BAD COP, BAD COP

River Parishes children playing a game of cops and robbers last week may
have forgotten that there's supposed to be a distinction between the two
sides.

In two neighboring parishes, law enforcement officers were arrested and
accused of playing the role of the bad guys. A sheriff's deputy in St. John
the Baptist Parish was fired after his superiors watched a surveillance
video that, they say, showed him stealing items from a School Board vehicle.
Meanwhile, the elected police chief in Lutcher, in adjacent St. James
Parish, was booked with distributing drugs.

When those entrusted to protect the public decide instead to make the public
their victims, the subsequent outrage is justified. Thieves, by their very
definition, are expected to steal, just as surely as drug dealers will
peddle controlled substances. But police officers exist for one reason: to
oppose the criminals. If they decide instead to join the criminal ranks,
they deserve to be vilified not just for their crimes but also for their
phoniness.

According to St. John Sheriff Wayne Jones, a surveillance camera at the
parish's School Board office caught deputy Joseph Moore taking a water
cooler and a canvas bag of tools from the back of a truck. The sheriff says
Moore then put the items in his marked cruiser and left the scene. The
sheriff said the deputy made the preposterous claim that he needed the tools
to repair his cruiser. The department has a full-time repair staff.

Mr. Moore, 47, was fired from his job and booked with simple burglary and
malfeasance in office.

Lutcher Police Chief Corey Pittman faces more serious charges. Officials
from the Drug Enforcement Administration say they caught him on camera
several times selling either crack, powder cocaine or pain pills to
undercover officers. Agents say he couldn't always be bothered to change
clothes before switching roles. He's on tape selling drugs in a uniform
shirt that identifies him as the chief, agents say.

Law enforcement officers ought to be honest. That should be a minimum
requirement. Those who aren't not only disappoint their departments, but
also the communities they're supposed to be serving.