Police Work Is Already Risky Enough; Don't Make Things ...- Jellyfish.NEWS

Police Work Is Already Risky Enough; Don't Make Things Worse

pjmedia.com

The political assault on the American police profession continues apace. With the “de-fund” movement that arose following the death of George Floyd in 2020 having been revealed as harebrained, those who would see the nation’s police officers hamstrung in the fight against crime now turn to other, more indirect measures. In Los Angeles, this effort is taking shape in a campaign to change the LAPD’s disciplinary system so as to make it easier to fire an officer who has displeased his superiors.

LAPD officers cannot be fired summarily by the chief of police; they can be terminated only after being found guilty of misconduct at a “board of rights,” a quasi-judicial hearing at which three people serve as both judges and triers of fact. The board-of-rights system has evolved over the years, with the composition of the panels first being three command-staff officers, then two command officers and a civilian, and now, under provisions of a city charter amendment passed by the voters in 2017, the three members of the board can be, and most often are, civilians. Critics of the current system claim that these civilians have been too lenient, and that the chief should be given greater latitude in removing officers accused of misconduct.

One need not be a soothsayer to see the potential for abuse here. The current system came to be because LAPD officers recognized that placing their fate in the hands of command officers, whose own career advancement can be aided or hindered on the whims of the police chief, was fraught with peril, and they persuaded a sufficient number of voters to approve the change.

Police Work Is Already Risky Enough; Don’t Make Things Worse

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