NVCJTA Deputy Director Thomas Fitzpatrick at the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Training Academy. Photo by Vernon Miles.
One of the doors in the regional law enforcement training academy opens to the view of a run-down apartment interior. The door next to it opens to a one-room bar. Down the hall there’s an elementary school classroom and a makeshift office space.
When the empty rooms are populated by local actors who begin to play out the crimes police officers are expected to deal with, these rooms become portals into the daily operations of Northern Virginia law enforcement.
The Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Training Academy in Ashburn trains police officers and sheriff’s deputies from 17 member agencies across the area including Arlington County and the City of Alexandria. Those organizations fund the academy proportionally based on their “sworn strength,” the amount of law enforcement personnel in those organizations.
Going through the academy follows a background investigation as well as physical and psychological testing. Sheriff’s deputies attending the program attend for six months, arriving one month before police for specialized training. Many of the attending law enforcement personnel also attend their own department’s specialized training before or after their time at the academy. For Alexandria Sheriff’s Deputy Phillip Leger, it’s a little bit of both.
Leger is the newest deputy at Alexandria’s Sheriff’s Department. Hired in January of 2014, Leger did four sessions of field training before he went to the academy and has been back working at the city’s detention center since. Leger’s originally from Boston, and says his accent is the most common thing people around the detention facility notice. That, or the thick scar running across his neck where he was stabbed in a fight. In Boston, Leger worked in a juvenile transitional home. His aunt, Captain Dorothy Pope, has worked in the Alexandria Sheriff’s Department for 17 years.
Leger said he went to the academy with a basic idea of what it was going to be like, but said those ideas weren’t particularly accurate. Some of that, he said, could possibly be attributed to the fact that he was the only attendee from the Alexandria Sheriff’s Department, a fluke that he says turned out all right because it meant he only had to worry about getting himself through the course.
Steve Yanda, an officer with the Arlington Police Department, attended the academy in June of 2014 and said he didn’t really have any idea of what to expect before he went in.
“It was different than anything I’d ever done before,” said Yanda. “I didn’t have any prior law experience or military. I didn’t really know what to expect going in.”
The program’s deputy director, Thomas Fitzpatrick, has been at the academy since 2006 and worked as a police officer in Montgomery County, Md., for 30 years before that. Fitzpatrick also noted that, while diversity in law enforcement has grown since he started in 1974, police and sheriffs still need to work towards the gender and racial diversity reflective of the communities they serve.
In his time at the academy, Fitzpatrick says the biggest change he’s seen has been the change in technology.
“The use of computers in cars has really grown,” said Fitzpatrick, “and social media has really come to the forefront, and we still grapple with how to address that … It’s good as far as getting information out … but rumors are generated and that’s not always a good thing for everyone concerned.”
One of the latest technologies Fitzpatrick said his organization has started working with are body cameras. The facility has two for training purposes, but says ideally there’s really not much training necessary, it’s just integrated into the day-to-day operations of the personnel.
“I think it’s a good thing,” said Fitzpatrick. “I’m a big believer in being transparent in how police officers’ conduct themselves. I have no problem with police having body cameras on and I think most police officers would agree. For one thing, I think it would show the officer’s version of what happened.”
Fitzpatrick says body cameras are part of his aim to train a professional and transparent police force.
“What we preach here is that you respect everyone and you treat people as though you’re dealing with a member of your family,” said Fitzpatrick. “You act in a professional manner, and you treat people with respect.”
Fitzpatrick says the authority of being in law enforcement comes with a great degree of accountability.
“Once you put the uniform and the nameplate on, you are accountable, and everything you do should be legal and ethical,” said Fitzpatrick. “What we preach is that you should be transparent and you should expect to justify what you do .… We should be held more accountable that any other operation .… The days of withholding information or not providing a full account of a situation are long gone, and they should be.”
This theme of transparency, however, is not universal. Fairfax County Police Department has continually refused to release any information on the 2013 shooting of Springfield resident John Greer. Fitzpatrick said he didn’t want to comment directly on the case as he didn’t know the specifics and said there are often legal and personnel issues associated with releasing the names of police officers involved in a fatal shooting.
“I understand the point of view of the family,” said Fitzpatrick, “that is a very difficult situation for everybody involved.”
According to Fitzpatrick, diffusing a situation can start off as simply as saying “I understand why you’re angry.”
“The main thing is: if you can take the time to explain to people why you did something, for the most part, they’re going to calm down,” said Fitzpatrick. “The key is taking that time to do that.”
But it takes a conscious effort; one Fitzpatrick says he struggled with as a police officer.
“Everyone has a different personality, some people have a quicker fuse,” said Ftizpatrick. “I had a bad temper and had to make an effort to maintain composure.”
Leger said maintaining patience and focus are two key elements to working in the detention facility, two he still struggles with sometimes.
“It’s easy to fall into a routine,” said Leger, “but you have to constantly remember where you are and remain professional.”
As soon as a deputy loses confidence, Leger says, the inmates take notice. One of the most consistent strains on that patience and focus are what Leger calls the “constant mind games” played by the inmates.
“It’s expected,” said Leger, saying that the sheriff’s part of training at the academy helps young law enforcement officers learn how to deal with this. “Most of it’s people looking for extras. Not even what they need or want, they just want to say that they got it.”
For Yanda, the most important lesson was the importance of knowing criminal law by heart.
“The biggest part was learning all of the laws as it pertains to drugs and domestic relations, laws you have to be well versed in,” said Yanda. “Every shift you make a number of split second decisions, and you’re able to do that when you know what people’s rights are and aren’t.”
After his academy training, Yanda returned to the Arlington Police Department for field training. On the job training has taught him that most of the police interactions on a daily basis aren’t high stakes and don’t generally end in an arrest.
“You deal with a number of people per shift and it’s not always a situation where someone’s going to get arrested,” said Yanda. “It’s more about how you deal with various problems in people’s lives and how they move forward.”
Since Leger’s gotten back from the academy, he says his training at the academy has changed his outlook on the facility.
“It’s the same routine, being here, but you look at it differently,” said Leger. “You come back with more confidence. Pre-academy you’re still in the early stages of training. Now there’s more responsibility, which I welcome and I’ve been looking forward to.”
After he completes his last phase of field training, Leger will be able to work at the courthouse as well as other parts of the detention facility. Being able to work in any part of the facility is important for Leger to feel like part of the team. Ideally, Leger says he’d like to be out and in the community, doing warrant service and civil process, but says he’ll be happy with wherever the sheriff’s office puts him.