The number of reports tracked today were a bit below average but that was due to my inability to keep the feed updated as often as I usually do and I really haven’t had a chance to try and dig to make sure I didn’t miss any stories during this rather busy day I had today. In any case, here are the 21 reports of police misconduct as tracked in the National Police Misconduct News Feed today, March 30, 2010:

At least 10 Burbank California police officers have been notified of impending disciplinary actions over various misconduct allegations that include excessive use of force.  The notices were the result of a year-long external investigation into the department prompted by multiple allegations of widespread misconduct and each officer that received a notice has been placed on “administrative home duty”… which sounds suspiciously like vacation time to me.

Meanwhile, some more Burbank California police officers are under investigation for their tactics during a high speed chase for opening fire on the subject in heavy traffic during rush hour, which potentially risked injuring bystanders.

A West Valley Utah police officer assigned to work at a local high school was sentenced to 1 year of home detention in a plea deal that dropped five felony charges of dealing in material harmful to a minor and left one remaining for his efforts to arrange a sexual encounter with what he believed was a 15-year-old boy but was instead an undercover police officer. The judge went against recommendations in sentencing him to home detention because he felt prison is just too harsh and dangerous for cops. This may sound familiar to some of our more devoted readers.

An Asheville North Carolina police officer has filed a suit claiming that her superior officer, the 2008 cop of the year for that department, subjected her to sexually explicit and racist text messages and that the department refused to do anything to stop it. The messages apparently included such gems as “I must licky you” and “you smell like a ho”… classy.

An Acworth Georgia police officer has plead guilty to making false statements to the FBI about selling an illegal short-barrel assault rifle to a deputy who went on to sell it to an FBI agent. That deputy is still facing charges in the incident, by the way.

A Carrollton Texas police officer is facing possible disciplinary action for  yanking a 5-year-old boy from a car then pepper spraying his parents in front of him. Why? Because they had the audacity to wait and pull over in a well-lit area after he tried to pull them over. The department, surprisingly, admitted that the officer was out of bounds and apologized for it.

A Daly City police officer is facing multiple misdemeanor charges including assault with a knife, brandishing a firearm, and assault with a firearm over two different incidents. The first apparently happened at a burger joint where he allegedly jabbed an acquaintance in the stomach with his gun when he accused him of stealing his cell phone. The second for coming up behind another acquaintance and holding a knife to his neck after discussing different ways to kill people in a Starbucks coffee shop.

A Ventura California police officer is on administrative duty while he’s investigated for spraying an anti-abortion protester with a mix of vinegar and water outside his church, then hosing him down. He was off-duty at the time, but apparently had some history with the aforementioned anti-abortion activist.

One Springfield Massachusetts police officer has been fired for beating a man who was having an argument with his niece and another officer was fired for fudging the report to cover up the assault. The victim in the case is still facing charges of assault on an officer and resisting.

A Norfolk Virginia police officer has plead guilty to federal mail fraud charges for tagging his own car with gang graffiti and stealing his own rims in an effort to get an insurance payout.

An East St. Louis Illinois police officer plead guilty to a misdemeanor civil rights violation charge in a deal that dropped felony charges relating to his punching a handcuffed detainee.

A Lynchburg Virginia deputy was found guilty of felony hit & run where he clipped a college student while driving down the wrong side of the road and then fled the scene. Witnesses at the scene and those where he was later apprehended said he smelled of alcohol.

New York NY settled suit for $98,000 to 5 cyclists over wrongful arrests & excessive force used during a 2007 critical mass ride. This was before the infamous tape of a NYPD cop who clotheslined a cyclist on video during another critical mass event, by the way.

The former Salisbury North Carolina interim police chief was suspended while he’s the subject of unspecified internal investigation. He was interim chief until about a week or so prior to the start of the investigation when he was returned to the rank of lieutenant.

Witnesses are questioning the choice by Placerville California cops to fatally shoot a female mental patient who stole ambulance and led cops on a slow speed chase. It seems there’s some discrepancies between the official report saying officers gave repeated warnings and witnesses who say they heard no such thing.

4 Brookline Massachusetts police officers are on paid leave while investigated on allegations that they beat and kicked a stripper’s chaperone at a bachelor party when he asked for payment. The officers were off-duty when they apparently broke the man’s eye socket, nose, and gave him facial lacerations. The police aren’t releasing the officers names so the man can’t file charges against them for the assault.

The St Lucie County FL sheriff’s department is facing a lawsuit filed by a woman claiming that she required surgery to fix her shoulder that was injured when she was held in a restraining chair for over 4 hours. For those who aren’t familiar, restraint chairs are also often referred to as “the devil’s chair” which is used across the US and has a good bit of history as a method to abuse detainees.

The Florence County South Carolina Sheriff’s department and one of their deputies are the subject of a sexual harassment suit filed by a female deputy.

A Warren Ohio police officer has been accused of racially profiling three young kids when he held them at gunpoint under suspicion of breaking and entering, while they were in their own yard. The family is apparently the only black family in the neighborhood and the kids, ages 7, 9, and 10, were not charged.

A third New Orleans Louisiana police officer has been charged for his role in the Danziger bridge shooting and subsequent cover up. He’s the third so far and, just like the other two, he is expected to plead guilty to the charges and cooperate with the ongoing investigation.

