Just so you don't think that the independent police auditor being proposed by Mayor Ashley Swearengin doesn't have any critics, former Mayor Jim Patterson jumped into the opposition corner with this op/ed in The Fresno Bee.
Don't get Patterson's position confused with that of the most recent former mayor, Alan Autry, who backs the idea. In fact, Autry was the first one to raise it, but the Fresno City Council voted it down during his two terms. The auditor is also opposed by the Fresno Police Officers Association.
The council takes up the issue Tuesday. Swearengin has been putting together a coalition of supporters, including several civic organizations. It appears the mayor has the votes needed to pass the plan. But that can change because of the political sensitivity of the issue. It makes council members nervous to be on the opposite of cops on the street.
Swearengin and Police Chief Jerry Dyer wrote this op/ed last week voicing their support for the auditor. The controversial post is being rebranded and will be called the Office of Independent Review.
Former Mayor Jim Patterson is absolutely right; "Police critics want the impossible: a police force without any force. In their perfect world, officers would become unarmed social workers and counselors."
It’s a political appointment waiting to happen. Can you say, "appeasement"? Political appointments pander .... We would be well advised to NOT repeat the San Jose mess!
It is pretty clear the police department needs at least an auditor. When the Chief favors it, you know something is up. It may be that the Chief nor the City can't manage the officers union or the officers anymore. It is odd though that the auditor can't really investigate. That will never work. Is this current push really a way to open the door to what the City and Department really need?
It’s a political appointment waiting to happen. Can you say, "appeasement"? Political appointments pander .... We would be well advised to NOT repeat the San Jose mess!
Please don't tell me that you believe its O.K. for the police to chase somebody on Blackstone, fire 200 shots at him (and miss) and not have somebody besides the Police investigate it? Or that they pull off a drug raid in an apartement complex and shoot one of there own and thats the end of it? Or that they can't subdue a guy with a taser so they open up with fire power, can't take him down and then do with another taser try?
The auditor is just a political appointment? What does it take to get an outside opinion? Even the movies have critics. We are getting close to the gang that couldn't shoot straight in this City don't you think!
"It is odd though that the auditor can't really investigate." (Miro Spiro) Then why have one? Just to create another position to be paid by us? Maybe I shall apply for the job. Without teeth, it sounds easy enough for a retiree like myself.
There are several sources on the web that offer ideas on this issue. Commonly departments with ineffective IA and training units face problems requiring increased oversight. The internally placed "compliance officer" is often touted as the preferred solution to a myriad of police and corrections departmental problems. Some of the problems cited regarding externally placed remedies have to do with measures of reaction vs. proaction. Well integrated systems approaches are far more effective and less costly to the community which a department serves.
I would be more concerned about police that MISS 200 times! Send ‘em back to the firing range!
I keep thinking this is a waste of money. You can not condemn an entire department and judge their entire existence on unique incidents or individual officers. Criminals have more rights than the police or their victims. The police are treated guilty until proven innocent. When an innocent person gets wrongly treated it inevitably winds up in court and their lawyers are allowed discovery rights. That's more access than the auditor apparently has. The offending officer is punished. Why do we need an independent auditor to do what is already done? Do you really want that much power in the hands of one person, who being human can be predudiced to either side? I'd rather take my chances on a jury of twelve. I'm concerned that once again political leaders are bending to public pressure instead of being fiscally prudent. There is no need for this extra cost.
What a slap in the face for the majority of officers who are having their character and verasity called into question because of a few bad ones? They don't need a babysitter.
In light of whaty happened in Oakland yesterday I guess that is what we are supposed to allow let the criminals kill our officers instead of the officers killing them. They have to protect themselves IPA or not.
If Former Mayor Patterson is against it, all the more reason to be for it.
Maybe Patterson should get his coalition of opposers together to oppose an auditor.
Prey tell who are they?
T. C. Morgan, like Patterson, lives somewhere in the every far past and only on the far right side of the river...the Fresno cops have been thugs for generations...too bad this "Auditor" is actually a smoke screen to do nothing...no independent police auditor can be without subpoena power and a budjet....independent doesn't report to the city manager...Morgan and Patterson should be widly in favor of this effort to hide police actions under the pretense of an independent auditor...
"the Fresno cops have been thugs for generations"...I read that book, unbelievable... literally.
Not only is the statement, "Fresno cops have been thugs for generations..." an irresponsible statement - it’s also irrational.
I don't mean to single you out Jackie but your statement is applicable to all citizens who face life threatening circumstances initiated by criminals. It also contradicts your views about carry issues in Parks. There are "visiters" who given the opportunity will not hesitate to predate, and who frequent those places specifically to perpetrate certain classes crime. When a firearm is discharged its sound is distinctive and usually attracts immediate investigative response.
(Folks who wish to enjoy parks should always buddy up for all kinds of safety reasons.)
I would love to see anyone of you that think the police are so mean to go out there and face what they do every shift and see if you don't start shooting the thugs. When your life is put in danger while trying to protect others they shhould shoot the suckers. I say no IPA and just let them suev the city and go before a jury instead of paying out before it goes to trial.
Mr. Morgan; Bill Eisentrager's statement may be ill advised, but I don't think that it is "irrational." During my daughter's High School and college years a handful of her friends considered our home their home. One of them married a Fresno Police officer who did some internal undercover work (what I do not know). I thought of him as some sort of Irish Serpico. And that must have been more than 30 years ago. I lost track of both of them.
All the chatter from the "Usual Suspects" for an "IA" sounds like the same chatter from the "Usual Suspects" I heard for an "IA" while I lived in San Diego for twenty five years.There were extremists like Bill who said there was deep corruption and thuggery(very little actually)because maybe they got a traffic ticket that upset them.It came to nothing and eventually word got out that if you challenged the SDPD you might end up dead whether you had a gun,knife,screw driver or a sharp stick.If memory serves me those type of incidents declined.
O.K., Then lets hear the real ressons Mayor Sweringin and the want to be Mayor, Police Chief favor the independent auditor.
Highly unlikely these two would both go for the auditor don't you think? Mr. Patterson says its against the Policeman. How does Mr. Patterson explain away the Chiefs endorsement? Political? Is the Chief against the police too?
Does the auditor give them something they don't have now? Political insulation?
I assume the Chief of Police in most cities report to the Mayor. Perhaps the Bee can provide Fresnans with an organizational chart of how all of this will look afterward.
"Does the auditor give them something they don't have now?"
Yes, larger government.
"Does the auditor give them something they don't have now?"
Yes, larger government. (Bart Turnipseed)
And we give the auditor something he does not have now. Our money for a job without the power to do the job. As I have said...NUTS!
I was listening to the California Report on NPR this morning when I heard the Attorney General of the State of California, Mr. Brown Jr. refer to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation as a "prison industry." He was discussing what he believes is required to correct a systems problem related to the homocide of four police officers in Oakland, and the resulting death of a parolee. Mr. Brown Jr. was the mayor of the Oakland recently.
This cuplet is straight out of the bay area propaganda thesaurus implying that CDCR exists only to serve the state employee by creating a hopeless system through sentencing, incarceration and parole of the prison population.
In the context for which it was used it is impossible for the terms to be construed as meaning a vocational industry operated by supervised inmates in a rehabilitatve program environment. I believe it was deliberately used to appease folks who naturally side in opposition to parole operations, and law enforcement in general. In my opinion it is a self defeating choice of terms, and does not represent the views of of the average law abiding citizen.