Atlanta police officers are refusing to answer questions from the 9-month-old Citizen Review Board, essentially shutting down any efforts to investigate the public’s complaints involving encounters with law enforcement. The police union contends officers answers to the board could be used to bring criminal charges.
Our response: Good for them. The board cannot assure officers their “Garrity rights,” provided in a federal court decision that prohibits the use of “coerced statements obtained under the threat of job loss” to bring felony charges.
Click here for the AJC article by Rhonda Cook
Thursday, August 27, 2009
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16 comments:
I see you removed your link "Idiots or us" or something like that. Does that mean you dont think idiots are still running the place. If thats what you believe please put your own pictures under such a link. It is more of the same and will only be worse than before. "O'Brien one exception" but he dont count because he is not running the place. Enjoy your ride on the moron train.
Looks like Miller is the police chief and director at the same time.
First, what do the first 2 comments have to do with the topic heading? Secondly: no I don't think the place is run by idiots.
Now back on topic. Yes good for Atlanta. These citizen review panels are a joke. Since most shootings are put before a grand jury is that not already a citizen review? These panels resemble more of a "witch hunt" type mentality.
Well there was not a heading on if the place is run by idiots, and if you dont think so then your an idiot too. Thanks to Tonya for the touching comments in the recent meeting. You must have forgotten that your back stabbing of half the people in the room caused an abundance of the crap that happpend under Te-Bo. You must have memory loss of your management days.
GOOD !!!! Being judged by someone who knows zero about police work is dangerous to the officers legal rights.If we come to that refuse too.
Yes, I agree! Same BS, just different leadership. Let me see here: several newly promoted captains are put in specialized positions over tenured captains. Severals majors who were demoted to lt were placed in specialized positions without advertising for all lts. Lt Kaulback gets to work directly for her ex-live in girlfriend. Tell me my good people, what has changed around here? The more things change the more they stay the same!
Do some backround checking on Garrity. Most courts apprear to have ruled that Garrity has to be invoked in a specific manner. If I read it right, statements that you make under Garrity, if overheard by a 3rd party (Major Felony, Minor Felony, the chief, or some other non-IA type) can be used against you. This kangaroo court of a Citizen's Review Board is just that kind of loophole.
Damn fine work APD officers Damn fine work!
What we've got here is a failure to communicate, some men you just can reach.
So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it,well he gets it!
Look I dont like anymore than you do.
Citizen Review Boards.... I guess I can't say I'm surprised that the public and the politicians in Atlanta have gone that route.
I expect the citizens of Dekalb will someday require the same.
Think about it.
Here's a scenario that may have already played itself out here in Dekalb...
A well placed officer.... say a driver for the CEO.... violates state laws, county policy, POST Regulations and maybe even federal laws....
All these violations are well documented by the print and television media.
The officer gets a slap on the wrist from the department. He/she gets to spread suspension time over an extended period so the hit is not so bad. He/She keeps their job.
POST does nothing. They are silent.
Said officer is then promoted... not once but twice. He or she might even skip a pay grade or two.
Now....If you were a citizen, would you trust the police or their certifying/licensing agency to maintain standards, punish the offender and/or get rid of the someone who has violated their oath of office?
As a cable news channel says...You decide.
TEBO Get off the site,stop commenting on subjects you know nothing about like leadership go back to Texas and let us clean up your mess. GO APD
TO "Citizens blah blah blah":
If there is well documented evidence the officer broke the law, he would be prosecuted. If there is one thing that can be said about metro-Atlanta DA's, they're more than willing to go the extra mile to prosecute a corrupt cop. Now, if they could just find the same drive to prosecute EVERY criminal in metro Atlanta, maybe the crime rate would drop!
Instead, in DeKalb, we have DA's who will complain about not getting a court supp, when they actually did, so the detective will have to send it to them AGAIN. Then once the DA's get it, again, it will sit on their desk for several months before either being dead docketed or if you're really lucky, the perp will get a ridiculously low amount of probation!!
Yeah, I'm talking about you and your worthless crew, Gwen! Surely SOMEONE from the DA's office is reading this! Dispute it! I dare ya!
Clayton County replaced their D.A. with someone not in the majority but more qualified. We can only hope.
City of Atlanta cops brought most this on themselves. The Kathryn Johnson killing explains the "citizen review board" that is designated as a "witch-hunt" by my fellow bloggers.
There are several legal tools to investigate police shenanigans but that requires a working and effective District Attorneys office which niether Atlanta or DeKalb appear to possess.
Vernon did his best to turn DeKalb into a dys-functional government, like the City of Atlanta, I find it ironic that Gwen Keyes, no friend of Vern's, doesn't investigate a damn thing around the county, unless it is something really news-worthy like two DeKalb school administrators cheating on school scores.
Instead I saw a meeting was scheduled last Thursday for a truth and transpency advisory group. I was really tempted to attend, but it was scheduled for a small conference room in the CEO bldg, (which indicated no one not invited was welcome) and I had the feeling that what I had to say would not be appreciated nor my answers to the questions of what has gone down in the county over the last eight years.
To the DeKalb cops, if you want to keep "citizens review boards" out of DeKalb, then clean up your act. This means keeping your pants zipped, and think about your position as a police officer before doing some dumb-ass stuff that we have seen over the last year.
I see good things happening at DKPD, don't frack it up!
Loflyer,
I can't agree more. There are good things at Dekalb and don't frack it up.
Unfortunately, I don't think we're up to the task. Taking the high road has consequences. The old guard still protects those that should have their ass handed to them. Not looking the other way has consequences.
"Things are bad" and we can't hold officers to higher standards. They're police officers and we should give them leeway because we don't want them to quit or get disgruntled.
Retirement and pension never looked so good.
The "Citizens' Review Board" was a stupid knee jerk reaction.
Fulton County and DeKalb already have "citizen review boards" at the disposal of both incompetent District Attorneys. They are called "grand juries." Gwen and Paul have both made it clear they will go after a cop faster and with more effort than they will a recidivist offender. The grand jury is your citizen review board.
This article points out that the cops cannot be compelled to testify in front of the circus....er... excuse me....Citizens' Review Board because of the Garrity ruling. It's too bad no one in Atlanta or Fulton County government knew enough about THE LAW before this stupid board was created. I guess kissing the butts of whinny perp activist groups is more important than upholding the law. Paul Howard should have had enough knowledge of case law to say, "Hey, this may sound like a great idea, but we can't make officers testify in front of this board because of the Garrity ruling." Where was your expertise of the law, Paul Howard?? Were you too busy shopping around for expert witnesses to screw over Raymond Bunn?? Or dismissing murder charges against a worthless thug who went on to kill an innocent mother of four?? Paul Howard was silent. Was it because he's an idiot, or because he just didn't care about what the law says and only cared about screwing cops? Sadly, with Paul Howard, it's both. He's an idiot AND he's out to screw cops at all costs.
I would quit before I cooperated with that crap. How do we even get people to want to become cops in this environment.
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