2010 Year Of Misconduct In Review

OFF THE WIRE
Friday, December 31, 2010
2010 Year Of Misconduct In Review


As we end 2010, it doesn't take much to see just how broken and corrupt the criminal justice system is in this state.
All one needs to do is follow your local news for a few days. Look at our daily posts and then into our news archives. Or just use Google. Its all there, its real and its undeniable.
This year thanks to the Tennessean, we learned that The Great State of Tennessee ranks #1 among all the other states for general levels of corruption. And sadly, that doesn't shock us one bit when you consider what we are about to lay out for you.
From The National Police Misconduct Statistics and Reporting Project we learned that Tennessee ranks 6th in the nation for rates of police misconduct.
Investigative Reporters for Nashville News Channel 5 showed us that Nashville Metro PD was rife with misconduct. Misconduct that ranged from police officers who were threatened with punishment by superiors if they didn't find more people to arrest. How murder and domestic violence investigations were stalled, hampered and outright quashed by former Chief Serpas and his command staff, unless of course, the victim was famous… To how the crime stats Metro was reporting to the FBI over the last 6 years may not have been completely truthful. We found out how Metro police officers admit they helped some of the biggest names in town get out of their tickets for speeding and other traffic violations. And how they would escape any form of punishment for doing so. And of course, we followed the endless parade of Metro cops, one after the other who were arrested this year for crimes that ranged from DUI while on-duty all the way to Murder. To the truly bizarre where a Nashville Cop pulled his gun and threatened fellow cops during roll call.
They launched an award winning investigation and found that equal justice under the law does not exist in Tennessee. That we have "Special Justice For Special People". The investigation led to reforms that are changing how our courts do business. Good Job News Channel 5!
News Channel 4 I-Team Investigators dug into even more police corruption and misconduct both in and outside Nashville-Davidson County. Everything from uncovering the police chauffeuring a police commanders secretary around in a patrol car . To uncovering massive amounts of money and equipment that went missing from Tennessee law enforcement agencies. Money that was found after state auditors went looking into the usage of state funds and local tax money. Many incidents of cops stealing dope from evidence lockers was also reported on.
And just a bit before our time. It was the Channel 4 I-Team in 2006 was responsible for uncovering 100's of cases where people with criminal records became police officers in Tennessee. Many of them with felony convictions. The I-Team also found that the POST commission granted 110 waivers to people with criminal backgrounds wanting to be cops.
And a year before that in 2005, The Tennessean found that 1 out of every 18 THP Troopers had criminal records too. Many of them also had felonies and many more yet with suspended drivers licenses, still armed, still on duty, still patrolling.
This year the Tennessean looked into the rampant misconduct of our Judges and how they routinely received no punishment whatsoever for serious ethical and rights violations they commit. They discovered that nearly 90% of all complaints filed against Judges in this state are dismissed outright by the Court of the Judiciary. With little more than a smirk, laugh or any other form of acknowledgment. They found out that on the very rare occasion when a Judge was punished it was nearly always done in secret. And the Judges that were punished were more likely to continue the same or similar behavior than to stop it. The misconduct among our Judges to date is so bad that the Tennessee State Senate held hearings which will continue into next year. For the purpose of overhauling the laws that govern the discipline of Judges.
During those hearing we heard sworn testimony from area attorneys who said, they feared filing official complaints against Judges. That Judges would routinely retaliate against them for filing any type of complaint with the Court of the Judiciary.
Then the Tennessean uncovered that Metro Nashville cops arrested for domestic violence crimes were more likely to be given a few days off with pay than lose their jobs.
They also reported that the entire Nashville Police Dept. needed retraining on "Disorderly Conduct Laws". Due to the disturbing number of arrests MPD Officers were making where no crime was being committed at all. Throughout the law enforcement community Disorderly Conduct (Known as D.O.C.), is referred to by the cops as "P.O.P." which stands for "Pissing Off the Police". And that is exactly what Metro was doing, arresting people who had not committed any crime, all they did was make a cop mad or embarrassed them. So their punishment for such non-crimes was a trip down to "CJC" an arrest record and a court date.
FOX 17 News reporters uncovered the jaw-dropping revelations, that state inmates have access to your personal information while working at a TennCare Call Center. Answering 2,000 plus calls a day from people all around the state with questions about their healthcare claims.
Chattanooga News Channel 9 uncovered what basically amounts to a police scam (or a serious lack of knowledge of laws). Where Chattanooga Police are routinely giving people tickets for things that are not at all illegal. Ticketing people for their perfectly legal Georgia temporary car tags. Which forces them to either pay an unjust fine, or take time off from work, out of the day to come to court and fight the ticket. Either way its money lost for something that is not at all illegal.
We were even treated to an article that proudly proclaimed that University of Tennessee researchers, using "Gaming Theory", suggests police should be allowed to be corrupt… yeah that one still has us scratching our heads.
We saw a disturbingly large number of police officers investigated and arrested for sex crimes that ranged from rape that in some cases occurred on duty, to possession of child porn. The Assistant Chief of Police in Bridgeport Tennessee was sentenced to 125 months in Federal Prison for Possession of child porn.
