OP-ED: Police Misconduct Harms Everyone,

Part 1

By John B. Greet

According to the California Innocence Project

“Police misconduct encompasses illegal or unethical actions or the violation of individuals’ constitutional rights by police officers in the conduct of their duties.”

Black’s Law Dictionary defines misconduct, in this context, in part as

“Any unlawful conduct on the part of a person concerned in the administration of justice which is prejudicial to the rights of parties or to the right determination of the cause.”

These definitions, and others we might find, come close. I would personally define police misconduct as

“Any willful or negligent violation of an applicable policy, rule, or other regulation; or of any statutory or case law, when committed by a sworn or civilian, paid or volunteer, police employee.”

This article deals primarily with misconduct committed by sworn police officers.

Regardless of the source, and there are many, I think most people can agree that police misconduct boils down to a violation of both public trust and professional standards. Misconduct can take many forms and span a wide spectrum of seriousness.

Some Examples

An officer who, absent a reasonable justification, fails to file or correct a police report in a timely manner has committed misconduct, because there exists a policy requiring that he or she do so.

An officer who parks his or her car in a red curb and then enters a restaurant to have a meal has committed misconduct, because there exists a policy prohibiting that and because it is a clear abuse of his or her authority.

An officer who uses excessive force in making an arrest has committed misconduct, because there exists a policy prohibiting that, because it is a clear abuse of his or her authority, and because it may ultimately be deemed unlawful.

An officer who violates the civil or constitutional rights of others under color of authority has committed misconduct, because there exist policies prohibiting that, because it is a clear abuse of his or her authority, and because it is a violation of both state and federal law.

Given the number of policies, rules, regulations, and statutory and case laws that apply to law enforcement, the number of ways an officer might commit some form of misconduct is considerable.

Proving and Documenting Police Misconduct

As I have written in the past, all police misconduct is wrong and, if proven, should result in the strongest sanctions that policy and/or law allow. Not all questionable conduct is automatically misconduct, however, and not all misconduct rises to the level of a tort or a crime.

As with any offense committed by anyone else, an offense of police misconduct must be proven to a reasonable and objective standard before the officer can be punished. I would not presume to claim that we discover all police misconduct which actually occurs nor that it all can be proven. Unfortunately, police agencies and the governments of which they are a part can only deal with the misconduct which comes to their attention and can only punish the misconduct which can be proven objectively.

Condemning misconduct is proper. By the same token it seems unreasonable to paint the entire law enforcement profession, or an entire police department, with a broad brush of condemnation, because of misconduct committed by a relative few.

To my mind, though, the true challenge is less in proving misconduct than in accurately documenting the degree to which it occurs, particularly at the state and national levels.

At LBPD, there exist thorough Internal Affairs records for every officer who has ever had a formal complaint filed or opened against him or her. The longer an employee serves, the larger such files typically, and unfortunately, become. Not necessarily because each officer commits increased amounts of misconduct, but because they often receive complaints whether those complaints are valid or not and each complaint has to be investigated, and each investigation thoroughly documented.

Part of the Internal Affairs Division’s responsibility is to accurately track complaints against officers in LBPD and to provide regular and thorough summaries to Chief Luna and his Command staff.

According to California law, Internal Affairs files are considered part of police officers’ confidential personnel records, thus they are not made available to the general public. Officers have the right to review their own files (under supervision) and department supervisors, managers, and executives may review them as needed. On occasion, the City Manager and elected Mayor, Councilmembers, and City Attorney may also review these files.

To my knowledge, however, there is no government-managed statewide or nationwide database which tracks police misconduct. Given the violation of public trust which misconduct represents, this surprises me. At the very least, State Attorney’s General should collect related data and then voluntarily share it with the U.S. Attorney General for the same purpose…tracking police misconduct and analyzing the types that occur and the discipline typically imposed.

Who Does Misconduct Harm?

First and most importantly, the recipient of the officer’s misconduct is harmed, whether physically, financially, or by being unlawfully deprived of his or her rights to some degree.

Government is harmed. Elected officials are often extremely frustrated with police misconduct, especially the very serious sort, which often results in claims against the city for monetary damages. The Mayor and Council have to approve the settlement of these claims or agree to have the City Attorney litigate them in the event of a lawsuit. Payouts for officer misconduct can –and do- cost the city millions and millions of dollars.

Other cops are harmed. Few people are more frustrated and angered by bad cops than other police officers. Those few bad cops among them only make their own jobs that much harder and, often, far less safe. Given the officers killed and assaulted statistics I reported in my last Op-Ed, no professional police officer wants his or her job made any harder or any more uniquely hazardous than it already is.

The people in the community are harmed. The general public is especially justified in being angry and frustrated with bad cops. As is well known, the police derive their authority from the very public they serve. The public asks a great deal of its police officers and provides them with a great deal of trust, authority, and resources so they can meet the community’s policing needs. When the police violate their community’s trust, they slowly begin to lose the public’s support. Without the public’s moral and financial support, cooperation, and voluntary consent to submit to police authority, local police departments simply cannot function effectively and, in severe cases, may be disbanded altogether.