Finally, an Allegheny County Pennsylvania deputy was sentenced to pay a fine for a disorderly conduct charge for his confrontation with two uniformed Springdale cops in an apparent instance of road rage. The confrontation resulted in the off-duty deputy being arrested by the two off-duty, but uniformed, Springdale cops.

That’s it for today, stay safe out there!

One of the things I worry about in doing these daily reviews of the reports our National Police Misconduct News Feed captures each day is that it can make our site look more like a news aggregator than a police misconduct research effort. In fact, I also worried about that being the case when I did the weekly updates as well. I would rather focus more on what we discover when we use this data to generate statistical information and on those statistics as well as the underlying reasons for the numbers we see.

However, it’s also true that to keep interest in those aspects of the project that we need to keep fresh information on the site and keep the site updated as frequently as possible… and it takes a tremendous amount of time for me to write the more complex reports and posts that I mentioned above.

So, I’m still not sure that doing these daily recaps are a good idea, but while I try to figure that out, here are the 17 reports that our news feed tracked on March 29, 2010:

A Mesquite Texas police officer has been indicted for aggravated assault for allegedly shooting an unarmed man in the back and paralyzing him during a traffic stop.

2 Albany Georgia police officers are accused in a newly filed lawsuit of injuring a school teacher when they tackled and wrongfully arresting him after he had called police to report that his neighbor’s home alarm was going off.

A Loris South Carolina police officer was suspended after being arrested on criminal domestic violence charges. As is often the case, no specifics were released in this case.

An Overland Missouri police officer has been charged with fist degree involuntary manslaughter for his role in an unspecified March 20 incident that left a man dead 4 days after he was apparently being beaten. Police will only say that, during the incident, no taseres or firearms where used.

A LaFollette Tennessee police officer was arrested on three counts of statutory rape against a 17-year-old girl after an investigation by the state beaureau of investigation. He resigned from the department on Friday after being suspended w/o pay since late February since the investigation was announced.

Jacksonville Florida police officers are now accused of fatally shooting an armed robbery and carjacking suspect while he was surrendering. A witness to the shooting, that also left a 2 year old boy in critical condition and a woman shot in the foot by police, says the man appeared to be getting out of the car with his hands up when police opened fire. The chief claims there are inconsistencies in the story.

The Fairview Oklahoma police chief is under investigation for unspecified inappropriate behavior while he was teaching CLEET law enforcement training courses. The chief, Robert Banks, has had quite a history of sexual misconduct claims against him including a recent $40,000 sexual harassment settlement to a former dispatcher and complaints while he was an officer with the city of Enid where he resigned after he had allegedly pornographic photos developed at Walmart that perportedly involved an 11-year-old girl, and that was after several other incidents. Fairview officials say “his future with the town is sound.”

An Arkansas lawyer who recently won a racial profiling suit against the city of Alexander Arkansas for 5 Hispanic men told a state task force that there were as many as 45 others who were victims but were too afraid to be involved with the lawsuit. Makes you wonder just how extensive a problem under-reporting really is for our statistics, huh?

A Washington DC police sergeant is on desk duty while under investigation into allegations that he coerced a prostitute into having sex with him against her will while he was on duty and in uniform at least four times.

A Bexar County deputy was fired after an investigation into allegations that he lied about his sources in order to get a search warrant in a drug case, jeopardizing dozens of other drug cases. His is the first disciplinary action to result from an ongoing investigation into that county’s 15-member narcotics unit.

Four Providence Rhode Island police sergeants have been suspended while under investigation for inconsistencies with their overtime and sick leave claims following a departmental audit. This brings the total to 9 officers currently suspended for a wide variety of misconduct allegations including rape, assault, and drug trafficking.

An Ames Iowa police officer is under investigation on allegations that he stole about $200 from one of the police union’s charity drives. The union’s president says the officer was a treasurer and is no longer with the association after admitting to the theft. However, apparently, he has not been charged.

A Jefferson Parish Louisiana deputy was fired after being arrested for drunk driving in a marked cruiser. This isn’t the first time though, he was arrested in a police cruiser in 2007 for driving while intoxicated as well.

A Madison County Tennessee deputy has resigned prior to an internal investigation being launched into her being arrested for driving while under the influence. This is often a way for officers to save their careers since resigning before the fact keeps their employment records clear so they can get a job as a cop elsewhere.

A Minneapolis Minnesota police officer who cost his department $75,000 in a settlement to a man he tasered in the neck on video while he was already compliant is still facing suit even though the city settled it’s part, and now it looks like the city may not help him with his legal fees either. No word on whether the police union is going to pick up the fired cop’s legal tab.

A Bosque Farms New Mexico police officer was arrested at the US border on allegations that he attempted to smuggle an undocumented female immigrant into the country using another woman’s border crossing card.

Finally, I was going to add this to the feed over the weekend but all the articles so far have been so convoluted that it’s been hard to tell who’s under investigation here. But as far as I can tell, a Prince George’s County Maryland deputy is under investigation after he was detained on suspicion of DUI after failing a sobriety test, only to be released without charges by a Prince George’s County sheriff’s sergeant. From what I can tell, the sergeant isn’t under investigation at this time, but like I said, all the articles so far have been a confusing mess… welcome to my world.

That’s it for today folks, stay safe out there.

