|
|
|
| NEWS > 23 January 2008 |
Other related articles:
S.F. police bust one of their
Police have arrested one of their own for criminal acts he allegedly committed while on duty.
Michael Turkington, 35, who joined the San Francisco police five years ago, was arrested Wednesday night at his San Mateo home on suspicion of oral copulation by force, false imprisonment and furnishing marijuana, all "under color of authority," said Lt. Daniel Mahoney.
Mahoney said Turkington allegedly befriended an 18-year-old woman at San Francisco State University, picked her up, drove her to a secluded area and coerced her into performing sex acts.
Turkington, ... Read more
|
 Article sourced from
|
|
New York Times - United States
23 January 2008
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
|
NYPD
|
Drugs-for-Information Scandal
In the world of urban policing, few relationships are as fraught with peril as those between narcotics officers and confidential informants. These informants — C.I.’s in police parlance — are often small-time criminals who are paid or get criminal charges dropped in return for information about other, theoretically more dangerous criminals.
Now four police officers in Brooklyn are under arrest in a case that involves paying informants not with cash or leniency but with the very drugs they craved, taken from the dealers who were arrested after the informants pointed them out. Two of the officers were charged in an internal sting last week after another was caught on a department audio tape bragging about the practice in September, officials said.
Prosecutors have moved to dismiss more than 80 criminal cases because the officers caught in the scandal were considered critical to successful prosecutions, law enforcement officials said, and the office of the Brooklyn district attorney is analyzing about 100 more potentially tainted cases.
Three additional officers have been suspended without pay and stripped of their guns and badges; two others have been placed on modified assignment — they lose their guns and badges but still receive paychecks — and about a dozen more have been switched to desk duty. They will be barred from taking enforcement action, like making drug arrests, until the scope of the wrongdoing is determined, officials said.
Four high-level supervisors have been transferred, and a new commander — Deputy Chief Joseph J. Reznick — has been brought in to supervise the department’s Narcotics Division.
The concept of using drugs to compensate confidential informants — mainly people familiar with street culture and criminal habits — is not new. Raymond J. Abruzzi, once chief of Brooklyn detectives, who retired in 1996, said it was illegal but commonplace 30 years ago, “mainly because the department did not have a lot of money to pay the informants.”
But the continuing corruption investigation offers a striking example of officers who appeared to have gone too far to make arrests, in a way that is now aggressively condemned. One law enforcement official even called it “noble-cause corruption.”
“What it looks like to me is that these guys took a shortcut and shortcuts will get you in trouble and shortcuts will get you in jail,” Mr. Abruzzi said.
“For them to become, in essence, crack dealers, shame on them,” Mr. Abruzzi said. “The question is: `Were they lazy? Was it an accepted practice in the unit? And, if so, why would it become accepted?’ Either way it is wrong; it is against the law and it is against our rules and no matter how you slice it, it is corruption.”
The officers caught in the scandal are part of two 10-person “modules” or teams of officers assigned to the Brooklyn South narcotics bureau, which is staffed by 260 officers who work under the umbrella of the Police Department’s 1,400-member Narcotics Division.
The arrests were first reported on Tuesday in The Daily News.
Several officials said it appeared to be a case of a handful of wayward officers in one command — as opposed to systemic activity enmeshed in the culture of the department’s antinarcotics efforts — though others may be involved. One official said one or two more officers may ultimately face criminal charges and others might face suspension.
“Additional suspensions may occur as the investigation proceeds,” said Paul J. Browne, the department’s chief spokesman. He said there had been “some cooperation from officers assigned to Brooklyn South in the case,” but he declined to elaborate.
At the same time, the case raises questions about supervision of narcotics officers. Two of those arrested — Sgt. Michael Arenella, 31, and Officer Jerry Bowens, 31 — worked on the midnight shift. The lack of supervision for officers working in the middle of the night, who are often the least experienced in the department, has been in the past a chief reason that sloppy, even criminal behavior has taken hold.
The two others charged — Detective Sean Johnstone, 34, and Officer Julio Alvarez, 30 — worked in a unit that covered both days and nights, officials said.
In a statement, Charles J. Hynes, the Brooklyn district attorney, said, “I have full confidence in the ability and integrity of the Internal Affairs Bureau of the N.Y.P.D., and we are working closely with them.”
|
| |
 EiP Comments:
|
|---|
|
| |
* We have no wish to infringe the copyright of any newspaper or periodical. If you feel that we have done so then please contact us with the details and we will remove the article. The articles republished on this site are provided for the purposes of research , private study, criticism , review, and the reporting of current events' We have no wish to infringe the copyright of any newspaper , periodical or other works. If you feel that we have done so then please contact us with the details and where necessary we will remove the work concerned.
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
 |
Ethics in Policing, based in the UK, provide information and advice about the following:
Policing Research | Police News articles | Police Corruption | International Policing | Police Web Sites | Police Forum | Policing Ethics | Police Journals | Police Publications |
|
| |
|