In Part 2 of this article, I will discuss in greater detail some attempts to quantify and analyze police misconduct in the United States and highlight some violations of public trust by former Long Beach Police Officers.

In Part 3 of this article I will suggest some ways to improve police-community relations, generally and propose some ways police oversight in Long Beach may be improved.

Op-Ed: Police Misconduct Harms Everyone, Part 2

By John B. Greet

In Part 1 of this series I offered several possible definitions for police misconduct and discussed several of the more general aspects of the topic.

In this part of the series I list a few specific examples of prior incidents of misconduct at the Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) as well as some attempts to quantify and analyze police misconduct throughout the nation.

Examples of past misconduct

Throughout LBPD’s history there have unfortunately been a number of examples of severe misconduct by its (now former) officers.

In 2013 a former detective was arrested and prosecuted for using her position to help a criminal street gang.

In 2013 a former officer pleaded guilty to several counts of sexual misconduct.

In 2012 a former officer charged with assaulting his wife was sentenced to 12 years and four months in state prison.

In 2010 a former officer pleaded guilty to stealing firearms.

This was not intended to be a complete or comprehensive listby any means. There are many other regrettable incidents of proven misconduct by former LBPD officers and, in most every case, the misconduct occurred while the officers were on duty.

Perspective

Habitual critics of the department often seem to take great pleasure in posting more comprehensive lists of this type but seem strangely reluctant to acknowledge that in each case of police misconduct there exist department policies that prohibit all of it.

Similarly, these critics often lack a certain measure of perspective. Instances of any degree of proven misconduct arguably represent less than 1% of the total activity in which LBPD officers engage throughout any given year. While all misconduct is wrong and should be condemned, proven misconduct at LBPD is neither an “epidemic” nor even “common.” Misconduct is the notable exception to the vast rule of professional police activity in Long Beach.

As a moderately productive patrol officer at LBPD, I typically engaged in about 60-70 policing activities per shift (parking and traffic enforcement, subject contacts, arrests, calls for service, investigations, reports, etc.) At the time there were about 850 sworn officers in the department. For the sake of argument, let’s say the average activity level for each officer was 50 per shift, times 850 equals 42,500 police activities per shift department-wide, times about 180 work days per year equals 7.7 million police activities department-wide per year, times 20 years equals 154 million police activities over 20 years department-wide.

I challenge anyone to develop a comprehensive list of proven LBPD misconduct incidents over 20 years, total them up, compare them with 154 million, and try to convince any reasonable person that proven misconduct at LBPD is an “epidemic” or even “common.”

Attempts to quantify and analyze police misconduct

There have been several rather ad-hoc attempts to quantify and analyze police misconduct over the years in both the public and the private sectors. In my opinion, none of them have had much long-term or truly probative value.

Public Sector

The U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has conducted a number of surveys and published reports broadly related to the topic but, to my knowledge, does not oversee any continuous program to collect and analyze data related to police misconduct throughout the United States. I believe it should do so. I do not think the BJS has the constitutional authority to mandate that state and local agencies share their misconduct complaint data but I do think those agencies should agree to do so voluntarily.

The State of California licenses all state and local police officers in the state and also sets standards for peace officer training through its Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST). For this reason and others I think all such agencies should be required to share their misconduct complaint data with the State Department of Justice (DoJ). To my knowledge this does not occur and beyond sometimes investigating crimes committed by police or accepting misconduct complaints under very limited circumstances, the State DoJ does not appear to collect any comprehensive data on police misconduct.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has a Justice System Integrity Division which is responsible for investigating and prosecuting any allegation of criminal misconduct committed by a peace officer within the county, whether on or off duty. Investigators and Deputy D.A.’s from this Division also respond on all officer-involved hit shootings in the county and investigate them concurrently with, but independently from, the involved agency and, in the case of fatalities, with the County Coroner’s Office. Again, though, the District Attorney does not appear to collect or analyze data of officer misconduct within the county.

Private Sector

The most common result of a standard Boolean search related to Officer Misconduct reporting and tracking appears to be a project the CATO Institute currently produces called the National Police Misconduct Reporting Project (NPMRP.) NPMRP began in 2009 as a private project but the owner transferred the rights to CATO in 2012. NPMRP offers a number of valuable resources and provides a “Daily Feed” of misconduct reports from around the nation. Although part of the original intent of NPMRP was to document police misconduct on an ongoing and comprehensive basis, the project has produced only two such reports, in 2009 and 2010, and no reports at all since CATO assumed control of the effort in 2012.

Unfortunately, as a serious study of police misconduct NPMRP has limited value because its reports only document alleged misconduct and from only a small percentage of the total agencies throughout the nation. There is no data on the results of any subsequent administrative or criminal investigations, and only sparse data on the arrests, convictions, and incarceration rates of former police officers. Sadly, these reports are far from the comprehensive or objective sort that might provide serious public policy researchers with much in the way of valuable information.

