There is an interesting story out of Massachusetts where an official at the Massachusetts Civil Service Commission found that the Methuen Police Department admitted that job applicants were given higher scores if they indicated that they would never arrest a fellow officer for drunk driving and other applicants were downgraded for saying that they would apply the law equally to all citizens — officers and non-officers alike.
Christopher C. Bowman, chairman of the Civil Service Commission wrote in a July 9 decision that “the City turned the interview process upside down. There is simply no valid basis to award the highest points to candidates who express a willingness to apply one set of rules to strangers and another set of rules to friends and family members.”
Methuen asked candidates how they would handle a situation in which where they found a driver in a crash who appeared to be intoxicated. The candidate was then asked if the response would change if it involved a relative or a police officer they knew from a neighboring town. The questions are obviously designed to elevate honest officers but was instead used to select dishonest ones. When candidates said they wouldn’t arrest family or fellow officers, the hiring panel noted the person “knows discretion.” Indeed, Bowman said that “Some of the interview panelists actually heaped high praise on those candidates who stated that they would arrest a stranger but not arrest a friend or family member based on the same facts, citing their understanding of ‘discretion.’”
While Methuen Mayor Stephen N. Zanni (right) said he plans to review the police hiring process and procedures, there was notably no assurance that officials rewarding such pledges to turn a blind eye to crime would be fired. It would seem that this is a fairly good measure of an officer’s inability to serve. The grading officer or officers not only selected candidates based on their professed bias but actively sought officers who would ignore crimes. That does not seem a matter for better training but rather a fundamental misconception of the role of police in our society by those on the panel of review. It is not the fitness of the candidates that I am most concerned about but the fitness of the panel members who allegedly gave higher score to those who would show bias in the enforcement of the law.
A bureaucracy is first and foremost loyal to itself.
The “BROTHERHOOD.”
There is a financial incentive for cops to keep their mouths shut about what cops do. My goodness, can you imagine the city’s insurance premiums if cops went around telling on each other???
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
REAL EYES
REALIZE
REAL LIES
WAKE UP, TURLYITES. IT’S TRUE WHAT THEY SAY. JUST ASK DARREN.
Police, n. – an armed force for protection and participation.
No comment from Darren smith about this absurdity?! Hmmm wonder why….
My favorite:
Riverside, CA police chief was caught driving drunk, not prosecuted and allowed to retire.
There is law – and then there is law.
There is the law as clearly written by the Founders, the law taught at Harvard, the law of elitists which can only be understood by ivy leaguers and is “incomprehensible” to common people, the law practiced by politicians and real life law. How about that? Law du jour. Short order law. Law built to suit. You “law” folks are deserving of the highest respect. And that Preamble sure isn’t binding – oh hell no! And how about that Extreme Court – it makes up words as it goes along.
**********
“He said he was taking pain medication but never admitted to drinking.”
(The perpetrator tries himself and finds himself not guilty. I like that.)
—–
“…police are now saying they do not know what he hit.”
(The police, AKA Keystone Cops, “don’t know what he hit.” Seriously? What are they paid ridiculous amounts of money for? And they don’t want to know and they will never know, OK, Chief? How’s that, Chief? “Works for me,” said the Chief.)
**********
Full Article:
“Former Riverside Police Chief Russ Leach has been charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs after crashing his city-owned vehicle last month, officials said Monday.
The California Highway Patrol, which investigated the incident, said Leach had four drinks at his home on Super Bowl Sunday before going to a strip club in Colton where he had at least seven more. He was taking prescription pain medication at the same time.
He later crashed his car into a “low-profile object,” causing extensive damage to the car, but he kept on driving for another mile or so, officials said. Riverside police officers who responded to the accident said Leach had been drinking but they did not file any charges against him.
[Updated at 12:35 p.m.: A previous version of this post said Leach had crashed into a fire hydrant and light pole, but police are now saying they do not know what he hit.]
An internal investigation is underway to determine if the officers behaved properly or if Leach got special treatment because he was the chief. Leach, 62, resigned a few days after the accident. He said he was taking pain medication but never admitted to drinking.
The CHP also said they had a photo from a red-light enforcement camera showing Leach going through the light at about 2:24 a.m., roughly a half-hour before the crash. Leach is to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. in Riverside on Thursday.”
The inmates have taken over the asylum.
Why am I not surprised.
One way for thee, another for me. Sounds like politicians.
I don’t think this is corruption as much as it is just being human. Ever try to get a doctor to testify against another doctor?
Barkingdog,
If you didn’t bark so much, perhaps you would have heard of searching online.
BaileyTim: New Hampshire is the Live Free or Die State. I dont think of it as dumpy. Maybe Trumpy. We will see when the primary there is over.
I wanted to know where this town was so that I did not drive through it. Or ride a boat through it. Fly over and flush.
Methuen, MA is a dumpy suburb near a dumpy city called Lawrence, MA, near a dumpy state called New Hampshire.
“There is an interesting story out of Massachusetts…”
Why are stories like this so often described as “interesting” rather than outrageous? Does Prof. Turley not find this story outrageous, or at least disturbing? If so, why doesn’t he say it?
Combine this with the recent appeals court decision that it’s okay to discriminate against intelligent candidates, and I’ve really got to ask what kind of people are being hired as police these days? The dumbest and most morally lacking people in our society?
Why are police departments starting to remind me of the scene from Blazing Saddles where the bad guys are deputizing all the other bad guys?
Where the hell is this town anyway? Is there any major highway that goes through it? Does a river run through it?
Steven Fleischer: “What we did not suspect was that the corruption was institutionalized at the hiring level.”
Not only is the corruption “institutionalized at the hiring level” (and many of us have known for a very long time) — it is also institutionalized at the highest level.
Reinforces our suspicions – there is a culture of mendacity in law enforcement.
What we did not suspect was that the corruption was institutionalized at the hiring level.