Former Fort Belvoir commander appointed to police review panel

Greg Gadson served as garrison commander at Fort Belvoir from 2012-2014. (Army image)

Col. Greg Gadson (ret.) was appointed to the Fairfax County Police Civilian Review Panel at Tuesday’s Fairfax County Board of Supervisors meeting, Mount Vernon District Supervisor Dan Storck announced.

Gadson, 52, is a Mount Vernon area resident who served as the garrison commander of Fort Belvoir from 2012 until his retirement in 2014. Severely wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2007, Gadson was the first double amputee in Army history to hold such a post. He is a 1989 graduate of West Point, and his 25-year career included overseas deployments for Operations Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

Gadson will be one of nine members of the Police Civilian Review Panel, which was established by the Board of Supervisors in 2016 in the wake of the shooting of John Geer. The panel’s responsibilities include reviewing department investigations of complaints of abuse or misconduct by an officer “to ensure the accuracy, completeness, thoroughness, objectivity and impartiality of the investigation,” according to the panel’s bylaws.

The panel will be holding its next public forum on Dec. 10 at the Mount Vernon Governmental Center.