In Part 3 of this article I will suggest some ways to improve police-community relations, generally and propose some ways police oversight in Long Beach may be improved.

Editor's note: the views expressed in this OP-ED do not necessarily reflect those of the Long 

Beach Post, its staff, or its ownership. To submit a letter to the editor or an OP-ED, please email  editor@lbpost.com .  

Baltimore mayor seeks more federal aid to combat police misconduct

 By Mark Puente

As calls persist for greater police accountability in communities across the nation, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake told a White House panel Tuesday that the city needs money for increased training and body cameras, and to add supervisors to the office that investigates misconduct..

"This creates a higher level of accountability in the investigations and ensures that officers are being held accountable for their actions," the mayor told President Barack Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing. "Having grant funding to pay for those positions would expedite the process."

Rawlings-Blake told the 12-member panel that she is committed to improving the relationship between police and Baltimore's residents. While crime has dropped in recent years, the problem of police misconduct continues to overshadow such improvements, she said.

 Residents were "concerned about the tactics used by police officers in order to achieve the crime reductions we were experiencing," she added.

Her comments followed testimony from Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, who also told the panel about problems plaguing their police forces.

Obama created the task force in December to explore ways to build public trust and promote reductions in crime. He also proposed using millions in federal funding to help pay for body cameras for 50,000 police officers across the country.

The president's announcement followed nationwide protests over the police-involved deaths of Michael Brown in Missouri, Eric Garner in New York City and Tamir Rice in Cleveland. Those incidents have stoked anger in many communities about the treatment of minorities by police.

More protests are planned in Baltimore and in Annapolis on Thursday, a day after the 2015 General Assembly session opens.

The task force, which met Tuesday at the Newseum, is headed by Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey and Laurie Robinson, a former assistant attorney general who is a co-chair of the International Association of Chiefs of Police Research Advisory Committee. The group is scheduled to complete a report within 90 days.

Nutter and Johnson, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, told the panel that many U.S. cities face conflicts between police and residents.

"The issues that we're discussing today are primarily local issues," Johnson said. "We cannot pretend there is a one-size–fits-all-model" for solutions.

"Nothing can be achieved without mutual respect and the shared vision of destiny," Nutter said.

Nutter and Johnson — like Rawlings-Blake — are working to reform their police departments.

Johnson has ordered his police chief to provide a report with recommendations for overhauling the department. Johnson wants the chief to explore the use of body cameras, ways to diversify the force, improvements in training and opportunities to better relations with the community.

The police departments in Baltimore and Philadelphia also are undergoing comprehensive reviews by the U.S. Department of Justice.

A recent multi-part Baltimore Sun investigation revealed that the city's police officers have battered dozens of residents — resulting in broken bones, head trauma, organ failure, and even death — during questionable arrests. Some residents were beaten while handcuffed; others were thrown to the pavement. The city has paid $5.7 million in court judgments and settlements in 102 civil suits alleging police brutality and other misconduct since 2011. And in almost every case, prosecutors or judges dismissed the charges against the people who were arrested — if charges were filed at all.

The investigation also found that some Baltimore officers were involved in multiple lawsuits alleging brutality, and city officials were unaware of the scope of the problem because they lacked comprehensive tracking systems for police misconduct. Five days after the first part of The Sun investigation was published, Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts announced that he had asked the Justice Department to help reform the agency. The collaborative review is in its early stages.

Federal officials intervened a year ago in Philadelphia to help curb outrage over years of officer-involved shootings.

Rawlings-Blake told the panel that "building trust and legitimacy are at the forefront of what we have been working to improve in Baltimore."

She pointed out that complaints and lawsuits against Baltimore officers have decreased, and that more residents are providing crime tips to police. "We have demonstrated that Baltimore can learn from its past."

Rawlings-Blake also told the panel she is committed to impartiality, legitimacy and procedural justice when it comes to police interactions with residents. The department is adding ethics and situational training to give officers hands-on experience when confronting problems on the streets.

"The goal is building a belief in every officer that a safe neighborhood can't be achieved without the trust and confidence that comes from community engagement," said Rawlings-Blake, vice president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

While the city is working to create a program to equip officers with body cameras, Rawlings-Blake said, such cameras are a necessity to hold officers accountable and to defend them against false accusations. Federal funding could help Baltimore become one of the first major cities with a comprehensive program for its officers, she said.

The Justice Department's review will bring consultants to Baltimore this month to start examining the police force, and the mayor said an increased federal partnership is crucial to helping train officers on issues like diversity.

"They need to learn more than logistics of policing, but also the broader significance of their role in our society," she said.

After the three mayors had spoken, Rawlings-Blake said she is "optimistic" that Congress and Obama will act on the task force's findings. She also urged more cities to ask the Justice Department for help to improve training for police forces.

"This work is not going to happen on its own," she said.

And yet people deny that we have to many cops with too much time on their hands: Man cited for 'eating while driving' in Georgia

Rachel Stockman

WSB-TV – Atlanta

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — An Alabama man says he was cited by police in Cobb County, Georgia, for “eating while driving” under the distracted driving law.

