POLICE FIRINGS STEP IN RESTORING PUBLIC FAITH IN HPD

Houston Police Chief C.O. Bradford, in announcing that six police
officers involved in the July 12 shooting death of Pedro Oregon
Navarro have been fired, noted that he had never seen such an
"egregious" case of official misconduct in 20 years in law
enforcement. The firings should help restore the public's badly shaken
confidence -- if not in the police department as a whole, then at
least in the department's internal investigation process.

HPD has had much besides 22-year-old Oregon's death to answer for over
recent months, including eight officers accused of falsifying work
records and two officers brandishing weapons on a school bus loaded
with children. Last month, police fired 50 bullets at a man fleeing
police, hitting him more than a dozen times.

Oregon, who was riddled by bullets fired by six officers who raided
his apartment on a tip from an informant who was not a registered
confidential informant, who was offered his release on an infraction
in exchange for information and who admitted to being drunk and
drugged. What is more, the officers possessed no search or arrest warrant.

Oregon's death prompted outrage among Houstonians and even comparisons
to the 1977 case of Joe Campos Torres, who drowned in Buffalo Bayou
after a savage beating by Houston police officers. The officers'
firings in the Oregon case will help soothe that ire. Still, the fact
that findings of HPD's investigation contrast sharply with the grand
jury's decision to indict only one officer for misdemeanor criminal
trespass, while clearing the others. Although the HPD investigation
found the officers had violated not only department policies but also
state and federal laws, Harris County District Attorney John Holmes
Jr. refuses to present the case to another grand jury.

Raising further questions about Oregon's shooting, one grand juror on
the panel says he is "unsatisfied" with the inquiry outcome and wants
to tell his story to federal investigators.

Houstonians will be well served if the federal probe of this tragedy
provides some much needed insight. Until then, by getting rid of the
rogues on his force, Bradford showed the process can work.

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady