April 5, 1988: Conviction for second degree murder was reversed and remanded by a higher court after the court found that a Fairfax County police officer knowingly testified to the contents of an out-of-court statement made by a witness on the very slick ground that the witness denied making the statement.
1988: Fatal car crash involving a squad car and a citizen
1989: Five Fairfax Police officers arrest a black man for public drunkenness and trespassing. When he refuses to answer questions, a baton is rammed down his thrown, knocking out one of his teeth. Police later drop the charges and offer the man $1,000 for his tooth.
April 27, 1989: After a high speed chase, police cuff the offender and club him, admitting later he did not resist arrest. He would later sue the county for the assault which resulted in brain damage for the victim of the assault. One of the officers who assaulted the man is later fired although the department insists his termination had nothing to do with the beating
1991: Fairfax County Police announce that the department does not compile data on police brutality complaints and that it has decided that all matters pertaining to police personnel are protected by the states secrecy laws and it does not have to share any information with the general public.
December 1, 1991. Student Tommy Burkett found dead in his home in Herndon. The follow up investigation by Fairfax Police is so unprofessional and haphazard that the murder is covered on a national TV show, greatly embarrassing the county.
June 19, 1992: A court agreed with a man accused of distributing narcotics to a minor, that the Fairfax Police tricked him into a confession, failed to present evidence about defendant's state of mind, whether he was under the influence of any drug or alcohol, whether he had acknowledged understanding his constitutional rights, or whether he had had any prior experience with the criminal justice system.
July 30, 1992: The police department is accused of being "little more than a good ole boy network" The new chief orders his officers to attend sexual harassment classes.
June 21, 1993: A conviction for abduction with intent to defile was overturned because the evidence collected by police could find intent to sexually molest only by resorting to surmise and speculation, evidence gathered was inadmissible and statements gathered by the police were also inadmissible.
September 17, 1993: The EEOC found that a black female officer was unjustly fired from her position on the force after she filed sex and racial discrimination charges against the Fairfax County Police Department. According to the officer, she was accused of throwing a note a pad at a fellow officer and was arrested for assault after filing the charges against the department, she said the charges against her were a "Complete fabrication" and the EEOC, based on the evidence, agreed.
1993: Yet another case is tossed out of court when the court agreed that the Fairfax Police illegally stopped and searched the defendant’s car.
February 4, 1994: Yet again a court ruled with a man who said that the evidence used against him by the arresting officer's, under the circumstances, was not a particularized and objective basis for subjecting the driver to a stop of a car consistent with Fourth Amendment principles and that the Defendant's car was not violating the law before it was stopped by the officer so the constitutionality of the stop was not reasonable.
February 28, 1994: Court over turned the case of a man arrested after a police officer, conducting records checks on the vehicles parked outside a dining establishment, entered the wrong number while checking on defendant's plate. Believing defendant's vehicle was registered to another car, the officer stopped defendant's car when he pulled out of the establishment. After running a check of the correct license number, the officer arrested defendant for driving on a suspended license. The officer testified that his only reason for stopping defendant's vehicle was his erroneous conclusion that defendant was driving a vehicle with an illegal license plate. Defendant argued that the evidence that he was driving on a suspended license was inadmissible because the investigatory stop was precipitated by an erroneous records check resulting solely from the negligence of the officer. The court agreed
May 1995: The Fairfax County Department of Family Services accused a long serving member of the Fairfax Police Department of molesting his daughter. In July 1996, the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court of Fairfax County entered an order finding that the children were abused and/or neglected.
June 2, 1995: An off duty Fairfax County Officer saw a man driving erratically. The officer stopped the man who admitted he had been drinking The off-duty officer arrested defendant and, although an on-duty uniformed officer was then on the scene, the off-duty officer transported him to the police station, where defendant gave a breath test. In granting the motion to suppress the arrest and breath test, the court ruled that the off-duty officer had only the authority of a private citizen, and while he could arrest defendant for a breach of the peace, such as dangerous driving, his authority ended upon the arrival of the on-duty officer.
1996: Annual police overtime costs to the county exceeds $9,000,000 among less than 800 officers. By 2008, Fairfax police officers base salaries range from about $45,000 to $81,631. Sergeants were paid a minimum base of about $74,000 and a maximum of $85,713, though some officers and sergeants earn more by working overtime.
November 20, 1996: The court overturned the case of a man accused of murder because his arrest was made by Fairfax County Police who failed to offer the man his Miranda warnings
January 13, 1997: Reports are that the Fairfax County Police Association is suing its former president alleging he spent thousands of dollars on personal items.