Madison Turner said he ordered a double Quarter Pounder with cheese from McDonald’s last week, and a police officer pulled him over in Marietta, an Atlanta suburb.

“The officer explained to me that he observed me eating a burger for two miles,” Turner said. “He said specifically three times, 'You can’t just go down the road eating a hamburger.'"

According to the ticket, the officer wrote him up under Georgia’s distracted driving law and under the comments section wrote, “eating while driving.”

That law reads, in part: “A driver shall exercise due care in operating a motor vehicle on the highways of this state and shall not engage in any actions which shall distract such driver from the safe operation of such vehicle.”

 Maybe I was enjoying the burger too much; I needed to tone it down. I was certainly willing to do so, but I didn’t expect to be fined or punished,” Turner said.

“If this was the law, I’d have to hire more attorneys because everybody does it including me,” said William Head, a longtime traffic and DUI attorney, who is not representing Turner.

“I’ve only seen something like this charge when there’s an accident.  There was no accident here so the fact that this man was charged with eating and driving is a first for me,” Head said. Head added that law was very vague.

“Maybe if you had a giant pizza in both hands and you weren’t holding the wheel, or maybe if you had a watermelon – half watermelon – and you were just diving into it holding it with both hands, maybe that would be something,” Head said.

A representative for Cobb County police said they could not comment, since the case is ongoing. Madison has a court date on Feb. 3.

What Cardinal Dolan, my friend, must learn about the NYPD and the community Dolan sees police as his people in a way he can't see Eric Garner of Michael Brown as his people

BY DONNA SCHAPER

Jesus is the one who refused to have an enemy. He also understood the fantasies of peace: “Peace, peace, when there is no peace.”

I want to bring Jesus into this leaderless mess we call New York City. I want to invite his refusal to have an enemy into the audacity of those who think they are too big.

I think of Timothy Cardinal Dolan, whose recent editorials in the Daily News made him too big.

As a Protestant, once again, I beg to differ with spiritual meritocracy. Cardinal Dolan is not my enemy. He is my friend, as are policemen, as are Eric Garner and Michael Brown.

I am not here to pick a fight with Cardinal Dolan. Without naming him, the cardinal did criticize the actions of Pat Lynch, head of the policeman’s union. I honor him for that criticism and understand it probably cost him in certain quarters. I have read and re-read his three public statements of recent months and each time tried to understand what it must be like to feel like you have to defend the police at this time in our city.

I understand the meaning of constituency. I understand social position. I have often had flare-ups with congregants who felt they needed protection, so deep were they within the victim stance. “The real victim is not so and so, the real victim is me.” You know the drill.

You ask for unity but you ask for it from your perspective and the perspective of your people. That is what the cardinal is doing. He wants unity at a table where he is the host and you are the guest.

That kind of unity is not what Jesus wanted.

He wanted a unity where everybody at the table was a host and everybody was a guest, in a place where the power differentials were recognized, not minimized.

Discovering that nearly all the films nominated for awards had white male directors and starred white men is not something for which anyone can take personal responsibility. Instead it does show how deep our race-tinged glasses are. There was no conspiracy there. It’s just the way things are.

There is also no surprise in Cardinal Dolan thinking he has to defend the police. He sees them as his people in a way he can’t see Eric Garner or Michael Brown as his people. The cardinal doesn’t know how to see from the middle and mess of the table.

Another matter begs our Jesus eyes right now. The way the mayor was disrespected — at memorial services — shows just how deep the victimized privilege is about the police. They too feel horribly disrespected. And so the cycle of disrespect clogs our arteries.

The Pope may think his cardinals have spiritual Alzheimer’s, as he said in his Christmas message. But Cardinal Dolan has arteriosclerosis, the hardening of the heart’s arteries. He is not the only one with heart disease but he has more power than most people with heart disease.

How do I criticize the cardinal without demonizing him? How do I criticize the policemen who turned their backs on the mayor without demonizing them?

How do we follow the Jesus who refuses to have an enemy?

The disease of the moment goes like this: If you support the community, you are against the police. If you support the mayor, you are against the police. The opportunities to be against someone multiply while the opportunities to be for something seem to be radically decreasing.

“Peace, peace, when there is no peace.”

In a mess this size, why not follow Jesus, and refuse to have an enemy? And refuse to give up on the ones who disrespect you? Refuse to give up on the ones who shoot you. Refuse to give up on the ones who stop and frisk you. If you are white, understand that we have heart disease. We have chosen our own to win the prizes. And we didn’t even know we were doing it.

We need spiritual angioplasty, the kind Dr. King performed, unsuccessfully to date, on the nation. We need our arteries opened up.

Schaper is senior minister at Judson Memorial Church. Excerpted from a sermon she will deliver Monday.

Paddy was stopped by the police around 2:00 am

Paddy was stopped by the police around 2:00 am and was asked where he was going at that time of night.

