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Tarnished badges
Times-Picayune, The (New Orleans, LA)
August 26, 2005

Estimated printed pages: 2

When a police officer makes a stop, even law-abiding citizens feel a flutter of anxiety as they run through a mental checklist of what rules they might have broken.

But they shouldn't ever feel the raw fear that the approach of a predator stirs -- the kind of fear that a 37-year-old woman must have felt last month when her assailant drove her to a remote spot along the Industrial Canal and raped her.

The person accused of that crime is 37-year-old Keith Griffin, a two-year veteran of the New Orleans Police Department. The victim, who was on a bicycle, said that the officer pulled her over on the pretext of making a police stop.

Mr. Griffin was booked Wednesday with aggravated rape, kidnapping and malfeasance in office based on an investigation and forensic test results. Police Superintendent Eddie Compass said that Wednesday was a "good day for the department," because it proves that the department doesn't sweep problems under the rug.

But it's hard to put a positive spin on this incident, especially when two other Police Department officers are awaiting trial on sex charges. Corey Johnson, a seven-year veteran who was booked with aggravated rape in April, stands accused of forcing a woman to perform oral sex on him after he gained entrance to her home by identifying himself as a police officer. A year earlier, 16-year veteran James Adams was booked with aggravated kidnapping, extortion and malfeasance. He's accused of threatening a woman with arrest unless she had sex with him.

The rash of arrests isn't limited to those three. Eight New Orleans officers were arrested over a six-month period last year on charges ranging from shoplifting to conspiracy to rob a bank.

That's not to suggest that rogue cops are a problem only for the New Orleans Police Department. Just this week, a Slidell police officer was arrested in an Internet sting by state attorney general's investigators. They say Timothy Dodd sexually solicited an undercover investigator posing as a 13-year-old Baton Rouge girl.

Slidell Police Chief Freddy Drennan said that his department will bring in professionals to re-evaluate background checks. "One of the first questions I asked myself was, 'How do people like this fall through the cracks?' " he said.

That's the right question. While it's reassuring that the officers in question are being prosecuted, it's hardly a cause for pride, as Superintendent Compass suggested. The public should expect nothing less.

Criminal wrongdoing by those who are supposed to enforce the law and protect the citizenry shakes people's faith in their police department. People want more than assurances that bad cops will be caught and punished. They want to know that the person wearing the badge is one of the good guys.

http://www.nola.com