Documents and Incidents Tagged "VCU Police"

Documents

  • Department
    Decertified, Dismissed, & Wandering Ex-Police

  • Department
    Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Police
    Description
    Tha VCU Police Department's RMS (Record Management System) includes information shared with and by the Richmond Police Department, including "RMS Alerts." Richmond residents can be flagged with these police internal "alerts" for a variety of reasons. (The interagency system is also shared with the Commonwealth's Attorney.) RMS Alert categories an individual may be assigned include, for example, "Assaulted Police Officer," "History of Resisting Arrest," "Mentally Unstable," "Narcotics Seller/User," "Probably Armed," "TEZ (Target Enforcement Zones)," "4th Amendment Rights Waiver," "Broad Street Corridor Ban," "Truancy Repeater," and "Banned from Public Parks" among others. This policy document from VCU Police Department's General Orders Manual provides a cursory overview of these alert types.

  • Department
    Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Police
    Description
    "Any recording which depicts a discharge of a firearm by an officer, or serious injury or death of any person, will not be shown to requester without prior approval of the Chief of Police."

  • Department
    Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Police
    Description
    "Engaging in prohibited speech, as noted herein, may provide grounds for undermining or impeaching an officer’s testimony in criminal proceedings. Department employees thus sanctioned are subject to discipline up to and including termination."

  • Department
    Decertified, Dismissed, & Wandering Ex-Police
    Description
    The formerly-decertified, now-reinstated Polly F. Griffin currently works at the Petersburg Police Department. Griffin was fired from the VCU Police Department, indicted by the City of Richmond, and decertified by the DCJS after she attacked a civilian at a hospital. "You're lucky I don't kill you," Griffin reportedly said to the victim of her unprovoked attack, while a superior officer watching told her up to four times to "Let up," DCJS documents state. Upon her indictment for assault and following her termination from VCU Police citing "unnecessary/excessive force," a deal was made in court to allow for dismissal of Griffin's criminal charges upon completion of community service. While VCU Police Chief Venuti had promptly requested Griffin's certification be revoked, Griffin promptly requested an appeal before the DCJS Executive Board Committee, which, despite extensive documentation and testimony of the incident, voted to overturn her decertification and free her to work as a law enforcement officer in Virginia. Reinstated, free of charges, and authorized to patrol again, Griffin applied for and was granted a job with the Petersburg Police, according to rosters obtained by Open69Oversight VA in fall 2023. The attached document is the DCJS case file for Griffin's appeal for reinstatement. It contains correspondence, a letter of termination, emails, notices, and several reports of the events on the day of the assault. If you have information about Polly F. Griffin, contact info@openoversightva.org.

Incidents