Paddy replied, "I'm on my way to a lecture about alcohol abuse and the effects it has on the human body, as well as smoking and staying out late".

 The officer asked, "Really? - Who would be giving such a lecture at this time of the night?"

 Paddy replied, "That would be my wife".

While most Americans approve of the work being done by their local police, nearly a third feel that some officers “routinely lie to serve their own interests,” a survey released by Reuters

While most Americans approve of the work being done by their local police, nearly a third feel that some officers “routinely lie to serve their own interests,” a survey released on Thursday by Reuters and the IPSOS polling organization showed.

The number rises to 45 percent among African-Americans.

The findings come as scrutiny on police has been heightened in recent months by the killing of unarmed blacks by white officers, which has raised questions about police treatment of racial minorities.

While distrust is significant, nearly three-quarters of respondents approve the job done by their local police, the survey said. The survey showed that 56 percent of African-American respondents approved of their local police.

MarQuis McClee, a small-business owner from Bloomington, Indiana, who took part in the poll, said that he generally trusts police and has officers among his relatives, but as an African-American, he can also be wary around law enforcement.

"I have been involved with officers who give police a bad name," McClee, 38, said, pointing to a recent incident where he was pulled over by an officer be believes was profiling him.

Nearly 70 percent of African-American respondents believe that police target minorities.

In November, simmering tensions exploded with violent protests in several U.S. cities following a grand jury decision not to indict a police officer in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson for shooting an unarmed black teenager.

When asked about the Ferguson police, 60 percent of respondents had a favorable impression but among black American respondents, only 32 percent had a favorable impression.

When a gunman fatally shot two police officers in New York in December in apparent retribution attack, the public was reminded of the dangers police face on a daily basis in trying to keep the streets safe.

While attention on policing has been in the spotlight, racial disparity in the criminal justice systems has become a fact of life in the United States. A study by the Sentencing Project research group showed that one in three black men are likely to be imprisoned sometime during their life. The figure for white man is one in 17.

Proactive tactics aimed at keeping crime rates down in economically stressed areas with a high number of racial minorities can also cause friction between police and minority youth who are likely to be stopped and questioned, said Larry Hoover, director of the Police Research Center at Sam Houston State University in Texas.

10 to 1 he gets away with it

Police chief who accidentally shot his wife as she slept has been married FOUR times as it emerges she is now paralyzed from the waist down

•           William McCollom, the chief of police in Peachtree City, Georgia, called 911 on January 1 to say he had accidentally shot his wife, Margaret

•           She is recovering and told investigators she believes it was accidental

•           On the 911 call, it took two minutes for him to admit to the dispatcher that he was the chief of police

•           The incident has sparked a criminal probe and an investigation into his four decades working for law enforcement

•           It has emerged he has been married four times; Margaret was his third wife and after he recently divorced his fourth wife, they reconciled

A police chief who accidentally shot his wife as she slept in their Atlanta home early on New Year's Day has been married four previous times, an investigation has revealed.

William McCollom, the chief of police in Peachtree City, told authorities that his gun accidentally went off as he moved it in the night and now agents from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and a local prosecutor are conducting a criminal probe and examining his career.

His wife, Margaret McCollom, whom he had previously divorced, is paralyzed from the waist down following the incident, WSBTV reported. She was released from Atlanta Medical Center earlier this week.

She told investigators she cannot shed light on the incident because she was sleeping but that she believes it was an accident.

Records show that her husband waited nearly two minutes into the 911 call to mention where he worked.

'You're the chief of police in Peachtree City?' the dispatcher repeated.

'Yeah, unfortunately, yes,' he responded.

As soon as the bullet struck his wife, McCollom's personal life and three-decade history in law enforcement were bound for intense scrutiny. As the investigation into his past commences, he also faces an internal inquiry that could result in discipline.

McCollom has gone through four divorces, including one from Margaret McCollom. It's unclear whether William and Margaret McCollom ever remarried, though investigators refer to them as husband and wife.

None of McCollom's divorce filings indicate he had ever been violent. He married two of the women in Wyoming, where they remain, and had three children with one.

His fourth wife, previously named by DailyMail.com as Suzanne Carter, is a rabbi who was the police department chaplain in Delray Beach, Florida when McCollo, was chief there.

They married in 2002 and divorced in 2014 after she claims he cheated on her, which he denied.

On the professional front, hundreds of pages of records from his personnel files contain no evidence of criminality, major misconduct or recklessness for the former firearms instructor who once trained a SWAT team on combat shooting.

'Everybody's scratching their head,' said Michael Couzzo Jr., the village manager who hired McCollom as the police chief in Tequesta, Florida, in 2006. 'They're scratching their heads saying, "How could this have happened?"'

Investigators have not publicly speculated on what led up to the shooting.

Only a few details are known. McCollom called 911 around 4:17 a.m. and told a dispatcher his handgun fired as he moved it. McCollom also said he and his wife were sleeping.

