A Times Editorial

Tarnished police trust

Out-of-control police units damage the public's trust of officers who protect, abide by the law and respect our constitutional rights.

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 23, 2000

The only thing worse than a rogue cop is a whole squad of them. When police officers become criminals, innocent people are menaced, and society loses faith in the rule of law.

That's what has happened in Manatee County, where members of the Delta squad, a special drug enforcement unit of the Manatee County Sheriff's Office, used their badges to plant evidence, lie on police reports and hand out crack cocaine to helpful informants. The revelations, made public during a federal prosecution, call into question the leadership of longtime Manatee County Sheriff Charlie Wells as well as the wisdom of creating insular special policing units.

The problems found in the Delta squad -- overly aggressive tactics and blatant criminality -- eerily mirror those found in other special police units.

Recently, the Street Crimes Unit in New York City has been roundly criticized for its cowboy arrogance. Thousands of innocent New Yorkers, primarily in minority neighborhoods, have been belligerently questioned and roughly frisked by the plain-clothed members of the unit whose orders seemed to be: Reduce crime, whatever it takes.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles a police corruption scandal of mammoth proportions threatens to wipe out the department's entire reservoir of public trust. There, police at one precinct who were part of a special anti-gang unit known as Crash (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums) were allegedly as criminal as the people they were arresting.

According to a Los Angeles Police Department report, Rampart precinct Crash members engaged in a raft of crimes including drug dealing, theft, assault, perjury and even attempted murder.

In Manatee County, Delta squad members routinely planted drugs on victims and in victims' homes in order to use seizure laws to confiscate their cars and other property. The unit's corruption has so far led to 100 charges being dropped against 67 defendants.

How do police organizations get this out of control? It has to do with leadership and supervision. When emphasis is put on bottom-line measures such as a high volume of arrests, respecting constitutional limits can go out the window. In Manatee County, one agent claimed that Delta members didn't have to abide by the regular rules. That attitude develops when a command is less concerned about innocent people being harassed and arrested than about falling crime rates.

Add to the mix the fact that law enforcement agencies have often refused to police themselves. Renegade officers engaging in the same behaviors as the thugs on the street often are protected by a blue wall of silence. Special units are particularly susceptible to becoming abusive, because their special mission, independence, cohesion and general lack of supervision lead to an us-against-them view of the world in which extralegal methods are tolerated.

As Manatee County, Los Angeles and New York have reminded us, when the people we trust to protect us fail to respect the public and the Constitution, they do grave damage to the rule of law and tarnish the badge that is worn proudly by their fellow officers.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.