TARNISHED POLICE TRUST

Out-of-control Police Units Damage the Public's Trust of Officers who
Protect, Abide by the Law and Respect our Constitutional Rights

The only thing worse than a rogue cop is a whole squad of them. When
police officers become criminals, innocent people are menaced, and
society loses faith in the rule of law.

That's what has happened in Manatee County, where members of the Delta
squad, a special drug enforcement unit of the Manatee County Sheriff's
Office, used their badges to plant evidence, lie on police reports and
hand out crack cocaine to helpful informants. The revelations, made
public during a federal prosecution, call into question the leadership
of longtime Manatee County Sheriff Charlie Wells as well as the wisdom
of creating insular special policing units.

The problems found in the Delta squad -- overly aggressive tactics and
blatant criminality -- eerily mirror those found in other special
police units.

Recently, the Street Crimes Unit in New York City has been roundly
criticized for its cowboy arrogance. Thousands of innocent New
Yorkers, primarily in minority neighborhoods, have been belligerently
questioned and roughly frisked by the plain-clothed members of the
unit whose orders seemed to be: Reduce crime, whatever it takes.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles a police corruption scandal of mammoth
proportions threatens to wipe out the department's entire reservoir of
public trust. There, police at one precinct who were part of a special
anti-gang unit known as Crash (Community Resources Against Street
Hoodlums) were allegedly as criminal as the people they were arresting.

According to a Los Angeles Police Department report, Rampart precinct
Crash members engaged in a raft of crimes including drug dealing,
theft, assault, perjury and even attempted murder.

In Manatee County, Delta squad members routinely planted drugs on
victims and in victims' homes in order to use seizure laws to
confiscate their cars and other property. The unit's corruption has so
far led to 100 charges being dropped against 67 defendants.

How do police organizations get this out of control? It has to do with
leadership and supervision. When emphasis is put on bottom-line
measures such as a high volume of arrests, respecting constitutional
limits can go out the window. In Manatee County, one agent claimed
that Delta members didn't have to abide by the regular rules. That
attitude develops when a command is less concerned about innocent
people being harassed and arrested than about falling crime rates.

Add to the mix the fact that law enforcement agencies have often
refused to police themselves. Renegade officers engaging in the same
behaviors as the thugs on the street often are protected by a blue
wall of silence. Special units are particularly susceptible to
becoming abusive, because their special mission, independence,
cohesion and general lack of supervision lead to an us-against-them
view of the world in which extralegal methods are tolerated.

As Manatee County, Los Angeles and New York have reminded us, when the
people we trust to protect us fail to respect the public and the
Constitution, they do grave damage to the rule of law and tarnish the
badge that is worn proudly by their fellow officers.