Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Lie on affidavits to get warrants to arrest people? Nope. Not in Oakland.
At least seven of the 11 Oakland police officers the department planned to terminate in the department's search-warrant controversy will return to work, attorneys for the officers said.The department moved to fire the officers in January after allegations arose last year that officers had falsified sworn affidavits to secure search warrants for the homes of mostly small-time drug dealers in East Oakland. Some officers also were said to have made misleading statements in an Internal Affairs investigation of the matter...
But when the department moved to fire the officers in January, the officers' attorneys and the Oakland Police Officers Association framed the problem as a training issue.
To give you an idea of just how serious this all was:
Allegations that officers falsified search-warrant affidavits arose in September. After the department's acknowledgment that some officers made misstatements to judges, dozens of criminal cases have been placed in question, and criminal charges against 12 defendants have been dropped.The acknowledgment also resulted in two federal civil rights lawsuits against the city and raised the questions from a team of court-appointed monitors assigned to keep watch over the department as part of the settlement of the Riders police misconduct scandal.
Misuse police resources to find out the address of a romantic rival whose truck was later hit with gunfire? Use one's position as a police officer to get out of trouble during a traffic stop for having open alcohol in a vehicle? Not in Ft. Worth, Texas, where the same cop did the second one while still on suspension for the first one.
Drive drunk and kill two people after earlier being involved in two other serious accidents, including running a red light and slamming into a police car and injuring two officers? Well, the drunk driving may finally cost him his job. And by the way, in the earlier accident where he ran into the police car, the officer on the scene was investigated for not mentioning that it was a cop who plowed into the car.
Take a call from the wife of a fellow officer saying that she was afraid her husband was going to kill her and then, rather than fill out a police report about it or do any investigation, just go and tell her husband about it? Well that managed to get the officer placed on administrative leave.
I've become convinced that corruption in law enforcement is absolutely pervasive. Time and time again we catch cops lying to get warrants, faking police reports, lying to cover up their own abusive behavior, planting drugs on people and misusing their position to keep from being held accountable under the same laws they so zealously apply to others.
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It's the new professionalism, same as the old professionalism.
Posted by: kehrsam | April 20, 2009 9:18 AM
Anybody remember how Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz was pilloried in the press during the O. J. Simpson trial for having the temerity to accuse police officers of testa-lying? Anybody remember the lying testimony of Detectives Fuhrman and Vanatter in that case?
Posted by: SLC | April 20, 2009 9:30 AM
Ed, in answer to the question posed in the headline -
... die*. - DJ
*unless you count those brain-munching zombie cops from the Deep South ;)
Posted by: DingoJack | April 20, 2009 9:37 AM
funny, i spent a pleasant afternoon watching serpico sunday
Posted by: khefera | April 20, 2009 1:41 PM
If police officers have to be explicitly trained not to lie in court and on official documents, they're recruiting the wrong people.
Posted by: Bill Poser | April 20, 2009 2:21 PM
But when the department moved to fire the officers in January, the officers' attorneys and the Oakland Police Officers Association framed the problem as a training issue.
Can they at least fire the trainers?
Posted by: Chiroptera | April 20, 2009 2:40 PM
A "training issue"?? Were they not properly trained to cover up their tracks perhaps?
Posted by: Richard Eis | April 21, 2009 4:25 AM
The Oakland cops can just move to LA. LAPD has a place for them. The two cops in the Franklin's case (WWW.ireport.com/docs/DOC-264272) are still working and under no investigation after being found liable for deliberately falsified information in a warrant affidavit and that their conduct had been outrageous. This is being done withthe Police Commission, DA, COP approval. So if you know the Oakland cops them tell them LA the place.
Posted by: Anonymous | October 6, 2009 5:09 PM