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View Full Version : For police sometimes a Combat Qual isn't enough. They get a $500 bounty.




phill4paul
03-25-2012, 08:55 AM
Police union gives payments to officers involved in shootings
The mayor of Albuquerque, where police have shot 23 people in the last two years, urges that the practice end.
The Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Albuquerque police officers involved in a rash of fatal shootings over the past two years were paid up to $500 under a union program that some have likened to a bounty system in a department with a culture that critics have long contended promotes brutality.

Mayor Richard Berry called Friday for an immediate halt to the practice, which was first reported in the Albuquerque Journal during a week in which Albuquerque police shot and killed two men. Since 2010, Albuquerque police have shot 23 people, 18 fatally.

"The administration has nothing to do with how the union conducts their business," Berry said in a statement, "but I was shocked yesterday when made aware of this practice. I cannot stand aside and condone this practice. It needs to end now."

Although the union said the payments were intended to help the officers decompress from a stressful situation, one victim's father and a criminologist said it sounded more like a reward program.

"I think it might not be a bounty that they want it for," said Mike Gomez, the father of an unarmed man killed by police last year, "but in these police guys' minds, they know they are going to get that money. So when they get in a situation, it's who's going to get him first? Who's going to shoot him first?"

Maria Haberfeld, chair of the Department of Law & Police Science at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said she found the program disturbing.

"I'm not a psychologist. I'm a criminologist. But if you give somebody a monetary incentive to do their job, usually people are tempted by the monetary incentive," she said. "To me, this is a violation of professional ethics."

Other law enforcement officials called speculation of a bounty system ridiculous but acknowledged the payments could be poorly perceived.

"Frankly, it's insulting and very insensitive that somebody would believe that a police officer would factor in a payment for such a difficult decision," said Joe Clure, president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association.

Clure said his union gives officers who fire their guns in the line of duty a $25 dinner card and a few movie tickets. On rare occasions, the union will give as much as $500 for a hotel room and travel for an officer who is having an especially difficult time in the aftermath of a shooting, although he doesn't recall that happening in about 10 years.

(Dinner and a movie? Common, honey, I just got a combat qual. Let's go celebrate. I hear 'Acts of Valor' is playing. p4p)

In Idaho, State Police Cpl. Fred Rice, chairman of the Idaho State Police Association, said his organization made a conscious decision not to give cash or checks.

"That would almost look like to me, if I gave every time an officer involved in a shooting a $500 check, someone might think, 'Oh, that's a quick way to make money,'" he said.

Rice said his organization takes steps to help officers involved in shootings on a case-by-case basis, usually selecting something specific to help that officer unwind and relax.

David Klinger, a former police officer who is now a criminologist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, said he saw no problem with the program, noting the officers have administrative time off and need to deal with a very stressful situation.

"I've been through it," he said. "And if someone wanted to say, 'Hey, Dave we want you to go hang out in San Diego and sip sarsaparilla on the seashore,' I think that would be a grand idea."

The Journal reported that 20 of the 23 officers involved in 20 police shootings in 2010 and 2011 received payments of either $300 or $500 each, which the union said were meant to help them and their families "find a place to have some privacy and time to decompress outside the Albuquerque area."

Three more men have been shot by Albuquerque police this year, all fatally. It was not known if they have received the union payment.

Berry called on Police Chief Ray Schultz to work with the union to end the practice. Schultz, who called the practice "troubling," said the union has agreed to hold an emergency board meeting.

http://www.pressherald.com/news/police-union-gives-payments-to-officers-involved-in-shootings_2012-03-24.html

thoughtomator
03-25-2012, 09:08 AM
it's not a "violation of ethics", it's murder for hire

jmag
03-25-2012, 09:11 AM
Is this a joke? source?

nevermind I see it

man this could be an onion article - the truth more wacked than fiction

phill4paul
03-25-2012, 09:15 AM
Is this a joke? source?

nevermind I see it

Sorry source added: http://www.pressherald.com/news/police-union-gives-payments-to-officers-involved-in-shootings_2012-03-24.html

coastie
03-25-2012, 09:25 AM
Speechless. Wow.

pcosmar
03-25-2012, 09:39 AM
Speechless. Wow.

