Monday, December 19, 2011

Florida - SPECIAL REPORT: Can we get better at policing the police?

OFF THE WIRE
BY: Anthony Cormier & Matthew Doig
 heraldtribune.com

A 19-member criminal justice standards and training commission panel listens to law enforcement officers plead their cases on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2011at the Hyatt Regency in Tampa. (Herald-Tribune archive / Craig Litten)
Florida's laws are among the best in the nation for dealing with officer misconduct.
Its results are not.
Florida's ability to police itself has been undermined at every level, a Herald-Tribune investigation found. Local agencies ignore reporting requirements and have not faced penalties when caught. Political considerations infiltrate a commission that was designed to protect the public. And repeat offenders have been allowed to beat the system, stay on the job and tarnish the credibility of Florida's entire corps of officers.
The system can be improved by tightening the rules for investigating and punishing misconduct and changing the people who enforce those rules, say law enforcement standards experts, academics, former police officers and internal affairs detectives who spoke to the newspaper for this series.
One of those people was Roger Goldman, a professor at St. Louis University School of Law who is recognized as a national authority on police standards in America.
"I wouldn't say the law in Florida is perfect," Goldman said. "Clearly, there are holes. But you also have to question what's being done with those laws. How are they being enforced?"
Goldman and others identified flaws and suggested a variety of fixes to the system:
REMAKE THE STATE PANEL THAT DISCIPLINES POLICE
In the last decade, Florida's two law enforcement unions used their political influence to gain sway over the Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission, which is responsible for officer certification.

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