He told the 911 dispatcher that he had shot his wife, a former emergency-room nurse, twice with his police-issued Glock 9 mm handgun. But it was later determined that she had only been hit once.

Mrs McCollom told investigators she was sleeping when shot and couldn't offer more information. The wife said she thought the shooting was an accident, GBI spokeswoman Sherry Lang said.

If investigators deem the shooting an accident, a police officer might avoid criminal charges and could potentially keep his job, said Robert Verry, a longtime internal affairs investigator in New Jersey and policing instructor. He is not involved in the probe.

'It's so premature it's tough to tell,' Verry said. 'The devil's in the details.'

Born in northeast Wyoming, McCollom, 57, briefly served as a reserve deputy in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in late 1982, according to his resume. County officials could not immediately determine whether employment records from that period still exist.

McCollom twice married women in Wyoming, including his second wife, with whom he had three children. Both of those marriages ended in divorce.

He found a job in 1983 as a police officer in Delray Beach, Florida, where he worked for 23 years. He rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the assistant chief.

'His tactics were safe,' said Delray Beach Police Lt. Vinnie Gray, a union representative who served on the SWAT team with McCollom. 'It was a shock to see what happened' in Georgia.

In 1988, as McCollom's career accelerated, he wed Margaret. They divorced 11 years later.

The FBI investigated McCollom around 1993 over an allegation he knocked out the front teeth of a suspect arrested for battery on a police officer, McCollom said in a job application.

Old booking photos showed the accuser did not have teeth prior to the arrest. McCollom said the booking photo from the arrest in question did not show any injuries.

'The facts and independent witness testimony proved the subject was lying and the investigation exonerated me after my initial interview,' McCollom wrote.

McCollom was disciplined once in 2005 after being accused of ordering a subordinate to request free hotel rooms for deputy sheriffs, according to his internal affairs file. Delray Beach Police Chief Larry Schroeder, who counseled McCollom over it, did not return messages seeking comment.

McCollom got hired as chief of the small department in Tequesta in 2006, but life drew him back to Wyoming. In early 2010, McCollom sought unpaid leave, telling colleagues he needed to care for an ailing sister and help a family construction business.

'I have an opportunity to enter the private sector as an independent contractor and have decided it is now or never,' McCollom wrote in a resignation letter.

His fourth wife filed for divorce in March 2011. Around that time, his former wife, Margaret, rejoined him in Wyoming, said the chief's sister, Barbara Sutherland.

Sutherland said she believed the couple remarried after he took the police chief's job in Georgia.

'The second time around, they grew up, they figured it out,' she said.

Again, we need national IQ standards for cops

LI police recruit accidentally shoots self during drill

UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) — Authorities say a Long Island police recruit accidentally shot himself in the leg during a training session at a shooting range. Nassau County police say the officer pierced his thigh and calf with a single round from his service weapon.

New Mexico police officers face murder charges in shooting death of homeless man

Two New Mexico police officers accused of killing a homeless man will be charged with murder, the state's district attorney announced on Monday. They are the first charges against Albuquerque officers in connection with shootings.

James Boyd, a 36-year-old homeless man diagnosed as schizophrenic, was shot by the Albuquerque PD after he became engaged in a four-hour standoff with the officers who caught him illegally camping in the Sandia foothills. Boyd was armed with two small knives, which he appeared to brandish towards an officer with a dog. He was pronounced dead the next day.

At a press conference five days after the shooting, Chief Gorden Eden told reporters that he believed the shooting was justified because Boyd made a “threatening” move toward the officer with the dog. Boyd had an extensive criminal past, and mentioned killing the police earlier during the encounter.

Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg filed paperwork Monday charging former Albuquerque Police Department (APD) Detective Keith Sandy and APD SWAT Team member Dominique Perez with one open count of murder each in the March 2014 shooting death of Boyd.

Sandy and Perez will face a preliminary hearing before a judge who will decide whether there is enough evidence to proceed with the charges, Brandenburg’s office said in an email release. No date has been set for the court hearing, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

Brandenburg filed the charges via criminal information papers, allowing her to charge the officers without presenting evidence to a grand jury. Grand juries have declined to indict law enforcement agents in several high-profile, officer-involved shooting deaths over the last several months, including in the cases of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, leading to widespread protests across the country.

Lawyers for the two men argued that they will both be cleared of wrongdoing.

Sandy “had not only the right, but the duty to defend a fellow officer from a mentally unstable, violent man wielding two knives. Keith did nothing wrong,” his attorney Sam Bregman said in a statement. “To the contrary, he followed his training and probably saved his fellow officer’s life.”

“This is truly a shame. Throughout his career, Officer Perez has been called upon to make life-altering decisions while protecting Albuquerque citizens and his fellow officers,” attorney Luis Robles said in a statement to KRQE. “And having made one of those decisions, Officer Perez now faces an open count of murder. Regardless, I am confident that the facts will vindicate Officer Perez’s actions in this case.”

According to the Huffington Post, Sandy was fired from the New Mexico State Police in 2007 over allegations of fraud.

