One of the biggest problems in bringing police crimes to the attention of the public, is the general perception that the police are all good guys. The truth is: Some of them are good guys trying to carry out justice daily, while some are transgressers taking the law into their own power every chance where they think they can get away with it.
One of the trespasses against the public trust is taking place behind the scenes where the John Doe public has little of seeing it. And that is the abuse of the LAW ENFORCEMENT INFORMATION NETWORK (LEIN).
It is an information network available to officers for the tracking down of individuals of interest in criminal activity of some kind. It is used at times however for the finding out of a pretty woman's phone number and address or for locating an individual with whom an officer has a score to settle, or in cases of political elections; information from the L.E.I.N. has been used to locate and harrass political opponents.
Since the motives of police officers and law enforcement officials accessing the LAW ENFORCEMENT INFORMATION NETWORK is nearly impossible to catch in the act, when an officer is finally caught; they should pay more for their crime.
Legislation is needed not only to bring transgressing police officers into accountability with severe penalties, legislation continues to be seriously needed to provide an overseer other than the FBI to police the police. The problem with America's dependence upon the FBI to discipline police agencies is compounded by their working with them.
A Federal Agency is needed with offices in every State to collect complaints from citizens against out of control police officers and bring them to justice.
The agency would have to be kept separate from lobbying from police agencies and unions and anyone hired by them or they would soon sell out. Another thing that develops in government agencies where pay is especially high, is a culture of make no waves. Quota's would have to be established for promotions and pay raises inside the agency, and there would have to be a strict rule that anyone working in the agency would do so secretly, and would not live within the juristdiction of the police agencies they are policing.
That means the federal employees of the watchdog agency would work no closer than the adjacent county and would have to take their reports by mail, email and by phone from the public.
And the teeth this agency of which I am speaking will need is as follows: They should be able to call a police officer to account with his lawyer or lawyers in a special federal courtroom established solely for dealing with criminal police behaviour. There would be everything from fines to disqualification from working in law enforcement for up to a lifetime depending on the severity of the offense or offenses.
One of their primary responsibilities would be to disarm and disqualify officers brutalizing and criminalizing the public from ever serving again on any police
force in the nation. What we are seeing take place when officers get into hot water in one police department, they know their chances of promotion are dead
there; where their out of control behaviour has become known, so they pretty up their resumes, gather recommendations from their buddies on the police
department and hire out to another police department. The public is the loser. The problem has been transferred, not resolved.
