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| NEWS > 12 February 2007 |
Other related articles:
Police Defend Handling of Mel
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A sheriff's spokesman Monday defended the handling of Mel Gibson's drunken driving arrest in Malibu last week amid allegations the department covered up anti-Semitic remarks reportedly made by the actor-director as he was being taken into custody.
The allegations of anti-Semitism stemmed from a leaked arrest report that quoted Gibson as saying, ``The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world,'' and asking a deputy, James Mee, ``Are you a Jew?''
The entertainment news Web site TMZ posted what it said were four pages from the original 8-page ar... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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Hamilton Spectator - Hamilton,
12 February 2007
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Hamilton Police Service
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Police hiring practices need s
When a cop gets in trouble after just five months on the job, it makes you wonder how she got hired in the first place.
Certainly it makes Chief Brian Mullan wonder. So he has ordered Deputy Chief Eric Girt to review the service's hiring practices. He demanded it just five days after two police officers -- one of whom was a brand new recruit -- were arrested for allegedly framing an innocent civilian. Detective Helena Russell is a 16-year veteran with the service. Constable Jessica Prazeres, however, was so green she was still teamed up with a training officer at the time the offences allegedly occurred.
How can someone go from excelling in the recruitment process -- passing scads of psychological and ethical tests as well as background checks and interviews -- to being charged with a raft of criminal offences just a few months later?
It's a legitimate question.
Is the hiring system flawed? Can the psychologists and behavioural experts be easily fooled? Or do some people just go off the rails after the testing is done?
The same questions are being asked about NASA's hiring process. Last week, the U.S. space program also announced formal reviews of its procedures for assessing the emotional and psychological well-being of astronauts after Navy Captain Lisa Nowak was charged with attempted murder and kidnapping related to an apparent love triangle.
The NASA reviews will look not only at the quality and appropriateness of testing that is done of those astronauts entering the program, but the monitoring of them after they're in.
Nowak, as we all know by now, drove non-stop from Houston to Orlando last weekend, wearing diapers so she wouldn't have to make pit stops, in order to confront a rival lover in an airport parking lot.
She was disguised and armed with a steel mallet, a buck knife, a loaded BB gun that looked like a real handgun and pepper spray.
The alleged actions of the Hamilton cops are also bizarre. The women are accused of tricking a mutual friend into making a 911 call to report that one of the off-duty officers was badly hurt and in need of help.
After police officers rushed to her aid and found the report wasn't true at all, the male friend was arrested.
It was only after a lengthy investigation by another police service that it was determined the man had genuinely thought his friend was in distress and had been set up.
On the night in August when the 911 call was made, Prazeres had only worn a badge for five months. She is also a music star with the stage name Jessica Amaro.
When she was arrested recently and charged with public mischief, conspiracy to prosecute a person for an alleged offence, fabrication of evidence and breach of trust, she had been a cop for all of 10 months.
"We have one of the best hiring systems there is in the province," says Chief Mullan.
"Yet there are occasions within this police service when people make poor decisions that we hold them accountable for. Do not judge the total system in light of allegations about one of our new hires."
Police candidates are put through a lengthy hiring process that includes tests for physical fitness, aptitude toward policing, decision-making abilities and then ethical and psychological suitability.
Prospective Hamilton police officers are put through a three hour interview related to integrity and ethics, the chief says. They are examined by a psychiatrist and then have home visits from recruitment officers who also check personal and professional references for each candidate.
Mullan says that the hiring review he has ordered is in part a response to the arrest of Prazeres, but also it is just something that needs to be re-examined from time to time.
The process was reviewed just recently after the on-duty apparent suicide of an officer who had been with the service for only four years.
Another review is clearly needed. And -- so that we all have more confidence in the sort of people who are wearing badges and carrying guns -- the results should be made public.
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