The APD has been under fire since the Boyd shooting. Less than a week after the homeless man’s death, the department released video footage taken from the helmet-cam of an officer on the scene of the crime that shows a cop opening fire on Boyd while his back was turned. He was the first of three shooting deaths involving the department in five weeks: On March 25, the APD shot and killed another man, Alfred Redwine, following an armed stand-off. Three weeks later, Albuquerque police shot and killed Mary Hawkes, who was suspected of stealing a truck.

The US Department of Justice conducted a 16-month review into the police department in New Mexico’s largest city, and recommended a “systematic change” in the final document. The early April report found that the APD had fallen into a pattern of using force more often than necessary which, consequently, caused a number of unjustified fatal shootings by officers in recent years.

APD has been involved in more than 40 shootings since 2010, resulting in 27 deaths, the Journal reported.

In October, the police department reached a deal with the Department of Justice to overhaul many of its practices. The reforms involve new training and recruitment procedures and field supervision of officers, and will require the department to employ body cameras on its officers. Additionally, the APD will begin monitoring every use of a Taser, and officers will have to report every time they point a gun at another individual, regardless of whether or not it is fired.

Former Savannah-Chatham Police Officer Indicted on Drug Conspiracy Charge

U.S. Attorney’s Office January 08, 2015             •           Southern District of Georgia (912) 652-4422

SAVANNAH, GA—Derrick Andre Fullmer, 27, of Pooler, Georgia, was indicted this week by a federal grand jury sitting in Savannah on charges related to a conspiracy involving the illegal possession and distribution of the controlled substance MDMA, more commonly known as “ecstasy” or “molly.” Fullmer was charged with conspiring to distribute molly as well as aiding and abetting other conspirators. During much of the time of the charged conspiracy, Fullmer was an officer with the Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department (SCMPD).

Fullmer was arraigned before United States Magistrate Judge G.R. Smith today. The charge against Fullmer carries a 20-year maximum prison sentence. U.S. Attorney Ed Tarver emphasized that an indictment is only an accusation and is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is entitled to a fair trial, during which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The investigation of this case was conducted by the FBI, the Chatham Savannah Counter Narcotics Team (CNT) and SCMPD. Assistant United States Attorney Scarlett S. Nokes is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States. For additional information, please contact First Assistant United States Attorney James D. Durham at (912) 201-2547.

Family dog killing;the national sport of America's cops

Chandler Police officers shoot dog; family says it wasn't necessary

By Nicole Garcia, FOX 10 News

CHANDLER, Ariz. - A Chandler family is demanding answers from Chandler Police after officers opened fired on their dog killing it, even though it was in their own yard.

Caution: the video attached to this story is graphic and may not be suitable for all audiences.

That family is very emotional, and an internal investigation is launched after the officer killed the dog when it was fighting with another dog inside its fenced enclosure.

"I don't see again, his need to walk 12 feet from the sidewalk to an enclosure and shoot my dog," said Javier Robles.

Robles is 3-year-old Simone's owner, Simone is one of the familys pit bulls. She was inside the enclosure when the officer shot him. He said his 3-year-old daughter saw the shooting from inside the home, and now she is traumatized.

"She says that her doggie blew up, that she hates cop; she woke up having a nightmare last night saying that her doggie blew up, she's been crying all day," he said.

Chandler Police said they got two 911 calls about two dogs fighting. When they arrived they found one dog had the other dogs face in his mouth. The dogs were separated by the fence and when one officer could not separate the dogs using a baton the other officer shot Simone.

But Robles doubts the officers account of what happened. "It's physically impossible for a pit bull to fit its mouth threw that small opening, the blood, you see there and on the floor, is from the officer, you can even see brain fragments because the officer blew my dogs brains out. Right here, point blank," said Robles.

He recorded a confrontation with officers who refused to tell him why they shot his dog.

Robles says he has surveillance video of the shooting. Police could not say whether the dogs threatened the officers, neither officer was injured.

An investigation into the shooting is underway as is an internal investigation into the use of force by officers. The officer who opened fire, remains on duty during both investigations.

This weeks child molestation by cop

Former Vernonia police officer arrested on child luring charges

By FOX 12 Staff

VERNONIA, OR (KPTV) -

A 62-year-old former police officer in Vernonia is accused of sending a sexually explicit message to a 13-year-old girl.

Gene Baska was arrested Wednesday on felony charges of luring a minor and attempt to commit sex abuse.

According to investigators, Baska sent a "sexually explicit message transmitted digitally" to the girl.

Deputies obtained a search warrant Wednesday for his home on Keasey Road and seized electronic equipment related to the ongoing investigation. The warrant was for digital images, videos, photos, audio recordings, text messages and call records.

According to the Vernonia Police Department, Baska served on the force full-time starting in 1990 and did volunteer work prior to that. He retired from the department in 2003.

He bailed out of jail Wednesday night with a no-contact order for the 13-year-old girl and her family.

Deputies said there could be more victims. Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the Columbia County Sheriff's Office tip line at 503-366-4698.

