| NEWS > 28 February 2008 |
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UK police officer sued over do
A British animal welfare charity said Tuesday it is launching legal proceedings against a police officer whose two police dogs died when he left them in a hot car last month.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) said it would sue the officer for causing unnecessary suffering to the two animals.
Police officers in Nottinghamshire, central England, discovered the German Shepherds inside the car in the middle of the afternoon June 30, when temperatures were around 82 degrees Fahrenheit (28 degrees Celsius), police said.
The officer had park... Read more
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Annapolis Capital - Annapolis,
28 February 2008
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'Wall of silence' leads to dis
Across the top of the first page, someone has scrawled, "Do not release to the press."
The scrawler evidently was not familiar with the Maryland Public Information Act, so here on my desk sits a 50-page report documenting the county police investigation of one of their own, Joseph Mosmiller.
You might remember his name. He was the officer who resigned in disgrace and served a few days in jail last year after admitting he forced women to bare their breasts to get out of traffic tickets or arrest.
What you probably don't remember are the names of his three buddies, fellow rookie Officers Craig Leo, Benjamin Thomas and David Brice, who were accused of keeping quiet about his conduct, according to the report.
That's because police refused to release their names since they were never charged with a crime, including Officer Leo, who admitted lying to detectives to cover for his friend, Mr. Mosmiller.
Police also recently declined to release the name of an officer placed on desk duty following allegations of a fatal hit-and-run crash in Harford County. He is Officer Dane Hall, as reporters Scott Daugherty and Heather Rawlyk of The Capital found in reporting that story. He has not been charged with any crime.
Following the incident with Officer Hall, Chief James Teare said he holds officers to the "highest ethical standards." Talking to me recently about his opposition to automated speed-enforcement cameras, he spoke eloquently of the importance of public trust.
But this kind of secrecy erodes that trust and reinforces the perception that the rules are different when the accused wears a badge. If I were involved in a fatal accident but had not been charged, police would release my name, I can assure you.
The brass often cite legal reasons for keeping mum; there's a state law that protects officers' rights, and "personnel matters" is a favorite catchall for anything anyone doesn't want to talk about.
But the bottom line is it makes them look like they have something to hide.
To the police officers reading: No, this is not an attack on the 99 percent of you who do your jobs honorably. It's your bosses' fault, not yours.
O'Brien Atkinson, head of the union that represents county officers, said they often resent what they perceive as the media's overemphasis on police misconduct.
But even he wishes the brass wasn't so tight-lipped about such cases, even if he understands their legal reasoning. If he were allowed to say more, he could shed light on cases where he thinks the allegations against officers are unfair.
"Oftentimes it's frustrating, because when there is an accusation of wrongdoing, I can't discuss it because it is a personnel matter," said Officer Atkinson, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 70. "I'd like to put it out there. I'd like to be able to say, 'This is what happened.' "
To read the Mosmiller report yourself, you can go to www.foiatales.com, a public information-focused Web site run by my friend, former Capital reporter Ryan Bagwell, who first obtained the document.
The report details a conversation at Mr. Mosmiller's house about a month before the incident that led to his arrest, in which he showed three colleagues a woman's picture on his cell phone and told them she was a drunken driver he let go after she showed him her breasts.
And three police officers, sworn to uphold the law, stayed quiet. Officer Leo's excuse was that they thought Mr. Mosmiller was boasting and didn't believe him.
Officer Thomas said he'd heard rumors of a "competition" between Mr. Mosmiller and unnamed other officers - but again, he hadn't come forward.
Doesn't the public have a right to know who these officers were and what happened to them?
Well, you would think so, but here we go again. Police announced recently that two of Mr. Mosmiller's three buddies had resigned, but since they hadn't released their names, I called to check which of the three officers was still on the force.
Department spokesman Lt. Jeff Silverman apologetically told me I had to send a written request, which would have to be reviewed by the county Office of Law because it was a possible "personnel issue."
I'd never been told that simply finding out whether someone is employed by a police department was a personnel issue, but OK.
Finally, I learned that Mr. Thomas and Mr. Leo resigned over the summer and Officer Brice still works for the county. But before telling me whether he's on active duty, Lt. Silverman had to talk to the lawyer again.
The cloak-and-dagger routine didn't make any sense to me, but then, I don't work in government.
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