Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Officers Did Not Follow Policy On Warrants, Probe Finds

Can we now focus on Commissioner Sutton?

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31 comments:

Karma said...

Ironic, written counseling for not doing their job.

They averted a "war" with the commissioners and someone actually finds fault with that. Not quite the line of thought I've heard in the recent past.

Doesn't Director Miller know that the Lt. and the rest of the chain of command were doing what is accepted and expected?

Everyone knows that you don't arrest or cite a VIP or an officer.

ps... was the major, aka the precinct commander, not notified when this went up the chain of command?

Anonymous said...

I have a couple of thoughts on this entire sorry affair;

First, aside from being a liar and a fraud as pointed out by the web site here I want to make another observation. Commissioner Sutton is also pretty stupid. I tired to think of a nicer, softer way to say it but I just could not. She is just plain stupid. Now before anyone attacks me and says that I am just hating and attacking her because she is a black woman I would like to make another point. I know a lot of really smart black women. Sharon Sutton is just not one of them. I also know a lot of really stupid white men but another topic for another time I guess.

My second thought on this matter is in regards to the investigation. She should have gone to jail. I get that. But how can it be that the Lieutenant, the Captain and the Assistant Chief are held responsible? The highest ranking supervisor to make the decision should be the one held accountable. Obviously, I assume this was Assistant Chief Kliesrath. If he made the decision then the buck should stop with him. What is that new slogan for the department? “Leadership from the Top!” Yep, that is leadership alright.

Anonymous said...

Well Dedrick certainly should have known how to play the game, she played plenty with old Te-Bo. Shouldnt she also be written up for violating the chain of command, skipping the Major and Deputy Chief. Sure would have liked to have seen old hog head in the mix. Same BS just different names for sure. Shame Asst Chief mumbles wasnt smart enough to make one more phone call to get the monkey off his back. Then again maybe he did and is just falling on the sword for his bosses. Sutton should resign or be recalled but that aint gonna happen in good old DeKalb County.

Anonymous said...

Its all about political correctness.
They would have been thrown under the bus either way.

I bet we never have a correct answer for this same problem.

Anonymous said...

I rather go to In-Service than face that situation.

Anonymous said...

Gwinnett County S.O. failed to purge the warrants from the system as they should have done. Why is the news media not up there demanding to see their policies and procedures? Why is there no investigation trying to determine why Gwinnett S.O. dropped the ball and allowed those warrants to remain in the system?

Anonymous said...

Sounds like that DeKalb Police Lt took the bullet for his police chief

Anonymous said...

The media should look into how many people are arrested every month on expired warrants

Anonymous said...

Isn’t Sharon Sutton a school teacher? How is it possible that routine background checks at the school system did not detect she had four warrants out for her arrest?

Anonymous said...

Betty Maddox claims if it had been her, the police would have handcuffed her and hauled her off to jail. She doesn’t talk about what she would have done if she had been handcuffed, hauled off to jail, had her car impounded, lodged in the DeKalb County Jail, forced to wait for Gwinnett S.O. to come pick her up, transport her to Gwinnett S.O., and then released because she should have never been arrested in the first place because the warrants should have been purged out of the system by Gwinnett S.O. Oh she would probably be ranting and raving, suing everybody, demanding every officer involved be fired, and wanting the District Attorney to bring charges of false imprisonment against the officers.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like the DeKalb Lieutenant sided on the side of caution.

Anonymous said...

Who and the hell is this woman Maddox, if she says she would have been cuff and stuff, guess what she must be a perp. All officers look at every arrest and decide if this is the best option that they should take. If they feel like the officer in Commission Sutton case they contact someone for advice.
This would have been a NO-WIN issue no matter what direction you took.
I'm just glad it was not me.

Anonymous said...

Did Gwinnett County send the warrants to DeKalb County S.O.? Why were the warrants never served by DKSO?

Anonymous said...

Where is Internal Affairs on this arrest. If its so wrong these officers should be held accountable.

Anonymous said...

I bet he said this was an arrest that no one needs to know about.
If thats what happen then he deserves what he gets. I do not feel sorry for him.

Anonymous said...

This makes me want to hurl. SHE'S the criminal, but somehow, our police are suffering the repercussions and have been made the focus of this story. If they had all done what they should have done, God knows what would have happened to them. "Careers Gone Wild". Way to go Sharon. How does this make you feel??
I'm a Citizen. Hoping you RESIGN. You are an EMBARRASSMENT.

