| Silent But Deadly: School Cops Arrest Students for Talking Too Loudly ... VICE And a 2009 study found that the rate of students arrested for disorderly conduct was 100-percent higher at schools with police on-campus than at schools where the copshave to be called in to make an arrest—suggesting that officers criminalize ... |
The problem of mentally unstable cops in America
Where the hell is the Justice Department? Why don't they do something?
| Police brutality trial could start despite missing key witness Fresno Bee A jury was picked Wednesday evening for the federal criminal trial of a Fresno policesergeant and three former officers who are accused of using excessive force against a domestic-violence suspect seven years ago and covering it up. But before lawyers ...
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National Police Misconduct NewsFeed Daily Recap 01-08-13
- auls Valley, Oklahoma: A pregnant woman, Jamie Lynn Russell, who went to the hospital, has died after police took her to jail. “Jamie was seeking help; she was in extreme pain,” a family friend said. Hospital staff reported Jamie wouldn’t cooperate, in too much pain to even lie down, so employees asked a police officer to assist. When police found two prescription pills that didn’t belong to Jamie, police took her to jail for drug possession. That’s where she sat for less than two hours before being found unresponsive. ow.ly/gFU5s
- Chatsworth, Georgia: A deputy has been indicted by a federal grand jury for lying to federal agents and concealing information in order to impede an FBI investigation. ow.ly/gFWD8
- Lake County, Florida: An officer admitted that he used an agency credit card to purchase a laptop for his 16-year-old son and then paid the bill with the department’s investigative funds. He has since resigned from his post. ow.ly/gFVk3
- Little Canada, Minnesota: A man was charged with obstruction of legal process and disorderly conduct after he filmed officers from more than 30 feet away. “I wish the police around the country would get the memo on these situations,” said a professor of media ethics and media law at the University of Minnesota. “Somebody needs to explain to them that under U.S. law, making video recordings of something that’s happening in public is legal.” The courts have been “pretty clear” on the issue, the professor said. “Law enforcement has no expectation of privacy when they are carrying out public duties in a public place.” Said the man who was charged: “I’m in the right. If they don’t drop it, I’m definitely going to trial.” ow.ly/gFSIs
- Macon County, North Carolina: A detective has been served with two misdemeanor criminal summonses; she allegedly made threats to a former high school basketball coach in person, and also threatened a student over Facebook. She was assigned to administrative duties, pending the outcome of the investigation. ow.ly/gFIHA
Police Take Pregnant Woman Out of Hospital; She Dies in Jail .
Settlement Reached in Police Brutality Lawsuit
A St. Paul man is set to receive a $30000 settlement from the city after being beaten by an off-duty cop in 2010 while in jail.
blog.aacriminallaw.com/.../
Police Take Pregnant Woman Out of Hospital; She Dies in Jail ...
By Tim Lynch
Databases · Maps · Searchable Map of 2009 & 2010 Misconduct Incidents; Excessive force and police misconduct; Botched paramilitary police raids; Guns and self-defense. Scholarship · About · Reporting Project – FAQs · News Feed – FAQs ...
PoliceMisconduct.net
Board's definition of police misconduct will stick - The Columbia ...
The Columbia City Council Monday night approved the definition of misconduct to be used by the Citizens Police Review Board.
www.columbiatribune.com/.../
How can we curb police misconduct?: Minneapolis Issues Forum: E ...
An article "Cop misconduct payouts drop" in Sunday's Strib has been on my mind ever since ...
forums.e-democracy.org/.../
A St. Paul man is set to receive a $30000 settlement from the city after being beaten by an off-duty cop in 2010 while in jail.
blog.aacriminallaw.com/.../
Police Take Pregnant Woman Out of Hospital; She Dies in Jail ...
By Tim Lynch
Databases · Maps · Searchable Map of 2009 & 2010 Misconduct Incidents; Excessive force and police misconduct; Botched paramilitary police raids; Guns and self-defense. Scholarship · About · Reporting Project – FAQs · News Feed – FAQs ...
PoliceMisconduct.net
Board's definition of police misconduct will stick - The Columbia ...
The Columbia City Council Monday night approved the definition of misconduct to be used by the Citizens Police Review Board.
www.columbiatribune.com/.../
| Former police officer charged with collecting benefits for fake injury IFAwebnews.com A former police officer from Illinois face charges for allegedly collecting almost $190,000 in false workers' compensation benefits. Richard Turner, 43, of Glen Carbon, faces two counts each of theft and violating Illinois' workers' comp statute ... |
How can we curb police misconduct?: Minneapolis Issues Forum: E ...
