Tuesday, December 03, 2013

A real "boost" to public confidence

One has to imagine that the image problem public safety officers in the greater Los Angeles Area could not be any greater... But, apparently the pit is bottomless.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department hired dozens of officers even though background investigators found they had committed serious misconduct on or off duty, sheriff's files show...
Ultimately, about 280 county officers were given jobs, including applicants who had accidentally fired their weapons, had sex at work and solicited prostitutes, the records show.
For nearly 100 hires, investigators discovered evidence of dishonesty, such as making untrue statements or falsifying police records. At least 15 were caught cheating on the department's own polygraph exams.

Twenty-nine of those given jobs had previously had been fired or pressured to resign from other law enforcement agencies over concerns about misconduct or workplace performance problems. Nearly 200 had been rejected from other agencies because of past misdeeds, failed entrance exams or other issues.
But I'm sure all these folks learned their lesson.

Uh...nope.


[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

2 comments:

StonyPillow said...

Of the nearly 400 officers and supervisors from the Office of Public Safety who applied to the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department in 2010, about 280 were hired.

Let us focus rather on the undoubtedly blameless decisions made in refusing to hire the other 120. And actually, the person making the personnel decisions was following instructions:


“We had to have grave reasons for not hiring them.”
– Former Los Angeles County Undersheriff Larry Waldie


Arrested for assault with intent to murder and rape? There was no conviction, no murder, no rape. No grave. Done and done.

David McDonald was hired despite admitting to sheriff’s investigators he had a relationship with a 14-year-old girl whom he kissed and groped. He was 28 at the time.

“I was in love,” he said in an interview with The Times. “I wasn’t being a bad guy.”


Undersheriff Waldie has apparently taken graduate level courses in personnel management from the Timothy Cardinal Dolan School of Just Business.

Raoul Paste said...

Crazed police-trainee: "When do we get the frickin gun!!??"

Chief Wiggum: "Hey, I'm not giving you a gun until you tell me your name"