Police need to be held accountable by public

Police corruption is a form of police misconduct designed to obtain financial benefits, other personal gain, or career advancement for officers in exchange for not pursuing, or selectively pursuing, an investigation or arrest. One common form of police corruption is soliciting or accepting bribes in exchange for not reporting organized drug or prostitution rings or other illegal activities. Another example is police officers flouting the police code of conduct in order to secure convictions of suspects — for example, through the use of falsified evidence.

Police need to be held accountable by public

Postby Thomas » Fri Jan 15, 2016 12:02 pm

You don’t hear much about the Caledon OPP. To clarify, we don’t hear much from the Caledon OPP. That is unless we make an inquiry on the public’s behalf and the media officer decides to issue a press release because the matter has drawn public interest.

It’s our job to inform the public with newsworthy information, to let you know what’s happening in your community. Whether it’s break and enters, serious accidents, road closures, deaths, drinking and driving offences or robberies. These are all matters of public interest. And we do our best to inform you of what the police are doing with their time on your dime.

The disciplinary matters of your local police force is also newsworthy. Which is why it’s so concerning to learn a group of local officers were informally disciplined for making false police notes concerning a RIDE spot check in September 2014.

Seven officers were supposed to be on duty conducting a midnight RIDE check, however, they spent the hour at Tim Hortons instead.

Instead of actually stopping vehicles and checking drivers for signs of impairment, the officers falsified notes, on the go ahead from their sergeant who was docked 60 hours pay as found in a formal disciplinary hearing. A Toronto Star investigation into police misconduct uncovered the information and is presenting this and other cases in an ongoing series.

The local disciplinary matter for the seven subordinate officers was handled out of the public eye, as according to the Ontario Police Service Act, a chief can choose to handle a discipline matter through informal resolution if he or she decides the misconduct “was not of a serious nature.”

The system likely works well for matters of truancy and minor misconduct, however, the secrecy behind the system means you’ll probably never know about it.

In Caledon’s case, you decide. Does it concern you that seven officers were hanging out at Tim Hortons when they were supposed to be working a RIDE spot check? And does it concern you that a sergeant knew and gave them the thumbs up to make fake notes and that they complied?

Police need to be held accountable for their actions by the public. Cases such as this taint that trust and keeping it secret undermines our ability to hold police accountable.

http://www.caledonenterprise.com/opinio ... by-public/
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