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Two Programmers Expose Dysfunction and Abuse In the Seattle Police Department
reifman writes: Programmers Eric Rachner and Phil Mocek are now the closest thing Seattle has to a civilian police-oversight board. Through shrewd use of Washington's Public Records Act, the two have acquired hundreds of reports, videos, and 911 calls related to the Seattle Police Department's internal investigations of officer misconduct. Among some of Rachner and Mocek's findings: a total of 1,028 SPD employees (including civilian employees) were investigated between 2010 and 2013. (The current number of total SPD staff is 1,820.) Of the 11 most-investigated employees—one was investigated 18 times during the three-year period—every single one of them is still on the force, according to SPD.
In 569 allegations of excessive or inappropriate use of force (arising from 363 incidents), only seven were sustained—meaning 99 percent of cases were dismissed. Exoneration rates were only slightly smaller when looking at all the cases — of the total 2,232 allegations, 284 were sustained. This is partly why the Seattle PD is under a federal consent decree for retraining and oversight. You can check out some of the typically excellent Twitter coverage by Mocek from his #MayDaySea coverage.
In 569 allegations of excessive or inappropriate use of force (arising from 363 incidents), only seven were sustained—meaning 99 percent of cases were dismissed. Exoneration rates were only slightly smaller when looking at all the cases — of the total 2,232 allegations, 284 were sustained. This is partly why the Seattle PD is under a federal consent decree for retraining and oversight. You can check out some of the typically excellent Twitter coverage by Mocek from his #MayDaySea coverage.
Isn't Seattle already under a "consent decree"? (That's basically when the Feds descend on a police force - ala Ferguson - because they want to clean it up.)
http://www.seattletimes.com/se...
And isn't there already a full body - with it's own web site - monitoring it?
http://www.seattlemonitor.com/
Uhhh, I think it reads that all of the 11 most investigated officers are still on the force. You are applying the predicate of one sentence to the subject of the previous one. By your logic (applied to this post) the 11 most investigated officers are mixing up their sentence structure.
I wonder if it's reached a point where abuse of power is regular, or if it always has been and it's only the fact that nearly everyone carries a camera.
Read about Frank Serpico, an NYPD cop that blew the whistle on endemic corruption and graft in the 1970s. His partner, with the assistance of other officers, tried to have him killed, but Serpico survived (with a bullet lodged in his skull). Even though he is one of the most highly decorated retired NYPD officers, he still gets hate mail from active-duty cops for his testimony to the Knapp Commission.
The only difference today is that more people carry cameras.
The facts, that is voting records of their candidates, contradict their claims to the otherwise.
In 569 allegations of excessive or inappropriate use of force (arising from 363 incidents), only seven were sustained—meaning 99 percent of cases were dismissed.
Okay, those are some numbers. Are they good? Are they bad? What percentage of dismissals would be "good" if - as is implied - this statistic is indicative of something being wrong?
In a less rhetorical tone, how does this compare to other similar-sized forces around the country?
Exoneration rates were only slightly smaller when looking at all the cases — of the total 2,232 allegations, 284 were sustained.
Exoneration rates might be "slightly smaller" - 87% down from 99%, which isn't that slight - but if you look at it the other way, the "sustainment" rate is over 10x higher. Tricky things, numbers.
Among some of Rachner and Mocek's findings: a total of 1,028 SPD employees (including civilian employees) were investigated between 2010 and 2013. (The current number of total SPD staff is 1,820.)
Okay, sounds pretty bad. What were they investigated for? Do all the automatic procedures that get launched when someone discharges a firearm, for example, count as an investigation? What if there was a leak of information, and that one investigation initially covered 500 members of staff before quickly being whittled down to Gary in HR?
Without more context and some comparisons to other forces, I'm not really sure how much I should be tutting and shaking my head in dismay.
It's like when someone tells you that all the lego bricks in the world would cover London to a depth of six inches. At first glance, wow, that's a lot, but then I realise I really had absolutely no idea of what the number might be with which to compare the truth.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
By an objective, international standard, US politics falls right of center.
That means that what an American describes as "right" is actually far right, what an American describes as "center" is actually right, and what an American describes as "left" is actually center.
Hopefully that clarifies things for you. It's not that there's a global conspiracy to describe things as further right than they actually are. It's that your perspective, as an American, makes things appear that way.
That being said, American neoconservatives and "libertarians" are both far right, by an objective, international standard.
There are any number of abuses that can go on behind the shield, cops can be among the best criminals because they know the job and know how not to get caught, they know forensics etc etc etc. There are dirty cops out there and unfortunately in this day and age the good ones are the minority. I don't think cops in Seattle with dysfunction and abuse is a localized problem to either the department or the region, it is a national problem.
Not only that, but when they do get caught, they get a free pass from their fellow pigsxxxx cops who refuse to arrest them, from the district attorneys who refuse to prosecute them, from judges who pretend to believe blatant lies, and from the juries who talk themselves into believing blatant lies.
http://www.vice.com/read/testi...
Testilying: Cops Are Liars Who Get Away with Perjury
February 3, 2013
By Nick Malinowski