'Pretty staggering': Thousands of California police officers could be stripped of their badges ...

[sl8]

https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/california-cops-decertified-18151927.php

‘Pretty staggering’: Thousands of California police officers could be stripped of their badges under new law

Sophia Bollag
Updated: June 14, 2023 7:06 p.m.

California’s police standards commission is bracing to decertify or suspend 3,000 to 3,500 police officers each year for serious misconduct under a new state law, according to estimates from the commission.

The estimates suggest the police officers engaging in serious misconduct in any given year could represent a significant percentage of the roughly 90,000 officers working in California, although some may already be fired or retired by the time the commission moves to strip them of their certification.

The estimates, detailed in a budget request from the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, are preliminary. The commission’s new power to decertify officers took effect at the start of the year, so the commission doesn’t yet know exactly how many cases it will receive each year or how many will ultimately rise to the level of decertification. So far this year, it has already received thousands of serious misconduct complaints that it is investigating.

Lizzie Buchen, who advocated for the police decertification law and now serves on the board that will review decertification cases when they are appealed, said she was surprised that the estimates are so high.

[...]

[Otto_Harper]

1. Based on the number of YouTube videos which capture police interactions with the public

I would say this is a low-ball number. There are large numbers of badge wearers who do not deserve to wear a badge, nor even to be allowed to live among normal, civilized humans.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. This is true in many or most professions

I suspect there are 7-15% of professional anythings just skirting by, either unable or unwilling to measure up to standards of the profession, or in it because it soothes some private agenda they can't find elsewhere.

[RipVanWinkle]

3. I would agree - there are incompetents everywhere.

I'm retired now, but when I was working as a auditor, a few of my co-workers were, in my opinion, not up to standards.

[onetexan]

5. Yep, & the bigger the company the harder it is to get rid of the deadheads. Re: the crooked cops, if

they have been found as a serious offender they deserve to be fired from their job given they've taken the oath to protect & serve the public and their crimes prove exactly the opposite of that. Better to be short staffed than to have crooked cops who can harm the public. The counties & cities will just need to do a better job at hiring qualified candidates.

[EYESORE 9001]

11. I've encountered a good number of people over the years

that I would classify as ‘walking major findings.’ No corrective action short of firing would have sufficed.

[FailureToCommunicate]

7. True, but most of those professions don't have the life and death power of the badge be-

hind them.
Abuse of power.
Rotten apples in Blue.
Kick 'em out.

[bucolic_frolic]

20. There is the life and death power of the scalpel or the mechanic's ratchet

but I do get your point.

[NJCher]

4. Desantis will welcome them

Eom

[jaxexpat]

9. Not far from a profound basic truth there, NJCher.

Many of the LOE's fired for cause simply move to another city or state. (or maybe join the Wagner group) Apparently, policing is their "calling".

[brush]

19. Yep, as he's one himself.

[live love laugh]

24. At least they'll have to upend themselves to find the next victims.

Good on California and governor Newsom.

[617Blue]

6. Given the amount of dough paid out each year

by municipalities sued by citizens over police misconduct, you'd think it would be in their interest to scrutinize applicant more thoroughly and dump the bad ones before they cost the city million$$.

[multigraincracker]

8. What we can do.

Always file a complaint on bad cops. The Brass fears lawsuits and need to know about bad police behavior.

[jaxexpat]

10. How fact based do you think a fear of retribution is for those who file complaints?

Would such a fear be more justified if one lived in neighborhoods that are more heavily patrolled than, say, one who lived in a gated community?

[EYESORE 9001]

12. ...

This orta be good.

[multigraincracker]

16. Every complaint goes in

that cops file.

[HAB911]

13. Ron DeSatan will welcome them to Florida

with open arms and moving assistance money

[lambchopp59]

14. I know of 2 of them

Both had as motivations to attend police academy blatantly racist violence. One of them was often my meatwagon partner. Ww just tended to agree to disagree about his racist shit. That was early 80's in the ambulance Corp, one of them shared pics of his LAPD badge years later, unknown if he grew out of that: he was under peer pressure from the other big lug who I never liked at all. But if he participated in racist policing I'd be glad he lost his job.

[AllaN01Bear]

21. when i grew up , i was living 25 miles east of la and we

constantly heard horror stories about lapd . we had our own trouble maker cops .

[barbtries]

15. gee.

guess there might be more than one bad apple.

[Danascot]

17. Bad cops almost never turn into good cops.

When LEOs behave like that it's almost never an isolated instance. It's very likely they have committed other abuses so their removal helps prevent future incidents of bad behavior. Plus, removing the bad apples should help to lower the overall rate of complaints. Other states and jurisdictions should be implementing similar programs.

[Fiendish Thingy]

18. How does this law work?

It’s always been said that the police unions have such strong contracts, along with qualified immunity, it’s almost impossible to fire a cop.

I’m guessing instead of paying out millions in wrongful death settlements, governments will be in court fighting wrongful termination suits.

Still, this seems like a good step, I wasn’t aware of the law previously.

[Merlot]

22. A good start. n/t

[Mr.Bill]

25. I've had family members and friends who were

rejected when they applied to become police officers. Mostly by failing the psychiatric evaluation. I don't know how long they have been doing these evaluations, but in the case of these people I know, I'm glad they did.