[Jeff22]

There's a huge difference between "corruption" and "incompetence".

Mostly these incidents here fall under the category of "incompetence" or "malfeasance" or "misconduct".

As a cop, I can't stand it when the cops don't do their job. I pride myself on being professional and having good attention to detail and cops who are sloppy and cut corners or who are unprofessional in dealing with people drive me crazy.

Several times in my police career I've responded to assist other agencies and actually had witnesses come up to me and offer to give me a statement (once at a drive by shooting, once at a shooting outside a night club, and once at a major injury MV accident) and I couldn't find anybody from the primary agency interested in talking to the witnesses (!!)

So I took a statement, wrote a report like I should, faxed copies of my report over so it could go into the case files, and then made a few phone calls to supervisors over there that I knew. The last time that happened (the MV accident, which I think was in the fall of '01) I even sent an email direct to the Chief of the other agency to bring his attention to the problem.

My Chief was REALLY mad at me over that. I never got a response from the other chief, but I do know that he raised hell in a staff meeting and a few people got tuned up.

If the cops don't do their job, then sometimes you have to fight the battle. If you have a LEGITIMATE complaint, then deal with it. I've had to do that a few times with officers from agencies I worked for, with guys I worked with, because there were problems. Didn't make me real popular there for a while, but you always have to do the right thing. And I must say, these weren't guys who were corrupt or racist or brutal. But a few of them were sloppy, and one of them just could NOT talk to people properly if the situation was at all stressful and he needed an attitude adjustment. It wasn't that he was a jerk -- he just got overloaded way too easily under stress.

(He later went to a nearby agency and ultimately became a detective and I understand he's pretty good at it. Who'da thought?)

At various times we had a few young, enthusiastic (and ignorant) cops "scanner chasing" and jumping calls in a bigger and more active neighboring jurisdiction. To the point that they were getting in the way, being mildly tactically unsafe, and creating justified hard feelings with the other police department. But the officers from the other agency involved were reluctant to complain, because they didn't want to start a war, and my supervisor at the time wouldn't take action without a formal complaint to work with. So we actually had to solicit a complaint from the other agency about our guys to get any corrective action applied. So we did. Learning occurred. I always address the issue when field training new cops, but sometimes cops desire to be in on the action gets in the way of their common sense . . .

My point is, if you have a valid complaint of substance, it's best for everybody if you push it a little. Quite possibily some of the other cops will appreciate it, too . . . but that also depends on the situation where YOU are and whether or not the agency will actually pay attention. Some agencies disregard all complaints, and others over react . . .