So, another IMPD officer was busted. See if you can guess what for! Was it:
- Hunting stoats out of season.
- Blaspheming the name of Peyton Manning.
- Driving drunk (all uniformed up and in a squad car, just for bonus points!)
If you guessed "3", you're
absolutely right! With the
Keystone Kops evidence-handling procedures having probably torpedoed Prosecutor Curry's case against Officer "Bottles" Bisard (a case that is pretty much the hobby horse he rode into office) and forced the resignations of the police chief and the public safety commissioner, it is somewhat understandable why the department tried to keep this incident on the down low: we're running out of higher-ups to fall on their swords.
We don't seem to have any shortage of boozy cops, however. "IMPD: I Must Patrol Drunk." I think it's getting to the point where we need to seriously consider ignition interlocks on the squad cars: If you can't blow clean, you can't go play cops and robbers.
20 comments:
Two breath tests? I bet I'd get two if I blew over .08 on the first. Then again, I think monkey might fly out my ass someday too.
Joseph, first breath test was the inadmissible, uncertified PBT (Portable Breath Test, about the size of a hand held tape recorder). The PBT are not calibrated and get knocked about in the police car.
The second one was the certified DataMaster (non-portable about the size of a bread maker).
Shootin' Buddy
So it's drunk-ish.
staghounds,
I was telling Shootin' Buddy that I would have paid good money to be a fly on the wall when Prosecutor Curry got word of the evidence screwups, with the outgoing public safety director's involvement as the cherry on the icing of the cake of the whole thing.
Curry must have near stroked out on the spot.
Well Tam ... seein's how *every* time I see "IMPD" anywhere (especially on your blog tho) I think "I Must Patrol Drunk"...
Well, hey! Now they get a second chance, right? Maybe they won't fuck up the evidence handling on this one.
Blaspheming the name of Peyton Manning.
Only if the IMPD was on vacation in Denver.
Robin,
That law will be on the books here even after Manning leaves the game altogether. Do not underestimate the reverence in which the average Circle City resident holds Peyton. To become mayor, all he'd need to do is announce his intention to run.
Let's hope that at least the cops are mean drunks...
How dare anyone mention that other city that OUR Peyton plays for!!!
Shootin' Buddy
I hate it when part of the truth is hidden from the fact finders in court. I wonder if the prosecutor will try to get the evidence in on theory that the "screwups" are the result of intentional acts by the defendant through his allies on the police force?
"The police and the State, every one of them, are one and indivisible, the actions and knowledge of each is imputed to all" is a common defense due process theory and often gets traction in the appellate courts, most frequently in discovery and evidence handling questions. Sauce for the goose...
So, just assume every IMPD vehicle is operated by a drunk driver. Avoid being on the street with them; pull into parking lots or onto side streets to stay away from them.
Always avoid armed drunks.
staghounds,
Unfortunately, the FBI has already offered their official opinion that the evidence-handling procedures at the IMPD are systemically inept and not specifically malicious. (And if there's anybody who knows about inept evidence-handling, it's the Feds.)
Teddy Roosevelt made his name and reputation cleaning up a corrupt and incompetent NY police department. We seem to be coming around full circle to corruption and incompetence a century later.
If your Chief had any balls, he'd install a breath-a-lyzer at each station and make every officer, supervisor and detective blow once when coming on shift and again when clocking out. And F-bomb the union, make them go to court to stop it. Shame them, nothing else seems to work.
Shame them?
Wait, what?...you think you can SHAME a union!?!!
THAT I'd have to see to believe!
You just get your partner, or the homeless guy across the street from HQ, to blow for you. Or you start the squad car, and then start drinking. -- Lyle
Sounds like one of the requirements of joining the PD there is a high alcohol tolerance.
"To swerve and neglect."
^^^Win.
start the squad car, and then start drinking
Yeah, that was my thought.
Post a Comment