DUH! thats because when criminals investigate themselfs they always find out that the criminal did nothing wrong.
of course in the rare case that the accused cop is an out cast amoung his peers they will probably use whatever minor thing he does to boot him off the force. even if he did nothing wrong.
but of course if the accused cop is an regular run of the mill jack booted civil rights violating thug then the investigation will always find the officer did nothing wrong and in fact if probably is a hero when viewed by his peers of jack booted thugs.
Date: Mon Dec 20 13:20:23 1999
From: zonie@AZTEC.ASU.EDU (RICK DESTEPHENS)
Subject: Columbus & Tempe
To: AZRKBA@asu.edu
I wonder how Tempe PD stacks up?
Newspaper: Police rarely uphold citizen complaints
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Columbus police rarely find complaints of police wrongdoing to be valid or discipline officers accused of misconduct, according to a newspaper analysis of citizen complaints reviewed by the Justice Department.
A computer analysis of 323 cases by The Columbus Dispatch for a story Sunday showed that only 4 percent of citizen complaints between 1992 and 1996 were upheld by internal police reviews. The 323 cases included 656 allegations against officers, 26 of which the police department deemed valid.
Twenty-two officers received some discipline, usually a verbal or written reprimand. Only one officer was suspended.
The city is the first in the nation to challenge a Justice Department lawsuit that alleges a pattern of civil rights violations by a police department.
Federal law required the Justice Department to have evidence of wrongdoing before filing a civil lawsuit. Federal officials will not discuss the matter.
Gregory Connor, a paid federal consultant on the case, believes the department became a target because of policies and practices that ignore abuse - not because of the number of complaints.
"I think individual cases can show pattern and practice by being blown off," he said. "I don't think there's a specific number to show it."
But James E. Phillips, an attorney for Capital City Lodge No. 9 of the Fraternal Order of Police, said the federal prosecutors have to prove that the city repeatedly violated constitutional rights. He doesn't believe they can.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that plaintiffs must show first what constitutional right was allegedly infringed rather than how some general excessive force standard was violated, he said.
"That's why it's so important to draw the line between constitutional issues and bad policing," Phillips said. "There's a big difference in saying there are civil-rights violations and proving them."
The newspaper's analysis shows Columbus validates fewer complaints than police in other Ohio cities.
Cincinnati sustained nearly 68 percent of citizen allegations against police in the first 10 months of this year. In Akron, 13 of 122 citizen complaints, or 11 percent, were found to be valid in 1998.
In Toledo, only one of 84 complaints of excessive force was found to be valid and the officer was fired. The department's internal affairs unit found 10 of 25 complaints of conduct unbecoming an officer to be valid with six officers receiving unpaid suspensions.
later,
Rick