Bad Cops -- Bad Unions

In regards to the Buffalo incident, the front line officers did walk by him, as that's what they are supposed to do. It's the officers and support personnel behind the front line who attend to those needing it. In this case, A NY State Police Medic was on the guy within a few seconds after the front line passed the guy on the ground. The EMT was there less than a minute later.

My friend was one of the State Troopers on the scene as backup.

It may seem that unions cover for “bad” police, but actually it’s the lack of backbone by city administrators that cause the problem. If the Chief of Police or the Mayor aren’t willing to buck heads with the union, then the cop gets a pass.

The union has an obligation to represent ALL officers, they can’t pick winners or losers otherwise they’ve inserted themselves into the disciplinary process. So the bad cop has to get the same representation that the good cop gets.

Internal Affairs does the investigation, makes a recommendation to the Chief and depending on the recommendation, the Chief may hold a hearing resulting in termination. The City administration then gets involved through civil service to review the actions of the Chief and if they concur, the officer is terminated.

The fired officer than has the option to appeal. And more than once, a court has determined the officer should be reinstated to his/her previous position and the problem child is back.

The problem is there is no stomach in most police executives to make the tough call. It’s easier to cut a deal than take a hard stance. Most Chiefs serve at the pleasure of the Mayor and can be removed for any reason. The Mayor doesn’t want problems that could jeopardize either political donations or endorsements from any union so they want to maintain the status quo. That usually means, keep it out of the newspaper.

Line officers have no say in the matter other than to refuse to work with someone (that only goes so far) and if line command knows they have a problem officer, they try to minimize the exposure to the public. It’s not that they are silent, they’re not. It’s just they don’t have many options to choose from.

Also, complaints aren’t always a good measure of a “good” or “bad” cop. Anyone can walk into a police station and file a complaint against an officer. Sometimes it is used in an effort to effect the outcome of a particular case the cop may be involved in. The real benchmark is the disposition of the complaint. Is the complaint unfounded? Did the department have to take disciplinary action against the officer? Just having complaints on file really doesn’t mean much.

I had a 20-year career in a department that served a city with a 400K metro population. Over that time frame I saw many changes to the department that I believe have led to the predicament we face today. First and foremost, it’s now just a job. It’s no different than working the line at Ford.
Some, not all, officers don’t take the time to learn their districts or the “players’ therein. It’s just take a call, write a report, and move on.

There are some whose sole goal is to rise in the ranks so they become administrators and not effective police officers. You can usually see these guys asking for slow districts around promotional test time so they can study while the rest of us were running our butts off. It’s up and out for this crew.

There are a lot of good cops out there who are taking the heat for the actions of 1 bad one for sure and an unfortunate shooting situation for the other.

But until the administration gets a spine to cull the bad ones when they have the chance, we will be stuck with this scenario for quite some time.

A raw number of complaints against a particular police officer is meaningless.
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Good point. Any white cop assigned to a hostile minority area is going to be targeted by lying drug dealers and guys who think they can avoid jail by saying “I can’t breathe.” We’re long gone from the era when cops could get away with beating people in dark alleys.

After Rodney King, Spanish media in california was telling people to file a complaint every time they were contacted by police. I understand lawyers tell people the same thing so the police department does an investigation which can used if there is a lawsuit.

first let me preface this with I support the police 98% of the time.
Also a former resident of Saginaw and Walled Lake, I frequently take my RV to different parts of the state having spent two summers ago along Michigans west coast along with wonderful visits to Henry Ford and greenfield Village,
All that said, how can I back police unions when they get behind known bad police?
Again, I support the police but you know there are a small percentage of cops that are less than good and still the unions stand by them???Especially when there are a number of citations and or complaints.
AS to why administrators or Gub mint clowns refuse to take stands is beyond me.
Also when an officer knows another is bad, that blue wall of silence???
Thank you so very much for your service and May GOD bless.

It’s not that unions back bad police., it’s that they have to back ALL members otherwise the union is in jeopardy for non- representation. This could put the union in a difficult position. It’s no different than a defense attorney defending an obviously guilty client. Many cases have been overturned for lack of competent defense.

Again, it’s not really a “blue wall of silence”. It’s the administration that doesn’t effectively deal with the officer who is less than stellar. The average street cop can bitch up a storm to his first-line supervisor, but if it goes no higher, what then?

This is a lousy analogy, but just about every profession has it’s share of bad apples, I’m sure you’ve experienced or heard about a new car or boat or RV that was delivered with obvious defects and people wonder how the thing ever left the plant. It happens. Unfortunately, police work is a little more publicized when it happens.

As we used to say: “no one ever invites the cops over for dinner”. “When cops leave a call, there is at least one party that isn’t happy with the result”, and my favorite... “Police work is the only social service agency that is open 24-hours a day, 365-days a year, and they deliver.”

Thank you for your acknowledgement, it was the best, fastest, 20-years of my life. I miss the guys I worked with, but I don’t miss the politicization that has occurred in the past few years.