If you still think that this is just a few bad apples then I have a bridge to sell you in New York. Enough of the default hero status because they strap on a gun and hang a badge off their shirt. These are people who have chosen this job so they could control others. They have been handed more power than anyone in that position ever should have. What could possibly go wrong? I think this shows what. Don’t forget that whatever this chief, or any cop anywhere, reports is given the weight of truth. If some lying scumbag cop says that you shoved him, spit on him etc. It is up to you to prove that you didn’t . Unless you have video rolling, you are screwed. You will be in jail. The chief got away with this simply because they chose to believe his lies. It tells you as much about them as it does him
“AMSTERDAM, Ohio – In the days after they ousted their police chief, the leaders of this town realized that the real mess he’d made wasn’t the jumble of trash and misplaced evidence that cluttered his office. It was what was buried underneath.
There they found forms featuring the mayor’s apparently forged signature that David Cimperman used to add more than 30 officers to the town’s police roster – one for every 16 residents. Many never did any paid police work for the town, logging hours instead for a private security business that state investigators say Cimperman ran on the side. He tried to outfit them with high-end radios. The riot gear and other surplus military equipment he bought with taxpayer money are missing.
What they didn’t find was evidence that the police force built out of fear of being without help in an emergency did much actual police work.”
“Even now, the people who hired Cimperman don’t know the depth of what went wrong in the part-time police force of this small town in the hills of northeastern Ohio. The new chief says he’s consulted with state criminal investigators to help figure it out.
What they know is that they could have prevented it all with a single phone call. They hired a chief without knowing he’d been fired for perjury, quit a job as his bosses started investigating missing police equipment and was charged with a felony for tampering with police radios to make untraceable phone calls.”
“Cimperman’s journey from disgraced police officer to police chief is a surprisingly common one, a USA TODAY Network investigation found.
Misconduct that might disqualify someone from being hired as a rookie cop hasn’t stopped officers from taking the top jobs at law enforcement agencies throughout the USA.”
“Police forces – and the officers they employ – have come under intense public scrutiny in recent years after a succession of high-profile scandals including questionable shootings and commanders who have themselves become criminals. The USA TODAY Network gathered misconduct records from hundreds of police departments and state licensing boards in nearly every state to shed light on the profession, amassing one of the largest stores of information on police wrongdoing.”
“The USA TODAY Network identified 32 people who became police chiefs or sheriffs despite a finding of serious misconduct, usually at another department. At least eight of them were found guilty of a crime. Others amassed records of domestic violence, improperly withholding evidence, falsifying records or other conduct that could impact the public they swore to serve.
In North Dakota, officials picked as their sheriff a man who’d led his co-workers on a 100 mph chase after drinking. A dispatcher summoned him to assist in his own pursuit. In Georgia, an officer fired from the state police after investigators found he’d carried out numerous on-duty affairs and lied about it landed a job as a small-town chief. A Washington trooper who was convicted of rendering criminal assistance in a case involving his son found work leading a small department in that state.
Those chiefs almost certainly represent only a small glimpse at the larger issue, because the records reporters were able to examine cover a small fraction of U.S. law enforcement agencies.”
Excerpted from here with a heads up to Bob for his help:
Deborah Lee Jarrett 