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Detroit Police has a backlog of up to 500 discipli
Josey1
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MI: Detroit Police Department has a backlog of up to 500 disciplinary cases
Police Discipline
Large backlog of cases serves the city poorly
September 10, 2002
It's disgraceful that the Detroit Police Department has a backlog of up to 500 disciplinary cases. It's unfair to Detroiters to keep bad cops on the payroll. And it's unfair to officers accused of misconduct -- some of whom will be cleared -- to have those allegations hanging around for years. Due process delayed is due process denied.
To move these cases along, the cash-strapped city must find a way to make more city attorneys available to hear officers' appeals, even if it means working weekends and nights to catch up.
The problem was underscored recently when Police Chief Jerry Oliver fired five officers involved in the death of a diabetic man in a precinct lockup. The officers and unions have appealed the action.
What's hard to swallow is that the firings stem from a death three years ago. If Oliver is right that these officers should be off the street, they should have been pulled a long time ago.
To his credit, Oliver, who became chief in February, is committed to giving these old cases a hearing as soon as possible. But after a chief's hearing, an officer can still appeal the case to an internal trial board and, with the union's backing, to arbitration. The appeals process can easily take another year.
The onus is really on the city to come up with legal staff to catch up on the backlog, and keep cases from bogging down again.
The alternative would be far more costly for the department, the police officers and the city they serve: continuing a drawn-out process that denies officers due process and keeps some bad cops on the street, and the payroll, far longer than necessary.
http://www.freep.com/voices/editorials/ecops10_20020910.htm
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"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Police Discipline
Large backlog of cases serves the city poorly
September 10, 2002
It's disgraceful that the Detroit Police Department has a backlog of up to 500 disciplinary cases. It's unfair to Detroiters to keep bad cops on the payroll. And it's unfair to officers accused of misconduct -- some of whom will be cleared -- to have those allegations hanging around for years. Due process delayed is due process denied.
To move these cases along, the cash-strapped city must find a way to make more city attorneys available to hear officers' appeals, even if it means working weekends and nights to catch up.
The problem was underscored recently when Police Chief Jerry Oliver fired five officers involved in the death of a diabetic man in a precinct lockup. The officers and unions have appealed the action.
What's hard to swallow is that the firings stem from a death three years ago. If Oliver is right that these officers should be off the street, they should have been pulled a long time ago.
To his credit, Oliver, who became chief in February, is committed to giving these old cases a hearing as soon as possible. But after a chief's hearing, an officer can still appeal the case to an internal trial board and, with the union's backing, to arbitration. The appeals process can easily take another year.
The onus is really on the city to come up with legal staff to catch up on the backlog, and keep cases from bogging down again.
The alternative would be far more costly for the department, the police officers and the city they serve: continuing a drawn-out process that denies officers due process and keeps some bad cops on the street, and the payroll, far longer than necessary.
http://www.freep.com/voices/editorials/ecops10_20020910.htm
MORE
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
The Associated Press
9/10/02 5:10 PM
CINCINNATI (AP) -- The city's highest-ranking black police officer pleaded no contest Tuesday to trying to obstruct an investigation of damage to his city-owned car. He was fined $1.
Prosecutors had dropped an indictment on more serious charges that Lt. Col. Ronald Twitty tampered with records and evidence.
Twitty, 52, denied any wrongdoing and said he decided to plead no contest to the misdemeanor to spare his family pain.
If convicted of the felony charges, the 29-year police veteran could have gone to prison and lost his pension. The misdemeanor carried up to two months in jail and a $500 fine.
Twitty's indictment last week angered some black police officers and activists.
Twitty, one of four assistant police chiefs in the 1,000-officer department, was suspended July 12 after police questioned his explanation of how the Ford Taurus he used sustained more than $3,000 worth of damage.
Twitty claimed a hit-and-run driver struck the car, but prosecutor Thomas Longano said a scientific analysis showed it probably hit something concrete.
http://www.nj.com/newsflash/national/index.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?a0729_BC_OfficerInvestigation&&news&newsflash-national
Copyright 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
9/10/2002
OSTON POLICE are told, and supposedly trained, to avoid firing at moving vehicles. The message hasn't gotten through, and great harm is being done.
