December, 2010 – Maybe It Is Time to Rethink Some Policies
According to the Associated Press, a police officer was involved in an on-duty shooting and wounded the suspect. The suspect was arrested. Apparently it was a controversial shooting because community members stormed the police station and tied two officers to their chairs. Then,in front of them, they hacked the shooting officer to death with machetes and set his body on fire. Twenty members of the mob were later arrested, but that didn’t do the hacked-up officer much good. [Full Article]
November, 2010 – Come On In; the Water’s F-F-Fine!
While I have great respect for Chief Beck, when I read his article last month about “Myths and Rumors about Financial Disclosure” I couldn’t help but think of the comedy cliché of the kids in the swimming hole trying to entice their playmates into jumping into the freezing water. While it may be a funny situation on television, you might not think it is so funny once you have taken the plunge. And once you jump, there is no going back. [Full Article]
October, 2010 – Is This Why They Are Called “The Dark Side of the Force?”
In my August Warning Bells article, I described the unfair treatment of an officer who had been involved in an off-duty officer-involved shooting. The unfair treatment has gotten even worse. [Full Article]
September, 2010 – Teams II for Management
According to the Harvard study that was otherwise very complimentary about the progress of the LAPD, over 60% of our officers fear that they will be punished for making an honest mistake. [Full Article]
August, 2010 – Attention, Police Commission: Officer Needs Help
It may not be entirely accurate, but the perception is that the Police Commission has been hell-bent for leather to change the “culture” of LAPD, which refers to the street cop’s treatment of the public. Eight years of Consent Decree enforcement have been directly aimed at this goal. TEAMS II has been created as a warning system to focus attention on any officer who exhibits the slightest symptoms of treating the public unfairly. A Constitutional Policing Unit has been formed to examine in detail every allegation of biased policing, no matter how irresponsibly made. LAPD has 10 times more Internal Affairs investigators than the County Sheriff’s to make sure no stone goes unturned when an officer is accused of misconduct. [Full Article]
July, 2010 – Surviving the Biased-Policing Investigation
“Although an officer’s “gut feelings” that a stop should be performed are usually valid, if those feelings are not later translated by officers into an articulably legal reasonable cause, problems develop. Non-officers do not understand gut feelings. If you as the stopping officer cannot give a legal reason, there are those in the Department and Police Commission who will assign you one. And it won’t be one that you yourself would choose. Insufficient reasonable cause to some equals a racial-profile stop.” [Full Article]
June, 2010 – Bratton Is Gone — Did His “No More Gotcha” Policy Go with Him?
“Bratton hit LAPD management like a tornado. The command structure was shaken, rearranged, reshuffled and, for the most part, those left standing were the better choices. Although the road would not always be smooth, Bratton recognized that a relationship with the League would be a good thing. In 2003, he even addressed the delegates at their annual meeting in Palm Springs. “I have never seen a department that eats its own like this one,” he said, to a cheering audience. “Things are going to change.” [Full Article]
May, 2010 – Biased Policing, or Biased Police Commission
“You know what rolls downhill and a truckload of it is now rolling down at you. Before it started rolling downhill, it hit the fan in an April 2008 Police Commission meeting. Internal Affairs was presenting the 2007 year-end report on discipline to the commission. It seems no officers had been convicted of racial profiling.” [Full Article]
April, 2010 – Time to Cut Back on Luxury Investigations
“They say the city is well on its way to bankruptcy, 4,000 city workers are going to be laid off (maybe including police and firefighters), Wall Street is downgrading the city’s credit rating, and on and on. The police vehicle fleet is not getting any new vehicles and officers are being transferred out of specialized units into patrol to increase the police presence on the street because thousands of criminals are being released by the prisons. Department management is continually being challenged to do more with less. And less is going to be getting even more less next year.” [Full Article]
March, 2010 – The Officers Were Lucky
“The officers were lucky. Very lucky. It hadn’t started out that way. The captain had called them in and told them Internal Affairs was en route. “You better get a rep; “ she advised. The Department had recently restricted Officer Representation Section reps from rolling on IA rollouts so that was unlucky, but these officers were experienced and had cell phones. League attorney Robert Rico received notification and started making phone calls. IA was persuaded to stand down for the moment.” [Full Article]
February, 2010 – Defending Our Country? So What?
“As an ex-Marine (although there really is no such thing), I find this next story personally offensive. I cannot go into any of the details of the alleged offense because it is a confidential personnel matter, but the details are not the point of my objection. In short, an officer was accused of an offense and the Department decided that he was guilty and should go to a Board of Rights. Before that determination was made, the officer was activated by the military and sent to Iraq.” [Full Article]
January, 2010 – Problems for Beck to Fix
“It was a nice gesture by Chief Beck to free uniformed officers from the requirement of wearing ties with long sleeve shirts. It was probably designed to signal the troops that Chief Beck has their best interests in mind. In reality, Chief Beck did not need this gesture, because his concern for the street cop has been evident as far back as when he made sergeant. Now is an opportunity for him to demonstrate this concern for the troops in a more meaningful way.” [Full Article]