March 1997: An African American couple from Washington D.C stated that white officers from Fairfax County acted inappropriately during a traffic stop
February 9, 2000. The court overturned the case of a drug dealer because Fairfax County Police Officers did not have reasonable suspicion that defendant was engaged in drug-related activity, and did not observe anything on his person that indicated he possessed any type of contraband. His mere presence near the target area and on a public street did not support finding of reasonable suspicion.
2000: A Fairfax Police officer accidently shot another officer in the chest during a drug arrest. The Fairfax Coalition of Police and numerous officers said an oral or written reprimand is typically given when a Fairfax officer accidentally shoots someone.
May 2, 2000: The court reversed a guilty verdict against a man convicted for drug possession with intent to distribute because evidence was seized in unlawful search due to illegal entry made without officers announcing their identity or giving defendant opportunity to allow them to enter peaceably and no exigent circumstances existed to justify forcible entry.
March 24, 1998, former Fairfax County police officer serving time for bank robbery was indicted on similar charges in Stafford CountyPolice said Hand robbed the National Bank of Fredericksburg on Nov. 21, 1995, and Sept. 17, 1996.
October 25, 2005 The evidence in the case of a man arrested for possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute because of illegal search and seizure
January 23, 2006: Business owner Jatinder Baboota was on his way to one of the five gas stations he owned when a Fairfax County police cruiser slammed into the right side of his car, killing him. Police did not disclose the crash to the public. Police said Baboota was at fault for turning in front of a police car with its lights and sirens on. However, an investigation by the family disputes that the cruiser had on its lights and siren and suspects the officers were speeding and lied about the details to authorities.
February 7, 2006. Court reversed a conviction for illegal massage because no evidence given by the police proved beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant had received, or had an expectation of receiving, compensation for giving a massage.
2006: The sergeant's test is being investigated for possible cheating. The outcome of the investigation is secret and will not be released to the public.
October 3, 2006: A Fairfax County police officer driving to struck and killed a bicyclist who was trying to cross busy Arlington Boulevard. The police released the name of the victim but not the name of the officer. An internal investigation into the crash also has begun. Since the department has decreed that all information pertaining to its officers personnel matters is secret, the officers name was withheld from the public and the outcome of the investigation is secret as well
May 8th, 2006: Sully Police station shooting. A Fairfax County police detective was killed and two officers were wounded after an 18 gunman, who had been in police custody earlier, opened fire with high-powered weapons in the parking lot of a police station during a shift change. The investigation into the shooting and the reason the young man returned to the station with a weapon after he was held there, have never been released to the public. Nor are the police required to release the facts to the public.
December 14, 2006: Police corner and shot an unarmed robbery suspect. There were no civilian witness to the shooting. The man was hiding in a crawl space when officers ordered him to come out of the crawl space several times. The man refused and made what police said was "several furtive gestures," although they declined to say what those gestures were. They then fired two shots into the suspect, killing him.
January 18, 2007: Fairfax County prosecutors yesterday dropped an embezzlement case against a county employee who was investigated by a police detective who was having an affair with the employee's wife
January 12, 2007: In the shooting death of a county man, the Police department publicly admits that using a SWAT team to arrest a suspected sports gambler was unnecessary and that they could have used "lower-risk, less complex arrest techniques," In the nearly four decades that Robert F. Horan Jr. has been the chief prosecutor in Fairfax, no officer has been charged with improperly shooting someone.
October 2, 2007: A court overturned the conviction of a drug dealer because the police lacked reasonable suspicion to stop the vehicle in which drug dealer was riding. The court found the arresting officers testimony "incredible"
March 2, 2007: Robbery case was overturned because Fairfax County Police got a confession with out informing the suspect of his rights.
March 20, 2007: The family of a man accused of gambling and shot dead by police filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court seeking $12 million in damages for the shooting death of their son by Fairfax County Police
January 2008: A ranking police officer pleaded guilty in federal court to illegally using police computers in 2005 to check license plate numbers for a friend, though he said he did not know the friend was under federal surveillance and the vehicles checked were being used by federal agents in a terrorism case.
January 18, 2008: A Fairfax County Police officer was placed on leave after being charged with harassment of an ex-girlfriend.
March 2008: The Fairfax police misunderstood a complaint from a Springfield trucking company about an employee who had been fired while driving trailer that belonged to the company. Fairfax Police wrongly assumed he had stolen the trailer and used GPA to track the man to Georgia. Fairfax phoned the Georgia state police who arrested the man at gunpoint. He served 34 days in jail. A Fairfax County jury found the driver innocent and awarded him $50,000 in damages for malicious prosecution, $200,000 for false imprisonment and $340,000 in punitive damages, just under Virginia's cap of $350,000.
