NARCOTICS SCANDAL

The scandal involving two metro narcotics detectives from the Jefferson
County force is racing from bad to worse. With new allegations of
misconduct and new revelations of serious consequences coming by the day,
it's too early to calculate just how extensive the damage eventually will be.

It is not too early, however, to see that whatever has happened could not
have happened if our local police departments were being run with the kind
of professional oversight and rigorous management that are long overdue.

All the wrongdoing that has been alleged, from the failure to show up for
court to phony search warrants, is the perfectly predictable misconduct
that happens when narcotics offiicers go bad.

The fact that these detectives appear to have been so loosely supervised
and monitored despite the well-known risks needs to be probed as
vigorously, and with as much searing attention, as the detectives' actions
themselves.

The tip of the iceberg in this case was the failure of a detective to show
up in court 41 times in the past year and still get paid for appearing.

The previous county police administration had devised a swipe-card system
to keep such sloppiness or corruption from going undetected, but those
plans were dropped. Worse, the existing safeguard of a court liaison
officer was eliminated.

Like the lack of systematic monitoring of officers' use of force, such lax
oversight is an invitation to abuse, and now both the credibility of police
and the success of several felony prosecutions are at risk.

Mayor Dave Armstrong and County Judge/Executive Rebecca Jackson must insist
that their chiefs overcome any city-county turf problems and immediately
begin a thorough, credible probe of the narcotics operation that would
provide a basis for permanent reform.