An article "Cop misconduct payouts drop" in Sunday's Strib has been on my mind ever since ...
forums.e-democracy.org/.../
- Vineland,
New Jersey: An officer admitted to siphoning $40,000.50 from his union
while serving as the treasurer, and then the president, of the
organization. ow.ly/gDJ1m
- Grand
Junction, Colorado: The Colorado State Patrol has agreed to pay $1 million
to the family of a man shot by officers in his home. The ACLU director
stated that not only did the troopers violate the man’s Constitutional
rights when they kicked open his door, shot and killed him, but that the
supervisors at Colorado State Patrol were responsible for “recklessly
deficient training that was the ultimate cause of this needless and
preventable death.” ow.ly/gDIzH
- Seneca
County, Ohio: An officer was arrested, fired, and sentenced to 6 months in
prison for stealing from the village while he was in office. ow.ly/gDJYv
- Newtown,
Massachusetts: Three officers were caught egging the house of a police
sergeant, who is their superior officer. ow.ly/gBZPI
- San
Antonio, Texas: A police officer has been arrested after federal officials
accused him of blackmailing a person with drug possession charges to
obtain a $500 payoff. ow.ly/gBZud
Justices Look at Legality of Drunken-Driving Test
WASHINGTON — Prosecutors in Missouri, supported by the federal government, came to the Supreme Court on Wednesday with a big request: They wanted the justices to rule that the police do not need warrants to obtain blood samples in drunken-driving investigations.
There seemed little enthusiasm among the justices for that categorical approach. Instead, the argument turned into a search for a middle ground that would take account of the practical realities of roadside stops, body chemistry and the administration of justice in the digital age.
On the one hand, the natural dissipation of blood alcohol means that time is of the essence when people suspected of drunken driving are pulled over and refuse to consent to a breath test. Obtaining a warrant, moreover, takes time.
On the other hand, several justices expressed discomfort with what Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. called the “pretty scary image” of government-sanctioned bodily intrusions involving sharp needles.
The case arose from the arrest of Tyler G. McNeely, who was pulled over for speeding on a Missouri highway and exhibited, the State Supreme Court said, “the telltale signs of intoxication — bloodshot eyes, slurred speech and the smell of alcohol on his breath.” He performed poorly on a field sobriety test and was arrested.
Mr. McNeely refused to take a breath test or, after being taken to a hospital, to consent to a blood test. One was performed anyway, about 25 minutes after he was pulled over, and it showed a blood alcohol level of 0.15 percent, almost twice the legal limit.
The state court suppressed the evidence, saying there had been no “exigent circumstances” that excused the failure to obtain a warrant. “Warrantless intrusions of the body are not to be undertaken lightly,” the court said in an unsigned opinion.
In 1966, in Schmerber v. California, the United States Supreme Court said no warrant was required to take blood without the driver’s consent after an accident in which the driver and a passenger were injured. The fact that alcohol levels diminish over time figured in the court’s analysis, as did the time it took to investigate the scene of the accident and move the injured people to the hospital.
The question in the case heard Wednesday, Missouri v. McNeely, No. 11-1425, was whether the dissipation of blood alcohol by itself justifies taking blood without a warrant when there are no additional factors complicating matters.
Much of the argument concerned how long obtaining a warrant actually takes these days and whether the Supreme Court should encourage streamlined procedures. In some places, the justices were told, warrants can be obtained by phone in as little as 15 or 20 minutes; in others, the process can take two hours or longer.
Nicole A. Saharsky, a lawyer for the federal government, said the day might come when warrants could be obtained so quickly that courts should perhaps require them. “If the world changed,” she told the justices, “so that every police officer had an iPad and that judges were always on duty and that the warrants could be gotten that quickly, you would consider that.” But she said that was not the reality in most of the country today.
That concession, Justice Antonin Scalia said, supported a case-by-case approach. “If it would have taken too long, then it’s O.K. without a warrant,” he said. “If it wouldn’t have taken that long, it’s bad.”
Later, though, Justice Scalia asked Steven R. Shapiro of the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents Mr. McNeely, whether warrants played an important role in stopping unreasonable searches if they were quickly and routinely available.
Mr. Shapiro responded that “the privacy safeguards of the Fourth Amendment benefit by having a neutral and detached magistrate review the evidence before the state does something as intrusive as putting a needle in somebody’s arm.”
The justices also explored other ways of obtaining the required evidence.
“Breathalyzers in my mind have a much different intrusion level,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said. “They don’t intrude into your body.”
But John N. Koester Jr., a lawyer for Missouri, explained that “it’s very difficult for practical reasons to force someone to blow into the Breathalyzer.”
“You have to take a very deep breath,” he said. “And one police officer told me it’s sort of like you can put a balloon in front of somebody’s mouth, but you can’t make him blow it up.”
Justice Scalia later proposed a second idea: that drivers “in a paddy wagon and on the way to the hospital” could be told a warrant had been requested and that, one way or the other, blood would be drawn unless they agreed to a breath test.
Ms. Saharsky said such drivers might nonetheless “take their chances that the evidence is going to dissipate.”
Justice Elena Kagan said it was also possible that the drivers would not make rational calculations.
“Maybe they’re drunk,” she said.