June 13, 2008: Crime is up by 6% in Fairfax County
2008: According to county records, the average salary for police officers in Fairfax was about $86,000.
February 2008: Fairfax County police officer was charged with reckless driving after she drove her cruiser through a red light with her emergency lights on but without her siren activated and smashed into the car of a 33 year old woman, killing her.
August 8, 2008 Court found that the police unlawfully seized evidence and the resulting search of a suspects vehicle was unlawful, requiring suppression of the seized evidence.
March 18, 2009: Two Fairfax County police officers accused in a cheating scandal involving promotional exams left the department, and two others were placed on administrative duties with pay.
November 13, 2009: A Fairfax County police officer thought an unarmed, mentally ill man was reaching for a gun and shot him dead. The officer's name was not released because the department holds that such information is privileged. Only one of the three officers on the scene saw the victim reach down. The one officer that saw him reach down, killed him. For some reason, police at first said that the incident was not captured on the officers' in-car video cameras or on traffic surveillance cameras. However, it was later learned that there is footage of the killing from a dash-cam video. There are also police interviews of other witnesses, and the police report itself, all of which have been branded as secret and not viewable by the public or the press. The victim was being followed by three police cars for allegedly pulling some flowers from a planter outside a business.
June 18, 2008: More than 370 of Fairfax County's police cars, trucks and sport-utility vehicles are taken home by officers every day, with taxpayers footing the bill for their gas, maintenance, insurance and tolls. At the same time, Chief of Police Rohrer said he does not have enough vehicles, although his fleet of 1,304 is the second-largest in the area, behind Prince George's County
2008: 70 percent of the department's 1,431 officers live outside the county.
February 12, 2009: Three Fairfax County police officials were temporarily removed from their duties after a police officer studying for a promotional exam said he was leaked questions to the test. Among those suspended was a lieutenant who was an assistant commander in the organized crime and narcotics unit and former assistant commander of the McLean district station.
March 11, 2009: The police entered county politics. Facing unprecedented cuts in public safety jobs and programs due to a $650 million budget shortfall, the Fairfax County police union hired a consultant and commissioned a poll of likely voters in hopes of using the results to convince county supervisors that residents would rather spend tax dollars on fighting gangs and keeping unsafe vehicles off the road than on parks and libraries. The survey costs the union $30,000.
March 21, 2009: The Fairfax County police officer who was involved in a traffic crash in 2009 that killed a teacher's assistant was under investigation for embezzlement.
October 19 2009, Erick Williamson of Springfield was arrested for drinking coffee in the nude in his kitchen. The idiocy started when the wife of a police officer phoned her husband to complain that she was looking into the victim’s house and saw him naked. The arrest, dubbed the Naked Guy case, made international headlines and, once again, the Fairfax Police, made the county look ridiculous in the eyes of the world. (The first time being the raids on bars to search for drunks, the second being the "This ain’t America no more" election day video recording) By their own admission, police raided the house, enforce, with guns drawn ("just in case we encountered a hostile individual," the officers explained) and no warrant to enter the property where they found the culprit asleep…with his pants on. Pulled outside on his lawn, an officer asked Williamson if her could take his picture. Williamson said no. The officer took the picture anyway and showed it to the woman who had complained for positive identification, which they got. They returned to the house and arrested Williamson. It took a jury less than twenty minutes to find Williamson not guilty.
January 9, 2010: A former Fairfax County police officer, whose wife was slain in 1991, was sentenced to 19 years in prison for abducting her twice in the months before her death, but he was not been charged with killing her. In 2007, Nevada authorities found the former officer living in a one room apartment in Las Vegas. During several taped conversations, Webster denied killing or kidnapping his wife. But he did say, "When I get angry, people get seriously hurt or they die."
2010: The Fairfax County Police have been named in over 200 court cases in less than twenty years.
January 2010: After an investigation by police of the police, the police determined that its officers were justified in shooting an unarmed, mentally ill man dead who had stolen flowers from a business store front.
2010: In the 70-year history of the Fairfax County police, no officer has been charged with a crime for shooting someone in the line of duty.
February 2010: Michael Pope, a reporter who covers Northern Virginia for the Connection Newspapers chain and for the Washington, D.C., NPR affiliate WAMU, filed a series of open records requests with the Fairfax Police Department related to the Masters shooting. All were