Should someone outside of the police dept's Internal Affairs division investigate Cops ?

Question

To me the police deptments Internal Affairs division is the equivalant of having the fox guard the hen house.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, I experienced FIRST HAND the nonsense of this procedure. First I was accosted by seven officers, I first went to their captain, without ANY investigation she said complaint case closed. I then went to Internal Affairs, the seargent agreed I had a case, however to my chagrin, that same captain, within the week had been promoted to commander and was overseer of the I/A department, without explanation, she closed the case. The chief would not even give me the time of day. Ironically, all charges against me were dismissed, and although our fantastic law enforcement personnel were considered to be in the wrong, not one of the officers received any reprimand. If you work in law enforcement, you darn well better keep the law because you should be held to a higher standard after all you are commissioned to uphold the law and defend the public, not abuse them. By the way my relative is a deputy sheriff and I spend a lot of time in his company and that of his colleagues. They are not law-abiding, they enjoy roughing people up and lie like you cannot believe.

Answer 2

Only if the person investigating has police experience, has worked a certain number of years on the street etc.

IA isn't there to help or protect the cop, its there to do an independent investigation. After a few years workign IA most cops can't come back to workign the street...cos the hens would eat him.

A neighboring PD to mine has a "civilian review board", who don't have a clue about policing, the dangers faced by officer etc, who have been "investigating" police complaints for a couple of years now.

The result-good cops being discplined for doing their job. The PD's moral's down the drain, cops deciding to "go slow" to calls rather than having to take enforcement action that this "board" will uphold BS complaints, crime is up (in the rest of our metro area it's down), and the PD is losing its experienced officers to other departments.

The cops aaren't the losers in all this, its the rest of the community.

I've arrested career criminals in my jurisdiction, who laugh about the BS that civvies on this "board" will believe about the police.

Answer 3

Obviously you have never worked in IA and endured the contempt and outright hatred of the officers you police.

Keep in mind that only very large departments actually have IA divisions. Most agencies, when one of their own steps on it, have a county or state investigator looking into the incident. If the case involves federal issues, then the FBI gets involved.

Answer 4

THEY USUALLY DO.
I&A OR I&I USUALLY DO THE INITIAL REPORT OF FINDINGS, BASED ON THIER KNOWLEDGE OF POLICE PROCEDURES AND WHAT IS RIGHT AND WRONG FOR THE HANDELING OF THE CASE IN QUESTION.
THE REPORT IS THEN FILED TO THE CHIEF WHO SUBMITTS THE RESULTS TO THE MAYOR, COUNTY COUNSEL, WHO DECIDES ABOUT THE CASE AND THEN THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY REVIEWS THE CASE FOR ANY CRIMINAL ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN.
I KNOW IT SOUNDS LIKE A INSIDE JOB AND PROTECTING THE OFFICERS, BUT WHO KNOWS BETTER WHAT IS RIGHT AND PROCEDURE AND CORRECT TO FIRST EVALUATE THE TOTALITY OF THE CASE BUT ANOTHER OFFICER.
BELIEVE ME WHEN I SAY, THE OFFICER IS MORE CRITICAL OF ANOTHER OFFICER THEN THE PUBLIC COULD EVER BE.

Answer 5

No! It takes a Cop to investigate a Cop. A civilian would'nt have a clue about what a Cop shouldn't have or Should have done.

Answer 6

same as nixon investigating himself=i know if i checked myself out i'd be innocent all day long

Answer 7

yup