As I’ve mentioned often, weekends are slow news cycles for police misconduct, because of this I’m only doing one of these “daily” reviews for the whole weekend, making it a “weekend” review of the police misconduct reports that our National Police Misconduct News Feed has covered over the course of the weekend… of which our news feed tracked 12 such cases:

At least four Jacksonville Florida police officers are under investigation over their questionable decision to open fire on a car that was carjacked by a bank robbery suspect. Officers reportedly spent 42 rounds of ammunition in a volley that killed the suspect, but also left the female driver injured and her two year old son critically injured with gunshot wounds to the torso and arm. Police say the suspect didn’t shoot his gun during the incident so all injuries were caused by the police officers who opened fire without identifying their target clearly and ensuring that innocent people were not in the line of fire.

A Dellroy Ohio police officer has plead guilty to two felony counts of assault and another two counts of child endangerment for using a taser to discipline his girlfriend’s two and three year old children. His girlfriend has also plead guilty to child endangerment charges for failing to protect the toddlers from abuse. The abuse was discovered when the 3-year-old girl and 2-year-old boy were taken to the hospital with burn marks on their bodies from the taser. The officer is still listed as an active officer.

Two undercover Baltimore Maryland police officers are the main subject of a lawsuit filed by a man who was talking with a friend while chewing on a popsicle stick when he claims he was jumped by two undercover cops who started choking him, causing the stick to become lodged in his throat. When he struggled to dislodge it officers started beating him and then shot him 4 times in the back while he was down on the ground. The police attempted to justify the incident by pinning drug charges on him but they had found no drugs and the man tested clean. So they charged him with assaulting an officer and resisting arrest, an arrest that was unfounded in the first place, thankfully he was finally acquitted of all charges… after being dragged through the system for two years.

A Philadelphia Pennsylvania police officer has been assigned to desk duty while he’s under investigation pulling a gun and firing shots at two people involved in a dispute with the officer while he was off-duty at a bar. This isn’t the first time that the officer has been involved in allegations of misconduct though. His sordid history includes being videotaped beating three suspects on live television, initiating a clash between cops and baby shower guests that resulted in women and children being maced and beaten with batons, and detaining a state legislator who expressed concern about how he handled an arrest of an elderly constituent. Any bets on how this investigation will turn out too?

The city of Hayward California has settled a civil suit for $100,000 that included other defendants aside from a Hayward police officer. The suit stems from a 2008 incident where a man at a party was beaten by two others who happened to be related to an off-duty Hayward police officer who pulled his department issued firearm and threatened the victim after throwing him to the ground by his hair. The officer, of course, is still on the job and never faced any charges.

The police chief of Great Falls South Carolina is the subject of an excessive force lawsuit claiming that he threw a handcuffed woman to the ground, injuring her face when she hit the gravel parking lot surface during an arrest for simple marijuana possession and loitering.

A South Charleston West Virginia police officer is the subject of a lawsuit along with unidentified officers from other Kanawha County agencies. The suit contends that the officer assaulted a man attending a boxing match at a local hotel for allegedly interfering with an arrest that was never documented. The suit goes on to claim that after the initial assault, other officers pulled him into a hallway and began verbally insult the man while beating him some more. The man was charged with “the trinity” of resisting, obstructing, and assaulting an officer… these charges are called the trinity as they are the standard three charges used to cover for acts of police brutality when used by themselves without an underlying charge.

Maricopa County Arizona deputies are accused of falsely arresting a documented US citizen because she looked Hispanic and detaining her for 4 hours despite her insistence she could prove she was a citizen during one of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s infamous immigration raids. Arpaio responded to questions about the arrest by saying “Sometimes you do have probable cause, you do take people in for questioning, and they’re released.” Meaning that, for him, looking Hispanic in his county is probable cause for arrest.

The now-former police chief of Greece New York is now facing additional allegations of misconduct just ahead of his trial on 12 charges over his mishandling of the problematic Greece NY PD. The latest allegations include accusations that he forced a psychologist to alter the test results of an officer who was fired from the Rochester NY PD so that he could be hired despite failing the psych screen. That officer is currently in prison for sexually assaulting at least two women while he was on-duty.

A Washington State Patrol sergeant is under investigation for driving under the influence after he got stuck when he drove off the road. However, the story didn’t end there as he’s also accused of then calling a subordinate officer in an effort to cover up for the incident. However, the rookie officer instead called for backup which resulted in the sergeant being tested and arrested for DUI. The sergeant is on paid leave while we’ll have to wait an see how the rookie cop is treated now that he did the right thing.

A Beaumont Texas police lieutenant was arrested on allegations of driving while intoxicated by a state trooper. This one apparently didn’t call a subordinate to get him out of his jam though.

Finally, the “Police Association of New Orleans” hosted a party recently to “support our Katrina heroes” …those “heroes” happen to be the subjects of an ongoing federal investigation into civil rights abuses and questionable shooting incidents that occurred in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, including the Danziger bridge shootings that have resulted in two police officers pleading guilty to participating in a cover up of that shooting incident that involved planting a gun to justify it. Of course, this isn’t the first time that police unions or associations, that normally claim to be all about fighting crime, suddenly finding themselves in a conflict of interest by hosting events to support suspected criminals when the suspects involved are fellow cops.

That’s all for now, stay safe out there.

Here is our third installment of the daily review of police misconduct stories we tracked with our National Police Misconduct News Feed. Without further ado, here are the 20 reports that we captured on March 26, 2010:

A Newark New Jersey police officer has been suspended without pay pending an investigation after video surveillance capture him assaulting a teen at an apartment complex, as shown above. Three other officers present during the incident have been reassigned while under investigation.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals told the Seattle Police that it’s ok to taser pregnant women for non-arrestable offenses when they ruled 2-1 in favor of the Seattle Police Department over a case where a woman who was 7 months pregnant was tasered 3 times and thrown to the ground face down for refusing to sign a traffic citation. The ruling was roundly criticized by the dissenting judge who called it “off the wall”. The ruling overturns a lower court ruling that refused to grant the officers immunity in the case.

The Tensas Parish Louisiana Sheriff and District Attorney are named in a civil suit alleging that they conspired with others to force the mayor and police chief of Waterproof Louisiana from their elected positions through a campaign of threats, harassment, violence, and false arrests. The suit alleges that they were pushed out because they were black and because of their efforts to clean up the city and police department.

One of the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania undercover cops currently under federal investigation for beating an unarmed student is now the subject of an excessive force lawsuit filed by a man that he had beaten so badly at a traffic stop that he was left with permanent injuries after his eyeball was dislodged when his eye socket was shattered.

A Greenville South Carolina police officer is facing a federal civil rights violation case for mistreating a homeless person in his custody. This one is actually part of an ongoing federal investigation into the department over allegations of abusive behavior towards homeless people in Greenville. The officer is expected to plead guilty to the misdemeanor charge.

A Harlingen Texas police officer has been suspended for 5 days for his actions during a warrant arrest at a funeral. While officers were waiting to arrest one of the pallbearers the officer apparently started harassing threatening the dead man’s family and several of the funeral attendees and then refused to leave when ordered by one of the other officers at the scene. The family feels the disciplinary action was… insufficient.

An Oklahoma State trooper was given a deferred sentence in exchange for a no contest plea to allegations that he kicked a handcuffed woman outside of a bar for spitting on him. As part of the deal that will wipe his record clean after a year he has resigned from the state patrol and has agreed to never be a cop in that state again.

A Mesa Arizona police officer is the subject of a lawsuit over an incident captured on surveillance cameras where he smashed a man’s face into the trunk of his cruiser and then into a chain link fence while the man appeared to be complying. The man was arrested for refusing to sign a citation for jaywalking and urinating in public even though he claims he never urinated in public. The officer has been on paid leave for nearly a year while still under investigation for the incident.

The North Metro Task Force in Colorado is now the subject of a federal corruption investigation after two officers who are members of the unit sued their respective departments for whistle-blower retaliation. The probe stems from a high-profile drug bust where officers found a note they suspect was written by an officer warning of the impending bust.

A Hillsborough County Florida deputy has resigned while facing termination for following a woman he claims had cut him off into a Taco Bell where she worked and berating her in public. When the manager asked him to go outside and discuss the problem he reportedly flashed his gun and badge before his daughter talked him into leaving.

The Statesville North Carolina police department is the subject of a lawsuit filed by one of their own officers who alleges that he was the subject of sexual harassment that included verbal abuse concerning homosexual conduct and that he was tasered by a fellow officer while other cops looked on and recorded the abuse with a cellphone camera that they then showed to several other people.

A Cranston Rhode Island police officer was fired and another faces disciplinary action on allegations that both officers repeatedly had sex with the same woman while on duty in different public locations, thus also failing to cover their assigned patrols.

A Wisconsin State narcotics officer was arrested after he was caught in an FBI sting operation stealing $1,100 during a set up drug bust and then fleeing when confronted by agents. He’s been placed on indefinite leave as a result but the missing money was never recovered.

A Detroit Michigan police officer was sentenced to probation in a plea deal for defrauding the city out of $27,000 in an auto-theft reward scheme. The officer was also ordered to undergo substance abuse counseling for showing up to jail while drunk prior to sentencing, but there was no apparent punishment for his attempt to sneak contraband into the jail as well.

A Montgomery County Maryland police officer was arrested on allegations that she fraudulently padded her timesheets with shifts that she never worked to the tune of something over $10,000 over a period of months. She’s currently reassigned to desk duty.

A Washington County Texas deputy was sentenced to probation in exchange for her guilty plea to allegations that she fraudulently used credit cards that weren’t hers or that she had used false information to obtain. The article isn’t clear on whether this was a case of identity theft or not, but authorities say no county funds were taken.

The highest ranking female officer with the New Jersey Port Authority Police Department is on desk duty after charged with a DUI after someone called to report seeing a possibly intoxicated driver.

An Elmwood Place Ohio police officer is on desk duty after having his license suspended pending resolution of his drunk driving case. He was pulled over for running a stop and driving over a curb and registered at over twice the legal limit on a breath test. His police chief expressed consternation, not over the incident, but that it was made public.

The San Francisco California police department and the California Dept of Alcohol Beverage Control may face a RICO lawsuit over allegations of organized harassment and excessive force in their dealings with San Francisco night clubs. Some of the incidents cited were caught on video at one of the clubs where officers beat a bartender who was cooperating with officers after arrested for forgetting his ID at home that day.

Finally, Rutherford County Tennessee Sheriff Truman Jones and the Tennessee State POST Commission attempted to disqualify the sheriff’s political opponent in the sheriff’s race claiming that the challenger’s diploma was invalid because he had dyslexia and thus made the diploma a special education diploma.

