I have commented about “Top Cops” in Arizona (Maricopa County Sheriff , Chandler Police Department, Payson Police Department and outside Arizona (Portland, Chicago, Baltimore, Ferguson (Missouri), Los Angeles and San Francisco and the fact that rarely is anything done about the abuse of position. Here are two more revelations about “Top Cops” in decades-long cultures that didn’t get addressed until the public was outraged over someone else dying.
Report by the Associated Press on June 1, 2014
(link)
TULSA, Okla. — A former Oklahoma volunteer sheriff's deputy [Robert Bates] who said he mistook his handgun for his stun gun when he fatally shot an unarmed suspect last year was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison.
***
Bates fatally shot Eric Harris on April 2, 2015, while working with Tulsa County sheriff's deputies during an illegal gun sales sting. Harris, who had run from deputies, was restrained and unarmed when he was shot. Harris was black and Bates is white, but Harris' family has said they don't believe race played a role.
***
An outside consultant hired to review the sheriff's office following the shooting determined that the agency suffered from a
"system-wide failure of leadership and supervision" and had been in a "perceptible decline" for more than a decade. The reserve deputy program was later suspended. Weeks after Harris was killed, an internal sheriff's office memo from 2009 was released by an attorney for Harris' family that alleged superiors knew Bates didn't have enough training but pressured others to look the other way because of his relationship with the sheriff and the agency.
***
A grand jury also investigated the sheriff's office and indicted the longtime sheriff, Stanley Glanz, in September, accusing him of failing to release the 2009 memo. Glanz resigned in November.
_____________________________
Findings from Chicago’s Police Accountability Task Force Report
In December 2015, on the same day he fired then-police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, the mayor of Chicago established the Police Accountability Task Force. The action was taken after video of a Chicago teenager’s fatal shooting was followed by civil unrest and public outcry for reforms, including calling for the mayor to resign.
In April 2016, the Police Accountability Task Force report recommended nearly 100 changes within the police department to address major systemic issues. The report noted:
“Every stage of investigations and discipline is plagued by serious structural and procedural flaws that make real
accountability nearly impossible. The collective bargaining agreements provide an unfair advantage to officers, and the investigating agencies — [the Independent Police Review Authority] and CPD’s Bureau of Internal Affairs — are under-resourced, lack true independence and are not held accountable for their work. Even where misconduct is found to have occurred, officers are frequently able to avoid meaningful consequences due to an opaque, drawn out and unscrutinized disciplinary process. …
The enduring issue of CPD officers acquiring a large number of Complaint Registers ("CRs") remains a problem that must be addressed immediately. From 2007-2015, over 1,500 CPD officers acquired 10 or more CRs, 65 of whom accumulated 30 or more
CRs. It is important to note that these numbers do not reflect the entire disciplinary history (e.g., pre-2007) of these officers.
Any one of these metrics in isolation is troubling, but taken together, the only conclusion that can be reached is that there is no serious embrace by CPD leadership of the need to make accountability a core value. These statistics give real credibility to the
widespread perception that there is a deeply entrenched code of silence supported not just by individual officers, but by the very institution itself. The absence of accountability benefits only the problem officer and undermines officers who came into
the job for the right reasons and remain dedicated to serving and protecting. (Emphasis added)
Chicago’s Cook County was dubbed by 60 Minutes as the “False Confessions Capital”. Since 1989, Chicago's Cook County has topped every other U.S. county -- and state, even -- in its number of exonerations due to false confessions, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.
Data from the Chicago Law Department, which serves as counsel for the city, reveals that, from 2010 to February 2016, the city paid more than $322 million in judgments, settlement payments and legal fees. The reasons behind those payments include false arrests, illegal searches and seizures, extended detentions, malicious prosecutions, excessive use of force, reverse convictions, constitutional rights violations and failure to provide medical care.
Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/03/us/chicago-police-department-documents/index.html
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-police-accountability-task-force-final-report-20160413-htmlstory.html
http://www.vox.com/2016/4/13/11424638/chicago-police-racism-report
Report by the Associated Press on June 1, 2014
(link)
TULSA, Okla. — A former Oklahoma volunteer sheriff's deputy [Robert Bates] who said he mistook his handgun for his stun gun when he fatally shot an unarmed suspect last year was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison.
***
Bates fatally shot Eric Harris on April 2, 2015, while working with Tulsa County sheriff's deputies during an illegal gun sales sting. Harris, who had run from deputies, was restrained and unarmed when he was shot. Harris was black and Bates is white, but Harris' family has said they don't believe race played a role.
***
An outside consultant hired to review the sheriff's office following the shooting determined that the agency suffered from a
"system-wide failure of leadership and supervision" and had been in a "perceptible decline" for more than a decade. The reserve deputy program was later suspended. Weeks after Harris was killed, an internal sheriff's office memo from 2009 was released by an attorney for Harris' family that alleged superiors knew Bates didn't have enough training but pressured others to look the other way because of his relationship with the sheriff and the agency.
***
A grand jury also investigated the sheriff's office and indicted the longtime sheriff, Stanley Glanz, in September, accusing him of failing to release the 2009 memo. Glanz resigned in November.
_____________________________
Findings from Chicago’s Police Accountability Task Force Report
In December 2015, on the same day he fired then-police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, the mayor of Chicago established the Police Accountability Task Force. The action was taken after video of a Chicago teenager’s fatal shooting was followed by civil unrest and public outcry for reforms, including calling for the mayor to resign.
In April 2016, the Police Accountability Task Force report recommended nearly 100 changes within the police department to address major systemic issues. The report noted:
“Every stage of investigations and discipline is plagued by serious structural and procedural flaws that make real
accountability nearly impossible. The collective bargaining agreements provide an unfair advantage to officers, and the investigating agencies — [the Independent Police Review Authority] and CPD’s Bureau of Internal Affairs — are under-resourced, lack true independence and are not held accountable for their work. Even where misconduct is found to have occurred, officers are frequently able to avoid meaningful consequences due to an opaque, drawn out and unscrutinized disciplinary process. …
The enduring issue of CPD officers acquiring a large number of Complaint Registers ("CRs") remains a problem that must be addressed immediately. From 2007-2015, over 1,500 CPD officers acquired 10 or more CRs, 65 of whom accumulated 30 or more
CRs. It is important to note that these numbers do not reflect the entire disciplinary history (e.g., pre-2007) of these officers.
Any one of these metrics in isolation is troubling, but taken together, the only conclusion that can be reached is that there is no serious embrace by CPD leadership of the need to make accountability a core value. These statistics give real credibility to the
widespread perception that there is a deeply entrenched code of silence supported not just by individual officers, but by the very institution itself. The absence of accountability benefits only the problem officer and undermines officers who came into
the job for the right reasons and remain dedicated to serving and protecting. (Emphasis added)
Chicago’s Cook County was dubbed by 60 Minutes as the “False Confessions Capital”. Since 1989, Chicago's Cook County has topped every other U.S. county -- and state, even -- in its number of exonerations due to false confessions, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.
Data from the Chicago Law Department, which serves as counsel for the city, reveals that, from 2010 to February 2016, the city paid more than $322 million in judgments, settlement payments and legal fees. The reasons behind those payments include false arrests, illegal searches and seizures, extended detentions, malicious prosecutions, excessive use of force, reverse convictions, constitutional rights violations and failure to provide medical care.
Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/03/us/chicago-police-department-documents/index.html
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-police-accountability-task-force-final-report-20160413-htmlstory.html
http://www.vox.com/2016/4/13/11424638/chicago-police-racism-report