Yesterday Commissioner Paul Evans proposed a change in the Police Department's policy on the use of deadly force that would remove some discretion from officers. The recommendation is sound. If followed religiously, it should lead to fewer injuries and deaths of officers, suspects, and bystanders.
The department's current policy states that ''the moving vehicle itself shall not constitute the threatened use of deadly force unless there are no reasonable or apparent means of escape.'' Evans wants to toughen that regulation by requiring officers to ''reposition themselves'' and wait for reinforcements. They are not to fire. Police bullets, he says, rarely stop autos. They are more likely to rub out public confidence in the department's use of deadly force.
Evans's proposal comes less than 48 hours after a police officer shot and killed Eveline Barros-Cepeda, a 25-year-old passenger in a car driven by a man who tried to elude police after a traffic stop in Dorchester. It was the fourth deadly discharge of a firearm by police this year and the eighth in the last 22 months.
A sharp increase in the use of deadly force is sometimes the sign of a department that suffers from lax supervision, racially biased policing, or a listless internal affairs department. That doesn't seem to be the case in Boston, where police officials have a longstanding commitment to neighborhood policing. Here the problem appears to be one of training. Officers may be failing to analyze properly the precipitating events that lead up to the decision to shoot or hold their fire. The reaction time of officers is not the problem. Judgment is the problem.
Evans also promises to address this gap through training that integrates theory and practice. He will need, and deserves, the cooperation of the police union.
The average Bostonian appreciates the dangers faced by police and doesn't claim expertise in firearms. But some things are obvious even to the untrained eye. It is easy to see, for example, how police fired on an unstable woman last July when they encountered the knife-wielding suspect who had evidently slashed the throats of her two young children. But what of the officer in April 2001 who clung to a sunroof with one hand while firing with the other on a young drug suspect in the North End? And how to justify the actions last May of an officer who fired at a car in crowded Copley Square during an outdoor gala, barely missing partygoers?
Until two years ago the Boston Police Department ranked among the major law enforcement agencies whose officers were least likely to shoot and kill. The public wants to see the department regain its place on that list.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/253/editorials/Less_deadly_force+.shtml
This story ran on page A14 of the Boston Globe on 9/10/2002.
c Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
9/10/2002
OSTON POLICE are told, and supposedly trained, to avoid firing at moving vehicles. The message hasn't gotten through, and great harm is being done.
Yesterday Commissioner Paul Evans proposed a change in the Police Department's policy on the use of deadly force that would remove some discretion from officers. The recommendation is sound. If followed religiously, it should lead to fewer injuries and deaths of officers, suspects, and bystanders.
The department's current policy states that ''the moving vehicle itself shall not constitute the threatened use of deadly force unless there are no reasonable or apparent means of escape.'' Evans wants to toughen that regulation by requiring officers to ''reposition themselves'' and wait for reinforcements. They are not to fire. Police bullets, he says, rarely stop autos. They are more likely to rub out public confidence in the department's use of deadly force.
Evans's proposal comes less than 48 hours after a police officer shot and killed Eveline Barros-Cepeda, a 25-year-old passenger in a car driven by a man who tried to elude police after a traffic stop in Dorchester. It was the fourth deadly discharge of a firearm by police this year and the eighth in the last 22 months.
A sharp increase in the use of deadly force is sometimes the sign of a department that suffers from lax supervision, racially biased policing, or a listless internal affairs department. That doesn't seem to be the case in Boston, where police officials have a longstanding commitment to neighborhood policing. Here the problem appears to be one of training. Officers may be failing to analyze properly the precipitating events that lead up to the decision to shoot or hold their fire. The reaction time of officers is not the problem. Judgment is the problem.
Evans also promises to address this gap through training that integrates theory and practice. He will need, and deserves, the cooperation of the police union.
The average Bostonian appreciates the dangers faced by police and doesn't claim expertise in firearms. But some things are obvious even to the untrained eye. It is easy to see, for example, how police fired on an unstable woman last July when they encountered the knife-wielding suspect who had evidently slashed the throats of her two young children. But what of the officer in April 2001 who clung to a sunroof with one hand while firing with the other on a young drug suspect in the North End? And how to justify the actions last May of an officer who fired at a car in crowded Copley Square during an outdoor gala, barely missing partygoers?