Well, so far the idea of reviewing each day’s worth of reports collected by our National Police Misconduct News Feed seems to be well-received.  So I figured we might as well try it again. Before we do, I also want to remind readers that we also have a National Detainee and Prisoner Rights News Feed as well, so take some time to follow that as well.

Let’s take a look at the 23 reports of police misconduct our news feed tracked on March 25, 2010.

The police chiefs of both Northglenn and Thorton Colorado have been sued by two police officers serving with the regional North Metro Task Force alleging that they were subjected to retaliation for reporting suspicions of corruption from within the ranks when they discovered a letter from an unknown cop warning the subject of a large drug bust of the impending raid.

In Oakland California, BART police officer Marysol Domenici was fired for her role in the fatal shooting of Oscar Grant on New Years Day of 2009. She was the officer who was detaining the unarmed man before her partner, Tony Pirone, hit him then later held him down on the floor while Johannes Mehserle shot him in the back. It’s rumored that officer Pirone will be fired as well.

The Portland Oregon police department is facing a crisis of confidence, at least according to a KATU News and Survey USA poll that shows only 56% of residents trust the police. Further into the data, 67% of black residents and 82% of Hispanic residents distrust the city’s cops. All this came after a couple questionable officer-involved shootings including one that garnered national attention.

An Atlanta Georgia police officer was arrested after a five-month long federal sting operation for transporting what he was led to believe was a shipment of cocaine for a drug dealer. He’s facing three federal counts of conspiracy to distribute cocaine.

The Detroit Michigan Police Gang Squad is accused of acting like their namesake. Dozens of witnesses accused them of needlessly and severely beating and kicking the grandfather of an 8-year-old girl who made headlines when she called 911 to report her mother’s murder only to be answered by an apathetic dispatcher.  Then, when his adult son asked why they were beating him, they reportedly assaulted him as well. In a meeting at the board of commissioners, the packed audience was asked if anyone else witnessed the beating and dozens raised their hands, many of them claiming the gang cops came back the next day to threaten and terrorized them, including the kids who saw the assault… I’ve written about how these types of task force units are so easily corrupted before, they often become what they were trained to fight.

A West Jordan Utah police officer was sentenced to one year in jail for two counts of custodial sexual relations. He was given a deal after pleading guilty to taking a suicidal woman to a dark parking lot and groping her instead of taking her to the hospital for treatment.

A Peoria County Illinois deputy is giving people a lesson in how to wiggle out of a DUI hit and run charge through his extensive law enforcement know-how. Seems the officer knew what he was doing when he fled the scene after crashing into a parked car while drunk and refused to open the door to his home when the state patrol came by. Because they couldn’t barge in since he wasn’t suspected of a felony, they couldn’t test him for being drunk and now prosecutors are trying to figure out if they can charge him with anything at all. Let that be a lesson for you folks.

A Sarpy County Nebraska deputy got probation in a plea deal that reduced domestic assault and interference with a public service charges to a misdemeanor disturbing the peace charge. The incident involved an altercation between the deputy and her police officer husband who is no longer with the La Vista police department after charges were filed against him too, though his case was dismissed.

The Davidson County Tennessee deputy who made national headlines recently for costing her employer nearly $100,000 in a settlement to a man who was injured when the deputy ripped the gold jewelry out of his mouth in jail has been fired. No, it wasn’t that incident that cost her her job, it was that she worked a second job while taking sick leave after she was suspended for 5 days over the incident.

The police chief of Carlisle Ohio has resigned after being put on leave over allegations including dishonesty, neglect of duty, nonfeasance, and incompetence. He plans on filing for medical retirement which would grant him 72% of his annual pay and full benefits… not a bad deal considering he’ll keep getting paid for still not doing his job.

An assistant police chief in Cincinnati Ohio may be in hot water after a report concluded that he violated ethics laws by taking 40 free tickets to a comedy show, reportedly in exchange for offering a police escort to the headliner, Jamie Foxx. The assistant chief claims he didn’t call the tour and offer the escort but instead was offered the tickets because his family was voted Black Family of the Year… but the report says merely accepting the tickets was a violation.

Yet more leadership problems in the buckeye state where the now-former Perkins Ohio police chief has plead guilty to two counts of theft and two counts of mail fraud for buying firearms with police funds then selling the guns and taking the cash from those sales for himself.

An Everett Washington police officer already facing manslaughter charges for fatally shooting a man 7 times in the back after tasering him is now facing a murder charge over the incident as well. He shot the man in the parking lot of a lounge where police had boxed him in and witnesses, including police, say the man was no threat when he was shot. His planned defense is to discredit his fellow officers who will be testifying against him.

A Lehigh County Pennsylvania Sheriff’s Department sergeant has been sentenced into an “Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition Program” that will clear the conviction for buying 27 grams of marijuana from his record after he completes it in 9 months.

In what has to be the most poorly written article we’ve covered so far this year, we gather that a Carrier Mills Illinois police officer was arrested on domestic violence charges for busting a family member’s cell phone then threatening either a family member, or a whole family, with a gun… depending on how you read this confounding report from KFVS news. The officer in question had a previous arrest for DV.

