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| NEWS > 01 March 2006 |
Other related articles:
Police cleared over death in c
The family of a man who died in custody said yesterday that the acquittal of 10 officers charged over his death was "a travesty of justice". They were speaking after the last six officers facing trial were cleared by a jury.
Yesterday's acquittals mean that none of the 10 West Midlands police officers tried over the death of Michael Powell, who died after he was detained outside his mother's home in the Lozells area of Birmingham in 2003, have been convicted.
Four other officers were acquitted halfway through the 10-week trial over the death of the 38-year-old factory worker, w... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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Philadelphia Daily News - Phil
01 March 2006
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Jill Porter | Troubled sheriff
A PHILADELPHIA deputy sheriff is under investigation for offering a deal to a female defendant in the Criminal Justice Center:
Show me your breasts, he allegedly said as the two waited for her hearing in a court anteroom, and I'll give you a cigarette.
But the deal went south when he tried to renegotiate and touch them, too. She filed a complaint.
Sheriff John Green wouldn't comment about the investigation being conducted by his office and the police special investigations unit.
But the question arises: Could the episode have been prevented - by a pop quiz?
Because this incident apparently is one of the, um, lapses that provoked the sheriff to codify his department's new ethics policy.
To make sure employees are familiar with it, the sheriff plans to conduct pop quizzes on the new regulations, as well as on other office rules and procedures.
Yup. Five-question quizzes, administered at random by bosses. Wrong answers get noted in the employee's personnel file.
To make sure employees are regularly reminded of the policy, the sheriff also is issuing wallet cards of the department's Code of Ethics, which could, theoretically, prod the conscience if an opportunity to go astray arises.
When a female defendant asks for a cigarette, for instance.
The wallet cards invoke the Constitution, city charter, state and city ethics codes - everything but the Ten Commandments - and require employees to, for instance, refrain from "brutal, cruel or inhumane treatment of others."
If similar cards had been available at Abu Ghraib, we could have avoided the whole thing.
Green said the new ethics policy had been developed in response to a few incidents in the department and to the heightened focus in city government on ethics in general.
Good intention. Bad execution. Wallet cards that delineate generic moral guidelines are a waste of money.
Pop quizzes are, well, dumb.
"I have no problem with the reinforcement of an ethics policy - from time to time it's healthy to remind employees of what their responsibilities are to the public," said Ken Rocks of the Fraternal Order of Police, which represents uniformed sheriff's officers.
"If somebody deviates, they should be dealt with severely. But a pop quiz? Give me a break. What kinds of questions would you ask?"
Hmm. How about this, for the deputy under investigation?
If a defendant in your custody asks for a cigarette, you:
a.tell her it's a nonsmoking facility.
b.read her the surgeon general's warning about health risks.
c.decline.
d.barter for sex in return, but be sure to reach mutually agreeable terms beforehand.
To be fair, there were lapses that allowed a female defendant to be in the custody of a male sheriff's deputy to begin with, and perhaps a brush-up on policy would have prevented the incident from happening.
But a pop quiz? Please.
Rocks said the FOP would file a grievance to stop the quizzes from going into effect.
And I decided to give the sheriff a taste of his own medicine - by springing a pop quiz on him.
I tested him on the ethics code provisions that specify under what circumstances a department employee can buy property at a sheriff's sale. That part of the code was prompted by stories written by Daily News reporter Mark McDonald about Darrell Stewart, who oversees the real-estate unit - and bought properties at sheriff's auction from two companies who are regular bidders.
So how did Sheriff Green fare?
He got three questions right, one of them half right, and he waffled on the answer to the fifth. A C-minus grade at best.
Green looked beseechingly at his executive assistant for a prompt at one point, and he rationalized his errors thusly:
"I'll have to look at the policy. That's why we have it in writing - so you can look at it."
He said employees would attend training sessions before the quizzes begin.
OK, Sheriff Green. But your results are going in your personnel file anyway.
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