Police Misconduct Punishments & Convictions

I have published several articles regarding police misconduct including;

Reverse Police Blotter - Fourth Edition,

The Cops That Couldn't Drive Straight,

Sexual Misconduct by Police Officers

plus many other articles have been posted on the Newsvine groups Police Brutality & Impropriety and TaserWatch

Often when Viners comment on these stories they display an attitude that the police usually cover up the misconduct and/or the guilty parties will not be punished for their deeds.

So I have started to collect articles about the end results of many of the stories. Here are a few of them;

• St Louis MO police officer has been sentenced to probation for shooting a man in the chest who was actually trying to come to his aid during a fight outside of an Illinois bar.

• Saltville VA police officer is the subject of a lawsuit filed by a family alleging false arrest & excessive force over an incident that was videotaped and allegedly moved a judge to apologized to the family for their mistreatment when he saw it.

• Platteville WI police officer has pled guilty to maintaining a drug house to support her crack habit that including reports of her using while in uniform. She allowed dealers to store cocaine at her home.

• Bristol CT police officer has been suspended after his department found out about a battery and a felony assault charge that stemmed from his arrest while in Florida related to disputes he had with his fiancee at Disney World and a hotel that allegedly ended with him choking her.

• Harris County TX sheriff’s major retired after accused of pushing for hire of man who failed 3 mandatory pre-employment polygraph exams.

• Massachusetts Bay Transit police officer suspended for allegedly defrauding agency of over $50k by altering his own time sheets.

• Mahoning County OH deputy sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to an improper use of police database charge.

• Okaloosa County FL chief deputy is among 3 ex-sheriff’s employees convicted for official misconduct, theft & racketeering

• Nicholas County KY sheriff has been indicted on felony theft & abuse of public trust charges over allegations he mishandled confiscated drug money.

• An Ambridge PA police sergeant has been sentenced to 6 months in a halfway house for beating a prisoner in a holding cell then conspiring to destroy a video of the incident. [0]

• Another Ambridge PA police lieutenant has been sentenced to probation for destroying that video of the sergeant beating the detainee in a holding cell. [0]

• The Sansom Park TX police chief and 3 of his officers resigned in the face of being fired after a list of 60 allegations of misconduct were reported by other cops in the department including excessive force incidents and allegations that one cop was showing other officers pictures of a rape victim’s injuries for fun. [0]

• A Philadelphia PA cop has been sentenced to 2-4 years after pleading guilty to forcing a female prisoner into performing sex acts on him in a jail cell.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

This is group of stories this column has posted in a series of Articles relating to the misconduct of Police Officers including everything from filing false reports to outright brutality, including murder.

However, there is another side to the story.

It is important to keep in mind that every day thousands of Police officers put on their uniforms, pin on their badge of honor and go out to patrol the streets and highways of our communities, not knowing if they will survive the day.

In 2009 there were 127 American Police Officers killed in the line of duty. There have been 143 such deaths so far this year. A list of those Officers can be seen on the "Officer Down Memorial Page"