straighten the curves and widen the lanes, it encourages speed.”
Simon mentioned that there are bigger projects proposed for the road that require grant funding.
Richter and Simon said proposed changes include:
- changing the intersection of the W&OD Trail and Shreve Road
- creating a new walking route from Route 7 to W&OD Trail
- federal funding for three new crosswalks along Shreve Road, including at Fairwood and Virginia lanes
“Let us get all of this implemented plus give it a little bit of time and see how traffic adjusts,” Richter told the attendees. “And if we’re still having a lot of issues, we can continue to talk.”
Bonnie Kartzman, the co-founder of the Shreve Road Community Working Group, said that community involvement with sending letters to elected officials and attending meetings help the cause.
Kartzman urged attendees to sign up for the working group’s email newsletter and volunteer.
(Updated 12/13/19) Golden Rule, a housesitting service, began in 2018 and expanded to serve clientele in the Northern Virginia area, with a focus around McLean.
Today (Dec. 11), company founder Dan Lender stood in front of fellow entrepreneurs at the 1 Million Cups Fairfax event in Tysons and pitched his company to the room, seeking advice and recommendations on how to better serve his existing clients.
Currently, the company helps around 20 clients to watch their homes, property and occasionally apartments while they are gone for extended periods of time.
Feedback from the event included ways to target his ideal market and focus efforts on specific services.
The clients of Golden Rule consist primarily of people over 50 who spend several months out of the year away from their homes because of vacation or work, Lender said.
Golden Rule staff offer different services for almost every client in order to meet the individual needs, Lender told Tysons Reporter.
The group specializes in services that accompany security measures from larger companies like ADT. Instead of just monitoring the property, Golden Rule will send someone in-person to survey the property, take pictures of things that seem a miss and take care of various tasks.
“A Golden Rule Team Member will visit your home in Northern Virginia regularly to perform a comprehensive, top to bottom, interior and exterior check,” according to the company’s website. “At the conclusion of each check, you will receive a customized, time date and geo-location stamped electronic report with photos and details.”
After each visit from a Golden Rule representative, the company will send an email to the owner with updates.
“You still need eyes and ears on the street,” Lender said, adding that though ADT will call the police, they won’t send someone in person to take care of the property. Unlike other services, Lender said that Golden Rule employees do not stay and live at the house they watch.
The company’s name was inspired by the philosophy of the Golden Rule: “treat others like you’d want to be treated.”
Lender told Tysons Reporter that the company channels this philosophy into their work and treat every client’s home or property like it is their own.
In an attempt to cater to the individual needs of customers, Golden Rule even transported a car for a client and took care of a greenhouse.
When it comes to pricing for the service, it depends completely on what is requested by the client. Though they have basic price points for hourly service and a basic set up fe.
“A lot of our customers recognize the value and they don’t even ask price,” Lender said.
Going forward, Lender told said that although they want to expand, they also don’t want to scale too quickly and jeopardize the quality of the company’s services.
“We don’t cut any corners,” he said. Â
Photo courtesy Dan Lender
Starting next week, people can get free Lyft rides during the holiday season from the ridesharing app’s partnership with a local nonprofit to combat drunk driving.
The Washington Regional Alcohol Program (WRAP) is sponsoring the free rides starting next Friday (Dec. 20), according to a press release from WRAP.
Local residents in the D.C. area ages 21 and older can use a promo code for rides up to $15 from 10 p.m. until 4 a.m. in Lyft’s D.C. coverage area, which includes all of Fairfax County.
Riders can find the codes starting at 9 p.m. on Dec. 20, 27 and 31. on SoberRide’s website. The program is set to run to Jan. 1.
Last December, 1,988 people in the D.C. area used WRAP’s SoberRide program, the press release said.
“More than a third of all U.S. traffic fatalities during the holiday season in 2018 involved drunk drivers according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,” WRAP’s President Kurt Gregory Erickson said in the press release.
Image via Washington Regional Alcohol Program
Local officials are set to talk about how to improve safety along Shreve Road at a town hall on Thursday.
The event comes several months after a Falls Church resident Betty Ana Bernstein-Zabza died from a hit and run near the intersection of Shreve Road and Hickory Street in August.
Del. Marcus Simon (D-53rd) and the Shreve Road Community Working Group, a coalition of residents and community associations advocating for improvements to the corridor, plan to provide an update “on actions by local officials to improve the notoriously dangerous Shreve Road,” according to an email from the working group’s co-founders.
The town hall is set to start at 6:30 p.m. at the cafeteria in Shrevewood Elementary School (7525 Shreve Road).
First image via Google Maps; flyer via Shreve Road Community Working Group
The Falls Church City Council clashed over whether or not to allow motorized scooters on city sidewalks.
Councilmembers voted unanimously on Tuesday (Nov. 12) to continue working on the plan that would allow motorized scooter companies to take a test drive in Falls Church. But the vote was split 4-3 when it came to banning people from using such mobility devices on sidewalks, with the exception of Routes 29 and 7.
The safety of scooter riders and pedestrians was the top concern for city councilmembers as they discussed the implications of banning scooter riders on sidewalks.
Councilmember Phil Duncan, who voted in favor of banning scooters from sidewalks, said that cars should be mindful of scooters on the road and that riders should use bike lanes whenever possible.
Duncan noted a finding from the staff report, which claimed that scooter riders ranked sidewalks as their least favorite place to ride.
The city council decided to allow exceptions on Routes 29 and 7 based on safety findings from a staff report.
Councilmembers Letty Hardi, Ross Litkenhous and Marybeth Connelly voted against the ordinance to ban scooters on sidewalks.
“Preventing people from riding where they feel safe would just make this mode of transportation a non-starter. It would make this pilot pointless,” Hardi said.
Councilmember Connelly echoed Hardi’s concerns, but pushed for a compromise.
“We are assuming we are protecting the walkers on the sidewalks by saying ‘no scooters,’ but not protecting the scooter riders, who are also our neighbors, by saying they must ride always in the street,” she said.
Instead, she suggested adding another ordinance into the plan that would require scooter riders to give pedestrians the right of way on sidewalks. The city attorney present at the meeting noted that this was a viable idea but would require further discussion.
The city attorney suggested staff could work on a more efficient plan that would take her concerns into consideration.
“We have to have some assumption that the people in Falls Church who are using the scooters are not idiots,” Connelly said. “We have to rely on the judgment of the people using the scooters.”
The Falls Church City Council will review a second reading of the ordinance at their upcoming meeting on Dec. 9.