Anonymous said...

Well, I will be damned. The blame was actually put where it belongs: on the command staff and not the line officer. I guess it did get cold enough this winter for Hell to freeze over.

Anonymous said...

So the officers get written up for letting a criminal go, but why is the criminal getting away scott free?? What the hell is wrong with this picture??? I'm all for holding people accountable for their actions, but how is it that the most guilty party of all (the check bouncing commissioner) is walking away without even a slap on the wrist?? All she had to do was pay for her groceries, which is what she should have done in the first place two years ago!! What a sweet deal!! Why can't we all buy groceries and pay for them interest free two years later!!??!!??

Why is the public demanding an investigation into PD for their handling of a criminal, and not calling for an investigation into said criminal or the resignation of said CRIMINAL??

No wonder DeKalb County is the armpit and crime central of metro Atlanta. You don't want to hold the criminals accountable, but you want to blame the police for their criminal activities!

Anonymous said...

Sutton obviously has a history for these financial type crimes and should resign. She has lost her credibility. After her rediculous public statements she has shown her dishonesty. This makes the whole commission look bad. Clean your house or this will be the CEO's last dance.

Anonymous said...

The people are good officers who made this decision. Things will happen in this business. Move forward and go to work. Chief can you please check South precinct . I am tired of our Captain talking about uniforms . Dont your command know there is a budget crunch and going to blue uniforms will cost millions. This is the military experience that everyone wants. The captain is crazy. I wish he would help the Major go with crime plans instead of complaining about how he should be Major because he has military experience. Please

Anonymous said...

Written counseling? I thought you got a week's suspension for any infraction once you reached the rank of Lt.

Anonymous said...

We act like we have never had a person injured in an accident and also wanted by another agency on a misdemeanor warrant. We do not arrest them, we call the department who enter the person. We tell them that they are going to the hospital and there response is THANKS.

They do not respond and take custody of the person. We do not stand guard on this person.

The person either walks away at the hospital to avoid the warrant or leaves after a doctor has seen them.

When they are refused at the jail because they say they just feel bad and they have warrants outstanding and we have misdemeanor charges.
Guess what we do ........we release them with a court date and do you think the other department comes to the hospital?

I'm Ron Burgundy? said...

LT Whittington is a SAINT!

Anonymous said...

Ellis is the CEO (executive branch) and Barnes-Sutton is part of the legislative branch of DeKalb County government. Ellis can not do anything about Barnes-Sutton. It is up to the county commission to do what is needed in this situation. Once again the question is this? What will Larry Johnson as the chairman of the commission do about this? What will each commissioner do about this? Will Barnes-Sutton be removed? It is time for the board of commissioners to stop talking and show with their actions that ethics matters in DeKalb county government. If they do nothing it will say a lot about them and voters should remember this at the poles in the next election.

Anonymous said...

Is someone actually suggesting she shouldn't have been j1'd because of an injury from the accident? It was in a parking lot! How fast was she going? There was barely damage to the vehicles and we're supposed to believe she was injured? She should have gone to jail!

Anonymous said...

Ok now we have 1/3 of the story. The 2/3 of the story from Barns-Sutton is BS. What about 3/3 Who gave documents to the AJC?

Anonymous said...

Lt. Whittington got what he deserved. He made a bad decision to go up the chain with his concerns. His response to the Sgt. should have been to get the warrant confirmed. If it is not confirmed, let her go.

Instead, Lt. Whittington had to make a big deal out of this and allow it to reach the media.

Enjoy your retirement in May, Lt. Let us know if you need 1310 to come by, buddy.

Anonymous said...

Who believes this was Tom W's decision and not someone much higher up the food chain.

Anonymous said...

Dedrick never did understand the chain of command. She's been known to sneak in between the cracks as far back as Moody.... the highest rank that made the bad decision should be the only one who gets the punnishment and it should have been an un paid week off per Rule book.

Anonymous said...

I'd add to this conversation, but I've already paid the price. I know first hand the Lt.'s position and believe he made the decision.

I paid the price for doing my job and will not do it again!

Anonymous said...

you guys know tom whittington of all people doesnt give a @#$% about any of this hoop-la!! seriosly if you had been here for 37 years and making more money than anybody around you...would you care?hahaha.....tom...leaving in may?? yea right you dumb rookie! you obviously dont know him well.