The Dumpster Fire Formerly Known as Internal Affairs

We've done a lot of writing on this blog about the mess the Sergeant's test has become, but unfortunately that's not the only mess EHPD has to offer these days. One of the complaints we hear most these days is about the conduct of Internal Affairs. I know for people outside the Department you're probably thinking it's typical for Cops to complain about IA, after all they're the ones who investigate us for alleged wrongdoing. But that's not what's got our members upset, instead it's about what IA isn't doing. Unfortunately over the last few years under our current Administration, our IA Division has been used to protect certain individuals by burying investigations, or just not doing them at all.

We've seen, and continue to see internal complaints against certain employees for various policy violations not being investigated fully, witnesses not being interviewed, and eventually completely tossed off to the side as "unfounded." Now this isn't because the guys in IA are incompetent or don't know how to investigate, because they do. In fact they demonstrate that when they get a complaint against an employee who isn't one of the "chosen ones" who merits special treatment. In those cases the investigation gets done and if it finds something, discipline gets handed out, just like the system is supposed to work. And if they really don't like the guy, they'll even go do things like pull security camera footage and dispatch recordings, interview witness after witness, pull phone and fax records, omit exculpatory evidence, and anything else they can think of to build a case even if it just results in a written reprimand.

That's the issue, it's not the punishment being handed out, but the extreme and obvious disparity in how investigations are handled for certain individuals compared to the rest of us. Perhaps it's who you know, where you came from, who you go to "Thirsty Thursday" with, or play basketball with on the weekends that decides whether you'll get a free pass or the full monte. Whatever the reason is, I think we can all agree it's wrong, and it needs to stop.

I'm not putting the blame on the Sergeant and Lieutenant assigned to IA, I think they're both respectable guys who want to do their jobs the right way. But they don't get to call the shots, they don't get to decide who gets investigated and who doesn't, and they don't get to decide the discipline handed out. Those decisions get made by the Chief and his Deputies, so they're responsible for the current state of IA. This isn't just "taking care of the good ol' boys," we're getting to the point where it's looking like flat out corruption, and it's not something anyone wearing a badge should stand for.

Our Union can't force the Administration to conduct their IA's properly, that's their responsibility. However the one thing we can do is make sure that everyone gets the same treatment, regardless of who they know upstairs. So every time IA has made an investigation disappear or whitewashed it for one of their chosen ones, we've been quietly making note of it. And now those cases have become the new standard. However they were handled for their buddies, that's how they're going to have to be handled for everyone else. And we'll take those cases to the Labor Board and let the Chief explain to them why two people are being treated differently.

We don't want excessive discipline, and we don't want micromanagement, but we do need to have some basic standards for conduct. That million dollar Accreditation certificate is worth about as much as the used up urinal cakes in the patrol bathroom if we're going to allow allies of the Administration to flout the rules at will with no repercussions.