In Memphis Tennessee, a 2-alarm fire that gutted an old school is being blamed on a police explosives training exercise that wasn’t authorized as such. Police, however, claim that their explosives, detonated just two hours before the blaze, just couldn’t have cause the fire… er, yeah, that’s the ticket.

A Manatee County Florida deputy has been suspended for 86 hours for sexting images of himself naked to an unwilling recipient who anonymously reported the incident, along with the image sent via text message. The complainant alleged that the deputy has done this to more than one victim but that the other victims are too afraid of him to step forward.

Riverside California’s police chief got probation after pleading guilty to DUI charges for wrecking a city-owned vehicle have mixing prescription drugs with about 11 drinks at a local strip club. An investigation is ongoing into how the Riverside cops who responded to reports of him driving away on his rims didn’t arrest him or even test him that night in an alleged attempt at a cover-up. The chief’s medical retirement is pending after he’s done with his paid medical leave.

The former Ladue Missouri police chief is suing that wealthy St. Louis suburb alleging that he was fired for refusing demands that he racially profile any minorities that drove through the town while ignoring violations, such as driving while drunk, done by town residents. He also claims that the mayor wanted him to set quotas for traffic tickets to make up for a shortfall, so long as he didn’t ticket residents.

A Dekalb County Georgia police officer was arrested for illegal gambling after Doraville police caught him at a large illegal gambling operation while responding to a report of shots fired in the area.

A Richland County Illinois deputy was arrested by state police on charges of official misconduct and theft for allegedly stealing $600 from one detainee and a shotgun from another.

A Sleepy Hollow New York police officer already facing charges for assaulting handcuffed detainees in two separate incidents is now facing additional charges for allegedly intimidating a witness in 2008.

Finally, a Polk County Georgia detective is facing several charges for his role in an auto theft ring that include allegations that he ran a chop shop, attempted to interfere with an investigation into the operation, and had sold vehicles he knew were stolen and had serial numbers removed. Two other deputies were charged in the case previously, one of which has already plead guilty.

That’s it for today, stay safe out there.

So, today I came up with what might not be the brightest idea. I said to myself “Gee, I need to write more often than I’ve been able to lately… so why don’t I do a daily recap of what shows up on our National Police Misconduct News Feed each day?” Sure, didn’t seem like a bad idea at first, until I looked at how many reports we recorded today.

Still, I thought, why not give it a shot and see what people think… but don’t worry, I’ll try to keep them brief. So, for today at the very least, here are the 25 police misconduct related reports that our news feed tracked over the course of March 24, 2010:

A Newport News Virginia police officer was convicted for brandishing his firearm at a party then grabbing the throat of the host for holding his child. He was given a suspended sentence.

The Syracuse New York Police Department lost a sexual discrimination suit filed by one of their own officers alleging that they retaliated against her for complaining about discrimination. The city says they plan to appeal the $400,000 judgment against them.

At least six Phoenix Arizona police officers are accused of holding a woman down while another repeatedly kicked her, cracking her ribs. Neighbors say they witnessed at least one cop kick her while she was cuffed after she came outside when she heard her daughter screaming while being arrested for drug possession. Police say they are investigating the complaint.

A Milwaukee Wisconsin police sergeant was suspended while investigated on allegations he sent text messages to fellow cops trying to organization a work slow-down to protest their poorly performing radio system.

A South Carolina State Trooper was suspended after being charged with disorderly conduct for physically fighting his wife’s friend while they were out drinking, apparently because they didn’t want to leave when he did.

12 West Jordan Utah police officers are the subject of a complaint against that city by a woman claiming that officers twisted her arm and repeatedly slammed her head and torso against a fence post for not showing them her ID when they were called to her home over a noise complaint.

The Douglas County Nebraska Crime Scene Investigation chief has been convicted of planting evidence in a murder case that resulted in the wrongful arrest of two men. No word on how many of the other cases he handled may now be open to review.

A Lawrence County Illinois deputy was suspended pending an investigation into allegations that he hospitalized a friend of his brother with facial fractures after getting into a fight with the man while off-duty.

A Dakota County Minnesota deputy is under investigation for sending a racist joke to the official email accounts of several fellow officers.

The now-former Bellows Falls Vermont Police Chief was sentenced to probation and 100 hours of community service after convicted on federal mail fraud charges. He used funds from the police department meant to buy firearms and used it to fund his personal gambling trips instead.

The New Orleans Louisiana police officer who investigated the post-Katrina Daniziger Bridge shooting incident  and co-authored the subsequent cover-up report has retired after being named as a target in that probe. The department says that he had planned his retirement before the federal investigation into that report started and two of his fellow officers had plead guilty to their roles in that cover up… uh huh.

A Boston Massachusetts police officer was charged with 34 counts of federal mail fraud for allegedly faking an injury to get workers comp and file for a disability retirement while going on a vacation to Vietnam where he videotaped himself convalescing by performing strenuous hikes with pals… Oops.

A Buffalo New York police officer was sentenced to 1 year in jail for molesting a college student. The charge was a result of a plea deal that reduced his felony sex crime charge to a misdemeanor. He’ll serve the year in jail in conjunction with the year he was already serving for a federal firearms conviction. He was put on probation right before that case for beating a neighbor with a metal rod. Don’t worry, NY state residents will keep paying his disability retirement pension though.

A Fairfax County Virginia deputy was arrested for allegedly having sex with a detainee he was assigned to guard while she was being treated at a hospital.

