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| NEWS > 10 August 2011 |
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Australia: Victorian ethical s
ETHICAL standards police will be the first tested for illicit drugs under a contentious new Victoria Police policy.
From this month, cops thought to be abusing drugs or alcohol will face urine tests at work without warning.
A list of suspected police drug takers will be checked as a priority when the process starts on August 18.
ESD and other units whose members are deemed vulnerable to drug abuse will follow.
The regime will test the increasingly tense relationship between force command and the Police Association.
Assistant Commissioner Luke Co... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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Annapolis Capital
10 August 2011
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Anne Arundel County Police Department, MD
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Moonlighting by police also benefits public?
The county ethics commission and the County Council may never see eye to eye on whether police officers should be allowed to moonlight by providing security at private businesses. As we think the practice has public safety benefits, we've sided with the council in this long-running dispute, destined to be aired again when the council takes up a bill to allow off-duty county officers to work at taverns.
The county wouldn't let a building inspector take a part-time job with a builder, or allow a zoning official to sell property on the side. So why, argues the ethics commission, should police officers, responsible for enforcing liquor laws, be allowed to take part-time jobs for restaurant and bar owners? As the commission put it four years ago, "Police should not be paid directly by the businesses they are supposed to be policing."
The council disagreed, passing a law approving secondary employment for police at private businesses, bingo parlors, carnivals, malls and restaurants.
We backed this. Given what the county pays its police, and what it costs to live in this region, many officers rely on the supplementary income. And now the recent budget crunch has forced the county to slice police salaries 5 percent. As of last year, more than a third of the county's 623 sworn officers had secondary jobs.
The jobs have to be individually approved by the chief of police, which provides protection against conflicts of interest. And such jobs, at no cost to the taxpayer, put trained law enforcement officers out in the community in places where trouble is possible.
So it's not surprising the newly elected County Council ignored a letter from the ethics commission urging repeal of the last council's decision to let police officers moonlight. Instead, the council moved in the opposite direction, backing unsuccessful state legislation that would have cemented the policy of allowing police to work other jobs.
In May, the ethics commission's executive director warned Police Chief James Teare that under existing law, officers should not have secondary jobs at a pair of north county businesses that hold Class D liquor licenses, classifying them as taverns. Teare withdrew approval for those jobs. Around then, according to County Councilman Jerry Walker, complaints started coming in about reduced security and more fights at such establishments.
Walker is submitting legislation to allow police officers to work in the parking lots of such taverns, provided they are not bouncers. As some county officials point out, it's a bit hard to explain why moonlighting police officers should be allowed to work at restaurants but not outside taverns - where trouble is more likely.
The ethics commission's preferred remedy would be to keep police officers from working anyplace with a liquor license. But as that's not going to happen, it will be up to the council - while always being mindful of possible conflicts of interest - to do the practical thing.
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