Until two years ago the Boston Police Department ranked among the major law enforcement agencies whose officers were least likely to shoot and kill. The public wants to see the department regain its place on that list.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/253/editorials/Less_deadly_force+.shtml
This story ran on page A14 of the Boston Globe on 9/10/2002.
c Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Tue Sep 10, 7:09 AM ET
CHICAGO (AP) - A federal judge ruled that Chicago police and prosecutors routinely violate the rights of witnesses by holding them too long and denying them access to lawyers.
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U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur issued an injunction requiring police to begin allowing lawyers to see witnesses immediately upon their detention. Shadur wrote Monday that the theory that police treat witnesses differently than suspects and let them know they're free to leave is "totally at odds with actual practice."
"No reasonable person would knowingly volunteer to remain in a small, windowless, locked interrogation room for such extended periods of time," Shadur wrote in a 41-page opinion.
The ruling was in response to a lawsuit by First Defense Legal Aid, a not-for-profit group that said its lawyers were denied access to witnesses who were held for up to 24 hours.
Cook County State's Attorney Dick Devine was ordered to begin training sessions to teach prosecutors how to deal with witnesses.
City officials and prosecutors said the ruling would be appealed.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=519&ncid=519&e=8&u=/ap/20020910/ap_on_re_us/police_witnesses_1
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Monday, September 09, 2002
By Jon Silver, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Pittsburgh police today arrested a homeless man and charged him with stabbing a security guard and another worker at the Ames store in Waterworks Mall after he was confronted for shoplifting.
Arrested was Charles Scott, 52. Assistant chief William Mullen said Scott has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault and robbery.
Mullen said guard Albert White saw Scott stealing portable CD players and stopped him in the store. Scott suddenly pulled out a penknife with a 3-to-4-inch blade and stabbed White multiple times in the chest, Mullen said.
Scott then chased White into another room and continued stabbing him. At that point, a worker who is helping the bankrupt chain liquidate intervened and helped White pin Scott down. The employee, whose name was still being confirmed, received a minor stab wound in an arm.
Both workers were taken to Allegheny General Hospital, where White was undergoing surgery.
http://www.post-gazette.com/breaking/20020909stabp4.asp
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
09/10/02
Portland police Officer Brett Williamson went to a North Powellhurst house last week to check on a report of a domestic dispute.
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When he left, the family dog was dying of bullet wounds in Shannon Allen's lap. Allen's children were in tears; her neighbors on the cul-de-sac in shock.
The policeman said Allen's dog, a 70-pound mix of Norwegian elkhound and Australian shepherd, charged him, growling. He responded by drawing his .45-caliber handgun and firing.
But Allen said the officer was the one who acted wildly in her front yard in the 14100 block of Southeast Hawthorne Court.
Allen said the bushy-tailed dog, named Baxter, slipped between her 14-year-old daughter's legs in the front doorway. He barked but wasn't a threat to the officer.
"He barked at everybody," Allen said. "But he was afraid of his own shadow. He wouldn't hurt anybody."
The officer could have yelled "boo," she said, and Baxter would have retreated.
Williamson fired three shots, according to a police report. Neighbors found a bullet casing in a nearby yard where children played.
Allen called police to her house because she was having problems with her boyfriend, who left before Williamson and other officers arrived.
"He never asked if we were safe, or if the problem had been resolved," she said of the officer. "He just shot my dog and left."
A neighbor took the dog to a veterinarian, who euthanized it. Allen's 12-year-old son, Wesley, is wearing his departed pet's chain around his neck.
Police said it's too early to say whether Williamson acted appropriately. A review of the incident has not been completed, police spokesman Sgt. Brian Schmautz said.
The bureau reviews any incident where a weapon is discharged. Officers can use pepper spray or their firearms at their discretion to defend themselves.
"It's not clear why (Williamson) chose to do it this way," Schmautz said.
http://www.oregonlive.com/metroeast/oregonian/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/metro_east_news/103165894410591.xml
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878