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| NEWS > 06 December 2008 |
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The way the police treat us ve
Guilty until proven innocent now seems to be the watchword of a government that increasingly treats its law-abiding citizens with absolute contempt
A father and his eight-year-old son got off a train at Blackpool on a Friday evening two weeks ago to be confronted by a number of police officers moving passengers towards a scanner. There was a mildly threatening manner about them and it was clear that they expected everyone to pass through the scanner, which they said was being used to search for knives.
The man, whose name is Danny, quietly told the police that unle... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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Boston Globe - United States
06 December 2008
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Boston Police Department, MA
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Bad blood in the Boston police
BOSTON Police Commissioner Edward Davis is finally moving to resolve the convoluted case of the Police Department's second in command. Superintendent Robert Dunford has been under investigation and on leave for allegedly using his position to intervene on behalf of a fellow officer suspected of an affair with a female recruit.
Davis invited Dunford back to work late yesterday. But the case revealed internal rifts and policy deficiencies that still need to be addressed.
As is often the case in the Boston Police Department, payback and personality clashes clouded this issue from the start. Dunford, 64, denies protecting Officer Paul Downey, a longtime friend and former instructor at the Police Academy. In fact, there is evidence that Dunford demanded Downey's transfer from the academy in September when he was told of the alleged affair.
But the charge hung over Dunford's career for weeks, until Davis cleared him of wrongdoing yesterday evening. A review of e-mail traffic between Dunford and Downey turned up nothing more damning than file attachments of female pin-ups in body paint. That could still result in disciplinary action, but it is unrelated to the case and hardly enough to derail a distinguished career.
Dunford, a 38-year veteran, is no choirboy. He was reprimanded last year for referring sarcastically to a series of sexual assaults in East Boston as a "courting ritual." But he is also renowned as a tough manager who steps on the toes of fellow officers when he uncovers laziness or inefficiency. Dunford has made many enemies in the department, and usually for good reasons, such as cracking down on overtime and personal use of department vehicles.
The way Dunford's case proceeded suggests a high level of tension within the department. Partly because of bad blood between Dunford and a key investigator in Internal Affairs, the office that looks into allegations of misconduct, this inquiry was led by Superintendent Bruce Holloway, who oversees a different branch of the Police Department.
This case is made more complicated by the fact that the Boston police lack specific regulations on fraternization among police officers or on the use of office e-mail accounts for personal purposes. Commissioner Davis is wisely using the Dunford case as a spur to update regulations in both areas. But Davis should also evaluate his own Internal Affairs Department, which wasn't able to handle an investigation of at least one high-level officer.
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