Hundreds of Arizona cops retire under scrutiny

Everybody knows there's bound to be a few bad apples in every bunch, but I had no idea the extent of allegedly corrupt police officers there are in my home state of Arizona.

In the last decade, more than 1,700 police officers were investigated on criminal charges of: assault, drug use, sexual misconduct and the list goes on and on. Of those 1,700 officers, 617 lost their certification and will never be able to work as cops again in this state.

What's worse is that many of these officers simply retire with full benefits rather than wait to be investigated.

I have to wonder how wide-spread this is. If Arizona is typical, then there must be tens of thousands of culpable law enforcement officers in the US. Feel safe?

Source

the best cops are small town cops, the ones that the entire town knows where they live and how they act and where they eat. in these towns they know they are being watched and have to set an example, cops that never see the same person twice are the ones that really need to be watched.

im really not surprised, it seems many cops believe they are above the law.

its everywhere. let me quote a tupac song

"cops are just as crooked as the niggas they chasing"

I feel better about your state where it's obvious someone is actually hunting the problem. Even if some are retiring, and I agree that is wrong. I look around at so many other states where nothing at all bad 'seems' to be happening and just know Arizona is nothing unique or special about having dirty cops. Arizona has just busted a whole lot more of 'em. Sounds like a good start to me!

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

Dear Wrabbit2000,

You are absolutely right. May I add a little information about a study of Chicago police done in 2007?

The study presents a comprehensive statistical analysis of the Chicago Police Department’s "broken system" for investigating complaints of civilian abuse. Among other findings, the study notes that:
•Excessive force complaints are 94 percent less likely to be sustained by the CPD than they are by other large municipal police departments across the country.
•In more than 85% of cases, the accused officers are not even interviewed beyond filling out a brief form.
•A relatively small percentage of the force is responsible for most of the abuse complaints. During the period May 2001 - May 2006, 10,387 officers had 0 to 3 complaints. Another 2,451 officers had 4 to 10 complaints. 662 officers had more than 10 complaints. These 662 "repeaters" were named in 10,733 complaints.

uchicagolaw.typepad.com...

With respect,
Charles1952

reply to post by Shadoefax


The problem is systemic, and it is beyond fixing. If the system were a horse, the vet would have put iit down already.

The cops are crooked, so we go to their superiors, who are crooked, so we go to the internal investigators who are crooked, so we go to the mayor, once again crooked, the govenor? Crooked. The AG crooked, the judges? Just as crooked. All the way up the line.

There is no hope of fixing the system, it is too broken too large and too out of control.

Ia this were home makeover, they would just tell you to buy a new house. We must either, force a change as one unified people, or we must succumb to totalitarian control.

Lets all just take a holiday one day.....refuse to play any more...............

Could this be payback for the enforcing Federal Law thing thing along with the COLB thing with Obama ???