Police should simply NOT EXIST in a free society.
http://www.constitution.org/lrev/roots/cops.htm

Police work is often lionized by jurists and scholars who claim to employ "textualist" and "originalist" methods of constitutional interpretation. Yet professional police were unknown to the United States in 1789, and first appeared in America almost a half-century after the Constitution's ratification. The Framers contemplated law enforcement as the duty of mostly private citizens, along with a few constables and sheriffs who could be called upon when necessary. This article marshals extensive historical and legal evidence to show that modern policing is in many ways inconsistent with the original intent of America's founding documents. The author argues that the growth of modern policing has substantially empowered the state in a way the Framers would regard as abhorrent to their foremost principles.

coastie
03-25-2012, 09:50 AM
Police should simply NOT EXIST in a free society.
http://www.constitution.org/lrev/roots/cops.htm

Oh, I agree-and I used to do this shit, and thanks to Ron Paul(and you guys), I don't anymore.;)

phill4paul
03-25-2012, 10:27 AM
A local station coverage with video: http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/politics/money-to-cops-in-shootings-angers-mayor

phill4paul
03-25-2012, 10:50 AM
Another:

Critics have blamed the escalation in shootings that began in 2010 on what they said is a long-standing culture that condones police brutality. In addition to the shootings, the department came under scrutiny last year for comments made by officers on social media. For example, one of the officers involved in a fatal shooting described his occupation on Facebook as "human waste disposal." Another said on MySpace that "Some people are alive only because killing them is illegal."

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/NM-police-involved-in-shootings-got-union-checks-3429675.php#ixzz1q9FMPJrf

oyarde
03-25-2012, 12:46 PM
deleted

coastie
03-25-2012, 01:15 PM
Another:

Critics have blamed the escalation in shootings that began in 2010 on what they said is a long-standing culture that condones police brutality. In addition to the shootings, the department came under scrutiny last year for comments made by officers on social media. For example, one of the officers involved in a fatal shooting described his occupation on Facebook as "human waste disposal." Another said on MySpace that "Some people are alive only because killing them is illegal."

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/NM-police-involved-in-shootings-got-union-checks-3429675.php#ixzz1q9FMPJrf

:eek:

I just don't get it. There's NO WAY any of us could've gotten away with shit like that in the CG Law Enforcement side. How many CG related shootings have any of you heard of? To my knowledge, there hasn't been one in quite some time, and the time there was an incident, it was actually during a bank robbery they happened upon en route to somewhere else(or something to that effect,we truck and trailer boats around in a lot of locales that dont have docks, etc), I'm sure a quick google will yield something about it.

Why can't these guys just train to fight straight up like we did? We focused a hell of a lot more on hand to hand and control techniques, pepper spray, baton than shooting.

I can only think of ONCE where the thought even crossed my mind to pull the trigger... out of thousands of boardings.

phill4paul
03-25-2012, 01:23 PM
:eek:

I just don't get it. There's NO WAY any of us could've gotten away with shit like that in the CG Law Enforcement side. How many CG related shootings have any of you heard of? To my knowledge, there hasn't been one in quite some time, and the time there was an incident, it was actually during a bank robbery they happened upon en route to somewhere else(or something to that effect,we truck and trailer boats around in a lot of locales that dont have docks, etc), I'm sure a quick google will yield something about it.

Why can't these guys just train to fight straight up like we did? We focused a hell of a lot more on hand to hand and control techniques, pepper spray, baton than shooting.

I can only think of ONCE where the thought even crossed my mind to pull the trigger... out of thousands of boardings.

The situation is becoming untenable coastie. There is an obvious break down in training, practice, standards and oversight.

phill4paul
03-25-2012, 03:26 PM
//

Anti Federalist
03-25-2012, 03:40 PM
The situation is becoming untenable coastie. There is an obvious break down in training, practice, standards and oversight.

No, there is no "breakdown" in all of those things.

The training, standards, equipment and oversight is all designed to produce this result.

Military training, military equipment, military mindset and you get military results.

+rep for the OP

John F Kennedy III
11-16-2012, 08:10 PM
Combat Qual bump.