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NEWS > 10 August 2011

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Rise in police-involved shooti
LAS VEGAS - Police here insist it’s not their fault. They say criminals in America’s famously anything-goes city are getting more brazen, and officers have had no choice but to shoot 21 people so far this year.

Eleven people have died in police confrontations in 2006. By comparison, Las Vegas police were involved in 13 shootings in all of 2005, nine fatal.

“Every situation needs to be judged on its own merits,” said Clark County Sheriff Bill Young, whose 2,118 officers cover the glittering Las Vegas Strip, vast suburban sprawl and remote desert hamlets in an... Read more

 Article sourced from

Anne Arundel County Police Department, MD
Annapolis Capital
10 August 2011
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
Anne Arundel County Police Department, MD

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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