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| NEWS > 03 March 2007 |
Other related articles:
Police bad behaviour on wane,
A WOMAN escaped a drink-driving charge after two male police officers turned a blind eye to her breath test results when she agreed to perform a sexual act on one of them in the back of her car, the annual NSW Ombudsman report reveals.
The report said the Ombudsman received almost 3000 formal complaints about the NSW Police Force last year, almost 500 fewer than last year. Most were about police misconduct, inadequate investigations and excessive use of force.
Forty-nine officers were charged with 136 offences in the past year, 13 fewer than the year before, and 24 were sacke... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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Chicago Daily Southtown - Chic
03 March 2007
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Police panel head must be remo
The issue: Markham police and fire commission hearings aimed at firing three cops for violating residency rules are unprecedented and, the officers say, biased against them.
We say: The head of the panel was recorded making statements that support the bias allegation. He should be removed; the charges should be dropped.
Despite their efforts, the chairman of Markham's Police and Fire Commission Roland Ray Ashley and Mayor David Webb have failed to meet on the subject of removing Ashley from his post, despite Ashley's apparent bias in a disciplinary hearing that still is pending.
After revelations in a series of stories in the Daily Southtown by reporter Kim Janssen, Webb said this week that Ashley should resign, or he will be fired as commission chairman. The stories detailed taped conversations that called into question Ashley's judgment as well as the integrity of the police and fire commission's disciplinary procedures.
Ashley suffered from low blood sugar this week, and his wife called for an ambulance. While his health issues are unfortunate, they should not dissuade Webb from bringing in a new chairman. Ashley presided over disciplinary hearings for police officers Courtney Howell-White, Max Evans and Nicole Wilkens, who have been accused of violating the department's residency requirement, a violation for which they could be fired. During the hearings, two former police chiefs and a deputy chief testified that the rule, requiring police officers to live within seven miles of the city limits, never had been enforced previously. Howell-White claims the police chief is engaged in a vendetta against her, and Evans and Wilkens claim the charges were filed against them to provide cover for the effort to remove Howell-White.
On the tapes, secretly recorded by Howell-White, a man identified as Ashley by Webb and others offers to help Howell-White cheat on a police exam, suggests her career was being hurt because she won't sleep with the mayor and boasted that his "hobby" was "humbugging and scheming" -- apparently a reference to organized harassment and discrimination.
At a Feb. 6 hearing, Ashley said Howell-White would have been "kicked out years ago" if she worked for the Chicago Police Department. What's more, Ashley refused to allow evidence during the hearings that Howell-White's lawyer said would show there had been a plot against her. But in the taped conversations, Ashley said the mayor wanted to "(mess) her up anyway he can" and the police chief wanted the commission to help him fire her.
It's clear from all this that the three accused officers have not had a fair hearing. Ashley must be replaced, and the entire hearing process should be scrapped. Webb said this week that he believed the other two commissioners could issue a verdict in the case. Whether they can is irrelevant. They should not because of the irregularities surrounding the case.
The fact that the department never before has enforced a residency rule supports Howell-White's allegations of a vendetta, and we believe the entire matter should be dropped. But if the city insists on having a residency requirement, it should be enforced fairly -- that is, for all its officers. They should all be given a period of time to comply -- say, a year -- and then the process should be started to discipline violators.
Webb himself has some serious questions to answer surrounding this case, including those raised by Howell-White, as well as how he came to select a loose cannon like Ashley to head this important commission.
But the fact that residency never before has been enforced, the wildly inappropriate comments by Ashley and the allegations about the mayor provide more than enough evidence to suggest that the hearings for the three officers have been unfair and biased, and the process aimed at firing them should not be allowed to move forward.
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