What Happens When Cops Are Accused of Crimes?

[lucasrowe01]

I'm wondering what you guys think of this topic? I have a background in law enforcement and it always bothered me when other LEOs abused their authority and acted like it was no big deal. Or when a cop was accused of wrong-doing, there was this automatic jump to defend him (or her). But every person they thought was guilty, was guilty as far as they were concerned.

This article talks about an LA County Sheriff's Deputy who is accused of raping two female inmates. Sheriff McDonnell quickly arrested the guy...within five hours! Apparently, and I'm reading between the lines here, there was probably some surveillance video that supported the accusations. I'm curious what you guys think about how instances like this should be treated.

Full disclosure: I wrote the article. But I was genuinely surprised at some of the reaction I got.

[octagon]

I read your article. It has biased statements in it with anecdotal evidence to support the conclusions. I don't know how long you worked in law enforcement,where or when but it appears it wasn't enough or to a point where you (at least by this article) were able to separate individual action from group actions, don't understand why LEOs are treated differently in use of force and normal police activities and missed the media coverage and public opinion attitude differences vs reality in the context of numbers.

As for your question. I think the topic should be addressed objectively. Police officers who commit crimes with intent to do so and/or knowlingly do immoral and illegal acts should be treated the same as criminals who do the same actions regardless of their job. If a LEO rapes or murders,steals or otherwise commits a crime he/she knows is a crime then prosecute them and they should pay for their actions as our justice system allows for. I have no sympathy for them.

For LEOs that are doing the job or take action while attempting to do their job even leading to death and injury of others that may not be clear or the best action when looked at in detail I don't consider criminals, will always defend them,their actions or at least attempt to put into perspective the reasons behind the action in an objective way. Too many LEOs are judged by extremely limited information in the court of public opinion and no or weak retraction/correction is done to even attempt to mitigate it. That and the fact that police are doing a job of telling and making people follow rules which by human nature the people breaking such rules usually don't like and try to minimize or excuse away.

[blues]

I'm not quite sure what you're trying to elicit.

Speaking from my own personal experience, I have no sympathy for bad LEO's...federal, state, local or otherwise. In perhaps my biggest career case, a dirty local detective was among the many layers and individuals involved. He was also known to his own department's OPR and suspected of being involved with home invasions and other nefarious criminal activity.

I invited the OPR detectives to work alongside us and they were present when I arrested and interrogated the detective. (He was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years at trial.)

I've also worked with bad LEO's in my own shop, (one who was not prosecuted as IA dropped the ball imho), and another who was from a local dept. assigned to our unit to assist on UC cases and who had been to my home. He was found out and ended up being prosecuted.

I have no sympathy for LEOs that tarnish the badge and have no problems with their being prosecuted. It goes without saying that they are entitled to the same protections (and legal representation) under the law as any other citizen suspected of a crime...including the presumption of innocence.

[TGS]

This article talks about an LA County Sheriff's Deputy who is accused of raping two female inmates. Sheriff McDonnell quickly arrested the guy...within five hours! Apparently, and I'm reading between the lines here, there was probably some surveillance video that supported the accusations.

Yeah, congrats captain obvious, that's generally how it works....you get arrested when PC is developed.....

Other than that nothing needs to be said because Octagon summed it up nicely.

[Patrick Taylor]

Depends on where ..... Past city I lived in had 2 city LE get drunk , grab and handcuff a woman , throw her in the back of their marked cruiser , then drove around town and even spun donuts in a Food lion parking lot and they are still LE. Where I now live I do not think that would get over looked.

[Erick Gelhaus]

I guess working for an agency where the normal OCONUS behavior is banging hookers in foriegn countries does provide some insight into misconduct by cops.

Police agencies hire from the human race, as a result we get the same problems everyone has to deal with. We try to screen for the issues and get rid of them ahead of time but it doesn't always happen.

In the situation the OP described it sounds like the department got information about a criminal act(s), they conducted an investigation, developed probable cause, and acted on it. That is how it should be treated. While criminal acts happen, they don't happen as often as some would imagine. When they actually happen, the above seems to be the norm - may not always be an immediate booking, it just be immediate suspension while the investigation works its way through the event and system. And sometimes, there are just BS accusations designed to get the accuser out of something.

What I see all to frequently though is an event happens that is either a policy violation at best or isn't an issue at all but is seriously misunderstood by the media & SJWs. When the go bonkers there is reflexive defense and it gets worse when the media/SJWs don't get the outcome they think they should.

[LtDave]

Just so you know, LASD has two internal affairs units, one focused solely on criminal violations.
I had the opportunity to work professional standards for a while at my agency. I had occasion to interface with the LASD folks. Trust me, you work with people for years and you think you know them. You don’t. Not at all.

[lucasrowe01]

Well, that was a mixed response. A few actually addressed the question, while a few others thought ad hominem attacks were the appropriate way to go.

As was said, cops are people and some people are bad, so you end up with a few bad cops. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has seen several of its executive leadership ousted in recent years - some of whom because they're now serving federal prison sentences. It is a department that, in many ways, has given credence to the detractors who think that there is no good cop. They see story after story of corruption and begin to assign blame to the entire law enforcement community. I know that's not accurate. As I said in the article, the overwhelming majority of cops are good folks who do the right thing day-in and day-out. I commended the Sheriff for acting in a way that will, hopefully, regain some of the public trust. But I guess all of that went unnoticed.

I have represented cops accused of excessive use of force and false arrest...part of a jury trial just last year where we got a full defense verdict for a group of SWAT officers. But sure, throw out some generalizations about prostitutes in Columbia, question my credentials, make assumptions about my intent. That's the easy route. I suppose maybe some of you have been fortunate enough to never see an injustice in your department - to never see an officer who everyone knows is doing the wrong thing, but gets little more than some admin time off. Lucky you. I hope it stays that way. In the meantime, though, when I see a sheriff acting in a way that's above reproach; that gives no quarter to suspicion, I'll commend that every day of the week. That was the intention of the article. I guess I'll do a better job next time making that clearer.

No ill will or hard feelings here. Stay safe.

[willie]

In my area cops don't get a break and are held to a higher standard than civilians. My opinion is that competent leadership is the key to hiring and training desirable individuals and then maintaing high standards. I've observed that l.e. organizations fail to nurture officers and let them fend for themselves. That is, departments could structure inservice training and programs that might help cops cope with severe emtional draining seen in many that posts on the forum. We may have a system which, while quick to prosecute its own, will also use up and discard individuals as they go about performing daily tasks.

[andre3k]

In my area the truly guilty ones tend to eat their pistols shortly after being indicted. Totally serious on this one. It's happened to three guys I knew.

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