Civil Disturbance Unit officers doing live training to subdue a “violent protester.”
Not everyone knows the Fairfax County Police Department has a Civil Disturbance Unit, but it performs vital functions here and throughout the region. And one of its members, PFC Kevin Gehr, recently spoke about it at a meeting of the Sully District Police Station’s Citizens Advisory Committee.
“We’ve been here five years now, and we respond to First Amendment events,” he said. “With 131 members, we’re the largest, non-standing unit within the county – meaning we all have other police jobs as our main job. Our purpose is to protect peaceful, First Amendment protests and quell violent uprisings. We responded to the Capitol on Jan. 6.”
Gehr said the members have a “high level of training” and are “trained more than street officers are to deal with these types of situations. Our training levels are Basic, Grenadier, Medic and Level 1. Grenadiers will use chemical munitions and pepper balls. Level 1 officers are in full riot gear; we use armadillo shields that won’t break if an ax is thrown at them. When you have 10,000 people and only 50 of you, officers need to be trained to deal with them.
FCPD’s Civil Disturbance Unit officers (in face shields) inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“A couple medics – usually from our Helicopter Division – are embedded with us. They help us out because, in a [Civil Disturbance Unit] deployment, we’re often far from a hospital and they can offer prolonged treatment and provide advanced life support. They can also do ultrasounds and concussion screening, and they can administer DuoDote – a prescription medicine used to treat chemical attacks. In addition, we’re now the first police department in the country carrying whole blood in the cruiser. It comes from Inova, and we can administer it to victims on the street.”
He said some 38 Civil Disturbance Unit officers are Level 1 and the rest are Basic level. The CDU conducts several rounds of training per year. And, said Gehr, “Every new member coming out of the Police Academy will be CDU-trained, at least at Basic level. It’s not an option, anymore.”
The CDU also instructs surrounding jurisdictions – including Stafford and Spotsylvania counties, Fairfax and Alexandria cities, and the U.S. Capital and CIA police – in both basic and advanced tactics. “It’s a National Capital Area requirement for a 40-hour class,” said Gehr. “And all the other jurisdictions come and take our class in Fairfax County.”
Since May 2022, Fairfax County’s Civil Disturbance Unit has been deployed more than 80 times. “Crowd sizes for these protests have ranged from 5-100 people,” said Gehr. “They all ended peacefully and without incident. We don’t want to make arrests; we want to encourage people to protest peacefully.”
He noted that, last fall, 90 percent of the deployments were for protests outside the homes of the three Supreme Court justices who live in this county. “We went there every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, after the Roe vs. Wade decision came out,” he explained.
However, the violent Jan. 6 insurrection was another matter, entirely. “Our folks were in gas masks for five hours that day, as well as helmets, masks, body armor and shields,” said Gehr. “The Fairfax County CDU pushed people back after the curfew, but the Capitol Police and Metro Police Dept. did most of the heavy lifting. Then came the state and local police, including FCPD.”
Normally, he said, 30-50 CDU members are deployed at a time for a large-scale event in, for example, Washington, D.C., or Baltimore, Md. But to a Supreme Court justice’s house, just 10-12 officers are needed. The Civil Disturbance Unit’s many deployments have also included responding to protests outside the NRA building, as well as to the District for presidential inaugurations and State of the Union addresses.
After hearing Gehr’s presentation, residents attending were able to ask questions. One wanted to know how the CDU learns about an incident in advance. “We have full-time detectives and analysts working on intelligence, and this information is relayed to the CDU commander,” replied Capt. Rachel Levy, commander of the Sully District Station.
Another man asked, if a civil disturbance broke out in Centreville, who’d respond and who’d be in charge of quelling it. “Should there be an unlawful assembly in the county, we’d be called to go there with our gear,” said Gehr.
“The local police officers would respond, as would the CDU,” added Levy. “When the CDU experts came in, we’d still be there, but they’d be the ones leading the charge.”
* 131 Officers
* High level of training
* Responded to the Capitol on Jan. 6
* Deployed more than 80 times since May 2022
* Last fall, 90 percent of the deployments were for protests outside homes of the three Supreme Court justices who live in Fairfax County.