The Streamwood Illinois Police Department lost a civil rights lawsuit in a jury trial that awarded $200,000 to a man who was kicked to the ground by cops who then released a police dog on him which bit his leg and his scrotum… which required stitches. He was apparently attending a party when others crashed it and prompted calls to police who attacked him while he was talking to friends. He was previously cleared of the cover charge that he assaulted a cop.

An Independence Louisiana police officer was arrested on charges of carnal knowledge of a juvenile and 5 other related charges. The sheriff who hired him plead guilty last week to federal voter fraud and deprivation of rights charges. No other details are currently available on this case.

A former Charleston South Carolina police officer was placed on the national top 10 most wanted list for sexual offenders after he disappeared prior to his trial in 2005 for molesting a 10 year old. While this one won’t go into the database since the offense isn’t current, I did want to put it up in case anyone has seen this wanted fugitive.

A Memphis Tennessee police officer who also serves as the president of the local police union was fired on allegations that he interfered with a criminal investigation into a fellow officer on animal neglect charges in a case where two dogs had to be euthanized because they were so malnourished. The officer claims it’s retaliation for being critical of his bosses.

2 Allen Texas police officers, a married couple, were criminally charged for allegedly mistreating their son. The mother was charged with injury to a child for reportedly beating her son with a belt leaving bruises on his buttocks and face while the father was charged with official repression for cuffing the 11-year-old child and taking him to the station while pretending to arrest him.

A Placer County California deputy who worked at the courthouse as a bailiff was arrested for allegedly showing up to work while drunk. He was then arrested again for violating his probation for a previous DUI conviction because of the incident.

A Nogales Arizona police sergeant has resigned in lieu of termination for tasering a fellow officer’s crotch during a disagreement with that officer. The two were apparently ribbing each other for quite a while when the sergeant apparently lost his temper and tasered the subordinate cop’s testicles, so the tale goes.

2 Port Richey Florida police officers are under investigation for possible excessive force after they tasered a man thee times who was startled awake while sleeping in his car by the cops who were investigating him after receiving a false call about how the man had outstanding warrants, which he didn’t.

Baton Rouge Louisiana settled a brutality lawsuit for $300,000 to a man who almost died after losing 2.5 liters of blood due to internal bleeding that was caused by officers who beat him while he was in custody at the station. When questioned by council about why no officers were disciplined in the case, police answered that the nearly-fatal beating was because “He was being mouthy, I would say, and non-compliant”

A New Albany Indiana police officer is under investigation for allegedly saying that “the worst thing they could have ever done is give African-Americans their civil rights.” during roll call and making disparaging remarks about civil rights leaders to fellow officers. The department seemed to have dropped the probe and said it didn’t see a problem until the NAACP got wind of the case and demanded something be done.

Finally, in Meridian Idaho, a neighborhood is demanding an investigation into an off-duty cop who shot a dog to death for barking at him. Neighbors and witnesses who watched the officer shoot the Queensland Heeler said that the dog was just barking and wasn’t a threat and didn’t deserve to be shot. However, Meridian police are contemplating charges against the family while refusing to release the name of the officer who shot the dog to death, or even the name of the police department that officer works for, suggesting that he’s the victim here, even though he was never actually attacked.

…That’s it for today. Let me know if you think this is something you would like to see me do every day… or if it’s just too much to follow.

As usual, it’s time for our weekly look back at a few of the police misconduct news stories our National Police Misconduct News Feed covered  during the week. Since March 13th our news feed tracked over 140 reports of police misconduct in the media, which means we tracked an average of over 20 reports a day this week. Hopefully this  helps explain why I haven’t had time to write new articles for the site this week.

In any case, let’s take a look at some of the common themes many of these reports shared…

The Week In Police Accountability

The Star Tribune recently published an article about how Minneapolis Minnesota Police Chief Tim Dolan ignores 84% of the cases that the Civilian Review Authority forwards to him for disciplinary action. Despite Dolan’s reluctance to discipline officers and the resultant large number of civil rights litigation payouts lately, Dolan’s term as chief was renewed with some city officials even candidly saying nobody cares about civil rights so long as crime rates are down… Perhaps that’s why Minneapolis ranks worst in its class in our 2009 Police Misconduct Statistical Report.

In Illinois, police accountability and transparency took a hit this week now that the state house passed a bill that would hide public employee performance records from Freedom of Information Act requests only 10 weeks after FOIA reforms took effect in that state. The law wouldn’t just let police departments hide misconduct records, but actually makes it illegal for them to disclose them even when they want to.

State laws like the one planned for Illinois not only hide misconduct from the people, sometimes they hide misconduct from other cops too, like in Haubstadt Indiana where a police officer with a past now faces felony charges for falsifying time cards and stealing money from the department’s evidence room. The officer involved, Micah Rulli, resigned from his previous job as a Lakeville Indiana cop after he signed a deal with the Lakeville town board that stopped an investigation into four different violations including conduct unbecoming and immoral conduct. So the town of Haubstadt had no idea of the problems they invited when they hired Micah. Which goes to show that when there’s no accountability and transparency, everyone loses, even the police.

