The Fox Is In The Hen House

Recent disturbing news stories are becoming to prevalent involving reprehensible behavior by law enforcement by officers who have been granted great levels of trust by the people they serve. For a law enforcement agency, public trust is everything. Think about the type of trust that is placed in the men and women who wear their communities uniform and badge as they serve and protect.

We trust them as they pull us over for a traffic stop, they invite cops into their homes on calls for service without any vetting. Parents tell their kids that if they get lost, to look for a police officer for help. We empower them to take away a person's freedom by summary arrest without a trial. That comes after their freedom has been taken then probable cause has to be shown. Every other entity in out criminal justice system has to extend due process first. Evidence and eyewitness testimony has to be presented. Other than probable cause, society blindly trusts the word of the police officer when making an arrest and their testimony under oath is given more weight than other witnesses. That is an extreme amount of trust and once it is lost through the behavior of unscrupulous officers, that trust will be difficult to regain and every other officer then has to live under that cloud of suspicion, rightly or wrongly.

Here is a snapshot of some of the unbelievable behavior of some law enforcement officers. Numerous high-ranking officers of the New York Police Department are under investigation on allegations of bribery and falsely reporting hundreds of thousands of dollars in overtime pay for work not performed. One lieutenant accuses a high-ranking officer of approving overtime in exchange for sexual favors. Another high-ranking officer had a search warrant executed at his home by the FBI and has been placed on suspension. Other officers have had their cell phones seized as part of a criminal investigation. A Massachusetts police trooper is accused illegal wiretapping and a separate gun probe. A former police sergeant from Cambridgeshire Pennsylvania was just found guilt of misconduct in public office after fostering a “toxic” culture involving dozens of colleagues. He also asked a colleague to send him a sex video of a female suspect. The judge in the case observed that the general public would be “shocked” to learn the full extent of what the officer had done. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin two restraining orders were granted against an officer who has since resigned for using the departments license plate reading system to track his ex-girlfriend and her partner. He has been charged with misconduct in public office and plead guilty. The chief of the New Chicago, Indiana police department was taken into custody after being accused of stealing a gun tied to a criminal investigation and selling it at a pawn shop. The Massachusetts State Police are going through a scandal now involving troopers trying to frame a woman for murder. She was acquitted and the troopers tried to frame her again. Texts were discovered between several troopers that slur blacks, Jews, women, Asians, and gays. It is ugly for that agency right now as the incident gained national attention.

Police corruption scandals unfortunately are not new. It is defined as illegal or unethical behavior for his out her interest rather than the public good. The Chicago Police Department, New York Police Department and New Orleans police department are just a few of the agencies where corruption became part of the culture. The Chicago Police Department has a legacy of corruption.

It has said that corruption was allowed to be standard operation procedure. It is like a cancer. If not rooted out, it spreads. Several past police corruption commissions have identified the lack of oversight by police leaders as a major cause. But what do you do if as in the case of the NYPD, the leaders and executive are the ones who are corrupt?

This level of corruption is not something that can be handled internally when the corruption reaches the highest levels of the agency. In 1992 the City of New York formed the Mollen Commission. Mollen’s mandate was to examine and investigate the nature and extent of corruption and to evaluate the department’s procedures for preventing and detecting the corruption and to recommend changes and improvements to those procedures.

I support whatever method these cities use to root out this cancer of corruption. The men and women who are not involved in it nor would they ever betray their office deserve a way to have faith and trust restored. The public deserves it too. Law enforcement derives its authority from the consent of the governed. The public has no use for a police agency that they cannot trust.

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of Americas Sheriff LLC, President of Rise Up Wisconsin INC, Board member of the Crime Research Center, author of the book Cop Under Fire: Moving Beyond Hashtags of Race Crime and Politics for a Better America. To learn more visit www.americassheriff.com