Fort Worth officer accused of lying about role in case is fired

BY DEANNA BOYD

FORT WORTH

A police officer has been fired for allegedly failing to show up at a court for an aggravated kidnapping trial and giving conflicting information about his role in the case.

The indefinite suspension of Officer Royce Brown, who had been with the department since August 2008, took effect Monday, according to a disciplinary letter filed with the Civil Service Commission.

Brown has appealed, said Terry Daffron Porter, his attorney with the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas.

“I am anxious to get a hold of the investigation as I already have serious concerns with the method in which it was conducted,” Daffron Porter said. “He looks forward to his appeal hearing.”

According to the disciplinary letter, signed by now retired Chief Jeff Halstead, a Tarrant County assistant district attorney had told Brown in July that she needed to speak with him about his involvement in recovering a firearm used in an aggravated kidnapping case.

Brown, according to the letter, told the prosecutor he didn’t recall anything about the firearm and that he only provided security at the scene. The attorney replied that she might need to speak with him again later, the letter states.

But, the letter alleges, Brown later did not returns calls or an email from the attorney, in which he was informed he was needed in court.

Later, a police supervisor learned that the prosecutor did not want Brown to testify in court after learning that he had a prior suspension from the department for untruthfulness.

Brown, according to the letter, denied receiving any of the voice mail messages and later told investigators that he did have a second conversation with the prosecutor — a conversation she denies took place.

In a later interview with investigators, Brown said he tried to call the prosecutor but the call taker was unable to transfer him. He provided investigators with phone records showing he called the district attorney’s office but at a number different from the one provided by the prosecutor.

“He submitted his phone records and his phone records bore out the fact that he did call the DA’s office,” Daffron Porter said.

The letter alleges that Brown also dramatically changed his account of his role in the aggravated kidnapping case in separate interviews with investigators.

“Officer Brown abandoned his obligation as an officer to testify in a criminal case that could have possibly helped with the conviction of a felon,” according to the letter.

The letter states that Brown was also untruthful to both the prosecutor and internal investigators about discovering evidence in the case. He denied to investigators finding the gun in question in the aggravated kidnapping case despite contradictory statements from multiple witnesses, the letter states.

“Officer Brown’s integrity could always play a part in court cases, which could make him not useful in court cases that he needs to testify in,” the letter states.

Brown had previously received a 16-day suspension from the department on allegations of failing to devote time/attention to duty, untruthfulness, improper use of a police communications system, and disabling data components on a police vehicle, the letter states.

Give an idiot a gun, the idiot will use the gun

2 Tioga officers charged, suspended over gun incident

By Williston Herald

TIOGA, N.D. - Two Tioga police officers face felony charges over a training session during which an AK-47 was fired into a landfill.

The incident happened June 19, as brothers Joshua and Nathaniel McNally were getting ready to tee off on the third hole at the Tioga Golf Course, when their game was interrupted by gunfire.

The gunfire came from two on-duty Tioga police officers, Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson and Officer Joshua Nelson. Johnson was training Nelson at the time.

They both face face Class C felony reckless endangerment charges and have been placed on paid administrative leave as a result.

Charges were filed Dec. 31 by Divide County State's Attorney Jordan Seymour.

According to Tioga police department administrator Jeff Spivey, Tioga Chief Larry Maize was not aware of the charges being filed until the Williston Herald made a freedom of information request involving the incident.

There is no national IQ test for cops and here's what happens as a result....and your tax dollars pay for it

Albuquerque police officer shot by fellow officer during drug bust

By Joseph J. Kolb

ALBUQUERQUE (Reuters) - An Albuquerque police officer shot and critically wounded a fellow officer during an undercover narcotics bust at a fast food franchise parking lot at around mid-day on Friday, police said.

Police would not release additional details of the shooting or of the nature of the officer's injuries.

"Both officers involved were working in a plain clothes, undercover capacity and have been with the department for many years," said Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Celina Espinoza said, adding that two suspects were arrested.

The incident comes after a federal investigation concluded the police department in the mid-sized U.S. city in New Mexico used excessive, even deadly, force against passive civilians.

In October of last year, Albuquerque and the U.S. Justice Department announced an agreement for the city's police department to undergo reform and be monitored for use of excessive force.

Another police officer was shot during a traffic stop on Jan. 3. On Dec. 15, an Albuquerque police officer accidentally shot a bystander when his weapon discharged as he climbed through a window during a burglary investigation.

The officer in Friday's underwent surgery at University of New Mexico Hospital, Espinoza said. A second undercover officer was treated and released from the hospital with minor injuries. She said she did not know the cause of the injuries.

Wallace Anderson, who was inside the restaurant at the time of the shooting, told broadcaster KOB 4 he saw two unmarked cars pull up.

"They surrounded this vehicle so it couldn't back up and escape. At that point, the shots happened and a guy was dragged to the pavement," Anderson said.

(Reporting by Joseph J. Kolb in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Editing by Robert Birsel)