Of course, as we noted in our report on police transparency laws and law enforcement fatality rates, many states have laws that effectively hide police misconduct records. Texas, for example, has a strange set of laws, thanks to police union lobbying efforts in the 70′s, that exempt some cities from having to release misconduct records while other cities have to. The Dallas News found this out when they tried to dig into a story about a Garland TX narcotics officer who was reported by his fellow officers for falsifying arrest reports, even though that case stands to jeopardize 100′s of criminal charges and convictions.

The Week In Professional Discourtesy

As we say from time to time, private citizens aren’t the only victims of police misconduct. For example, in Florida, a state ATF agent has filed suit against the Escambia County Sheriff’s Department. In that complaint, the agent says he was on the phone with the Sheriff’s Department running a check on a gun at a liquor store being investigated for underage sales when 15 deputies surrounded the store and he was told to go outside to talk with them. Once outside he was tasered multiple times, piled on, had his head repeatedly bashed into the pavement, then was repeatedly bitten by a police dog the deputies released on him while he was restrained. Even after the officers figured out they were messing with a fellow cop, they made fun of him while they took him to the hospital… so much for that professional courtesy thing.

In Michigan, two Isabella County Sheriff’s Department deputies and a Mount Pleasant Police officer are subjects of an excessive force lawsuit filed by an 83-year-old retired state trooper who claims officers beat him with a metal baton then tasered him twice after he had been handcuffed. All this occurred in a hospital parking lot where he had taken his wife who had cut her leg after calling 911 because she was on blood thinners and bled profusely. The retired cop had suffered a stroke that limited his ability to talk and the beating occurred while he tried to give officers a card that explained his condition… I’m guessing they’ll say they thought he was pulling a gun out of his wallet.

Of course, police officers can even give other cops a hard time while off-duty too. Like how a Franklin County Ohio deputy got himself in a spot of trouble after a visit to an Austintown lounge. Seems he didn’t take kindly to the idea of being kicked out for trying to grope a dancer there. Two police officers arrived after he threatened the bouncers and he punched one of the cops, which got him tasered and arrested for Trespassing and resisting arrest… though I’m pretty sure a regular person would have faced more charges than that.

The Week With Cops and Kids

Even children aren’t immune from police misconduct as there were a number of kids mentioned in reports of misconduct this week too. In Fort Dodge Iowa, for example, a police officer is under investigation for allegedly chasing and tackling an 11-year-old in a residential front yard during a birthday party. The officer was then accused of choking the boy after he tackled him to the ground until the mother yelled at him. At which point he fled the scene in his cruiser, only to return with 4 other cruisers and his supervisor. No word on why the incident occurred in the first place or if the child was charged with anything… though I can’t think of anything an 11-year-old could do that would warrant a grown man strangling him.

In Winder Georgia, a group of Winder Police officers and Barrow County deputies are the subject of a lawsuit alleging that they illegally detained a child who was home alone while staying at his grandmother’s home in order to coerce him into allowing them to search the home without a warrant. The officers ended up searching the home anyway even after the child continued to balk… even though the person they were searching for didn’t live at that address like they mistakenly thought.

In Pittsburgh, the three undercover police officers who are under federal and grand jury investigations for beating an unarmed student were awarded during a ceremony at city hall. They were congratulated by the mayor and other officials, including a councilwoman who said “We need to stand up and stand up and support our officers, and thank them for the work they do.”… even when that work includes beating up innocent kids I guess.

New Castle Pennsylvania police officer Richard Corbin plead guilty to charges of indecent assault and corruption of minors for getting 13-year-old and 15-year-old cousins drunk and sexually assaulting them. After the charges were filed, Corbin’s family members allegedly attempted to bribe and intimidate the victims into recanting. In the end prosecutors gave him a plea deal dropping sexual assault charges when the girls didn’t want to testify.

Milwaukee County Wisconsin Sheriff’s Captain David Salsbury is facing at least 18 criminal charges on allegations that he sexually abused 4 children, 2 boys and 2 girls, repeatedly over a period of a decade. One victim claims the abuse started when she was only 3 years old. Police confiscated computers and cameras from his home as the children allege he also forced them to pose nude for him.

Is That All?

With an average of 20 reports a day this week, there are certainly many more cases to talk about unfortunately… like how a deputy in Michigan was accused of masturbating in front of a massage therapist, or how Sacramento County deputies were sued for arresting a black man on two different occasions on a warrant for a white man with a different name, or how Powell Wyoming cops were accused of using a woman as human shield & setting her home on fire during a SWAT raid for misdemeanor pot possession, or how 5 Camden NJ cops got caught planting evidence on people and writing up false reports and how that is forcing prosecutors to drop charges in 185 drug cases…

There’s more than I can write about here folks, I don’t know about you but that fact sure bothers me… not because it happens since police misconduct bound to occur no matter what, but because it happens more frequently than should be expected and, when it happens, the default reaction is to excuse it, cover it up, or dismiss it as an mere anomaly. Which only serves to encourage more of it.

It’s not necessarily the bad cop his or her self that should scare us as much as the actions of those who are responsible for holding them accountable, yet don’t. In a nation where something new is outlawed each day, it seems as though we are subjected to more and more laws while the police are subject to fewer and fewer, all while each new law grants them more power over us. Most injustices are born of inequality, and there is no more stark example of inequality before the law than the difference between how police are treated in society and how the rest of us are.

There are a lot of bad people out there folks and, despite what government officials would tell you, sometimes they wear uniforms too. So, until next time, stay safe out there.