We watched news report after news report as the FBI and the TBI placed well over 20 of our states police/sheriffs departments and/or their chiefs/sheriffs under investigation. Most of these investigations are still ongoing today and in many of them the FBI/TBI refuse to say what they are about. And many more police chiefs were suspended, fired or charged criminally for crimes or acts of official misconduct. A few were even sent to jail and prison.
An endless parade of lawsuits were filed against departments or the state for everything from excessive force claims and rights violations to in-custody deaths. Millions of dollars in awards were paid out from previous years law suits, where people sued our law enforcement. And yes, all that money was paid for by you, me and every other taxpayer in this state. Not one red-cent came out of any police officers pockets or paychecks, even though they were the violators and aggressors in everyone of those cases.
One of the more bizarre cases involved the Sheriff of Lauderdale County who was accused of locking numerous people up without warrants or probable cause. Telling them they were being "detained for investigation". Then letting them go some 48 hours later without filing charges.
Another lawsuit involved a Dickson County Judge who would randomly order the bailiffs to arrest people in his courtroom then force them to take drug tests, because he said… they looked like they were on drugs. Oh yeah, if they refused to submit to the test he held them in contempt and put them in jail.
A Williamson County judge admonished and warned Franklin detectives that, "the next time they pull a suspect out of bed, put him in a patrol car and keep him at the police station for several hours, they should get an arrest warrant."
We watched as several of our county jails were de-certified by the Tennessee Corrections Institute. And more still were threatened to be shut down by the state for failing to comply with the laws and regulations of the state.
A Tennessee Narcotics Officer of the Year was found guilty for aiding drug dealers making deliveries of their dope and steroids to sell to other police officers.
The "Fusion Center", which is an "Intelligence Agency" run by the Tennessee Department of Public Safety, flagged the ACLU as "suspicious" and placed them on some type of state terrorist watch list after they sent out a holiday reminder to all the public schools in the state…
We learned that cops who lie don't always lose their jobs. And that brought us to a Wall Street Journal article written in January of 2009 that detailed how the legal system struggles with how to react when police officers lie. It seems fairly straight forward to us, if they lie charge them with perjury…
…but then that brings us to our Apartheid Criminal Justice System.
One system for you and I, and another for the cops and those who make the laws.
A prime example of such a travesty of justice was the 11 year old girl who was murdered by an on-duty Rutherford County Deputy Sheriff when he ran her over on a quiet residential street. Then hid two liquor bottles he removed from his patrol car before offering any first aid help as she lay there dying under his car. Deputy Ron Killings then lied to the police about the wreck.
Evidence was presented that showed Ron Killing was the phone at the time of the crash. And he was traveling over 60 MPH in a 30 MPH zone at night without any emergency equipment activated.
And he was not taken to the hospital for over 3 hours for a mandatory blood test to determine if he was drinking. When he was finally taken it was by his attorney and not the police investigating the fatal wreck.
The officers with Murfreesboro PD who investigated the crash were all disciplined and reassigned for botching the investigation. We learned courtesy of DNJ.com that most of those officers had extensive histories of misconduct and disciplinary actions in their MPD personnel files. In the end they charged Ron Killings with what amounted to the wrong crimes for which a jury predictably found him not guilty. Many who sat and witnessed the trial said they felt as if the prosecutor intentionally threw the case.
Former Sheriff of Rutherford County Truman Jones went on to introduce the judge who presided over the case, "As a friend of law enforcement", at a peace officers memorial event in Murfreesboro some days later.
During this year we have tracked over 700 news stories detailing official and criminal misconduct by the police in this state. Investigations were conducted by local, state and federal authorities into well over 1,000 of our law enforcement officers for acts of official misconduct and crimes. And far too many of them were charged with crimes. Then, either pled guilty or were found guilty by a judge or jury.
This, in a state that has just over 12,900 police and deputies according to the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics most recent employment and labor numbers year 2009.
Thats roughly 1 officer out of every 13 in this state that was either investigated for official misconduct. Suspended, resigned while under investigation, fired or charged with a crime. Nationally that number is 1 out of 116, according to the National Police Misconduct Statistics and Reporting Project. Who uses FBI and National Uniform Crime Reporting stats to compile its comparative analysis.
And those are just the ones we know about. Incidents from departments that are large enough to warrant media scrutiny. Not every department issues a press release each time an officer is suspended or fired. An internal investigation is initiated or a complaint of criminal behavior is received. And even then every case is not reported by the media. So the numbers could, and most likely are much higher.
We cannot discount the fact that there is no way of knowing the number of incidents where corrupt police departments moved to completely and successfully cover-up a crime committed by one of their officers. Or where the victim or victims just gave up, thinking there was no way for them to ever find justice when the police and the criminal justice system was the ones committing the crimes against them.
This should make you pause and reflect a bit.
But, if you think our take on it isn't correct. Then go check the blog archives for yourself, independently verify each story we have linked and add up the numbers. Spend some time following the news reports. A few minutes out of the hour to browse news feeds, TV and newspaper websites and a few well placed internet searches is all it will take to unearth the mind-numbing amount of police misconduct that is reported in this state.