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| NEWS > 04 August 2007 |
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Detective quits over corruptio
A SENIOR detective from one of Victoria Police's most sensitive units has resigned after allegations that he leaked details of a corruption inquiry.
The sergeant worked in the police human source management unit, which safeguards against the mismanagement or corrupt use of informers. He is believed to have tipped off an associate about the probe by the Office of Police Integrity.
The revelation comes after The Age reported last week that two taskforces are investigating evidence allegedly linking corrupt police to underworld killings, and as political pressure mounts on P... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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New York Times - United States
04 August 2007
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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NYC: Board Calls Police Dept.
The Police Department has increasingly failed to prosecute New York City police officers on charges of misconduct when those cases have been substantiated by the independent board that investigates allegations of police abuse, officials of the board say.
From March 1 to June 30, the Police Department reported that it declined to seek internal departmental trials against 31 officers, most of whom were facing charges of stopping people in the street without probable cause or reasonable suspicion, according to the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board.
By contrast, from 2002 through 2006, the department reported it had been unable to prosecute a total of only 49 officers, the board said.
The Police Department is prosecuting fewer officers because it has decided that a variety of factors, including a recognition that the review board too often fails to apply appropriate legal standards for the officers’ work, merit it bringing fewer cases to trial, said Julie L. Schwartz, the department’s legal advocate.
But some at the review board believe the numbers tell a story of a trend toward leniency in areas where police officers might deserve more stringent discipline.
The issue is a combustible one. Police officials said the number of prosecutions depended on what kind of cases were being substantiated and the department’s scrutiny of those cases. The officials said the board did not apply the correct standards when analyzing cases, particularly in ones involving routine stops.
Police officials said the board often did not look at whether the officers’ conduct was reasonable and often did not apply common sense in its analysis. They said that the board also occasionally overturned the recommendations of its own investigators, and that it often put forward cases that were not viable for trial.
An example of how the review board and the police can differ can be seen in their views of a recent case in Brooklyn, in which two female employees locked themselves in a Laundromat, dialed 911 and reported seeing a menacing looking man outside. There had been a number of robberies in the neighborhood. When police officers arrived, a passer-by pointed out where the man had run off to; the officers found him and patted him down. The man, who was homeless, was released.
The board said the officers went beyond the level of intrusion necessary, but the department declined to prosecute, arguing that what they did was good police work.
Ms. Schwartz said that the review board had simply not been applying “basic, black-letter law” in deciding whether to recommend prosecution.
A review board spokesman, Andrew Case, said the board’s standards in determining whether to pursue prosecution “were always high and they remain high.” Mr. Case said 90 percent of all allegations of misconduct that the board reviewed were not substantiated. He said that all substantiated cases were reviewed by staff lawyers and that 9 of the 12 board members are lawyers, including a professor at Columbia Law School, a member of the New York State Bar Association’s executive board and several former assistant United States attorneys.
“To say these people do not understand the stop-and-frisk law is flatly untrue,” Mr. Case said.
The board reported its numbers on its Web site yesterday and is expected to raise the issue at its next public meeting on Wednesday.
Board members are in discussions with police officials about the reduction in the number of cases being brought to trial. They are seeking insight into the department’s opinions about what constitutes proper behavior for officers who stop people on the street. This week, the board’s chairwoman, Franklin H. Stone, took her concerns to Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, Mr. Case said.
“Misconduct is part of a continuum of behavior and the police commissioner is entitled to draw the line wherever he wants to draw it, meaning he can impose discipline where he sees fit,” Ms. Stone said yesterday. “But he cannot tell us that the standard we are applying is inappropriate or suddenly, after 14 years, that it has become inappropriate.”
Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said, “When the Police Department fails to take police misconduct seriously, it is bad for the overwhelming majority of police officers who are good cops, and is bad for the public.”
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