By Greg Miller – Investigative Reporter Should Congress adopt a national standard mandating how police departments handle a citizen’s complaint? Most citizens in America do not have issues involving police conduct; however, there are a few who either were treated rudely during a traffic stop, who were physically abused or have been mistreated in other ways. Often, when a citizen wishes to make a complaint they are faced with intimidation, fear and confusion in the process. “Police misconduct is nothing new” says Diop Kamau, who is an expert witness for police misconduct. Over the last 50 years, America has had to deal with abuse of police power from the civil rights movements in the 1960 to the LA riots resulting in the acquittal of five LA police officers over the beating of Rodney King. In a recent survey, five citizens where asked, “Should Congress adopt a national standard mandating how police departments should handle citizen’s complaints”. All five citizens answered YES. Doug Libert of Parkersburg, WV believes police do not do a good job policing their own. Justice Kennedy, during his Confirmation hearing (as aired by PBS), said that society has the right to protect themselves from crime and there is a need for police to police themselves to include improperly seized evidence. There are Constitutional rights that police and judges need to know and the criminal justice system needs to obey the rules. Willis Wilson, who was falsely imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit and was exonerated by the court says, “Police don’t do a good job watching their own ranks”. Wilson is an advocate to truth in justice and is actively pursuing the awareness of unsolved murders in the Chicagoland communities. Kathy Brown of Maryland Heights, MO has struggled with her own police department after her calls to police were ignored. When she filed a complaint, the police department turned their backs on her. She believes police departments often refuse to take citizens complaints. Agda Freitag of Arizona watched a elder female friend get jerked out of her vehicle and was handled roughly by a police officer who seemed to have poor verbal skills when talking to other people. As a witness to the incident Agda believes persons who are arrested are treated as if they are guilty before the Court. Richard Wingert who has filed police reports with Miller County Sheriff’s Office in Missouri advocated a standard that “would put in place a standard in which all agencies must follow, guaranteeing everyone is treated fairly”. All of these people that were interviewed had something in common: all have personally been involved with an encounter with police in some way or another. Congress should investigate to learn what the common problems are involving a citizens’ ability to make a complaint and have the complaint investigated fairly with the purpose to building trust between the citizen and the police. millercountysheriffreport.net/2012/05/blog-post.html?spref=fb
Posted on: Tue, 16 Jul 2013 15:57:49 +0000
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