ANOTHER Newport News, VA cop arrested

[Holger]

In the past couple years, the NNPD has had cops arrested for assault, child abuse, DUI, kidnapping, animal cruelty and embezzlement. The last guy was stealing funds from the charity that helped out families of officers killed in the line of duty. Another cop was reprimanded for bragging about wasting time while on duty and beating people up for no reason on his myspace page. It's a real mess over there.

A 6-7% "bad cop" rate seems really high to me. There are roughly 38,000 cops in NYC. A similar rate would mean over 2500 bad cops running around the city. Is that a normal rate for bad apples in a given department?

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[Mardet65]

In the past couple years, the NNPD has had cops arrested for assault, child abuse, DUI, kidnapping, animal cruelty and embezzlement. The last guy was stealing funds from the charity that helped out families of officers killed in the line of duty. Another cop was reprimanded for bragging about wasting time while on duty and beating people up for no reason on his myspace page. It's a real mess over there.

A 6-7% "bad cop" rate seems really high to me. There are roughly 38,000 cops in NYC. A similar rate would mean over 2500 bad cops running around the city. Is that a normal rate for bad apples in a given department?

You're right and I agree it's not a good amount and is totally unacceptable. I'll be the first one to agree that when an officer is found to have engaged in such activity he should be held accountable, charged, jailed, fired whatever is fitting. As a former Lieutenant I have on occasion had to investigate officer misconduct and have in fact taken appropriate action. I never took any pleasure in it but to do less would be to shirk one's responsibility. As to your question, I couldn't even guess at what level any departments normal rate might be. I think we all agree it should be zero but that's never gonna' happen so long as police officers are recruited from the human race. But on your NYPD estimate we have to consider that still leaves 33,500 officers functioning properly. An extremely vast majority.

[tiwee]

The police here are very good. Part of the reason is the police chief is quick to address poor performance. I am pretty sure most departments address poor performance efficiently. It is a liability issue. From a group that numbers more than 500,000 people in the USA, we do not hear that much about this kind of behavior among police.

[Mardet65]

The police here are very good. Part of the reason is the police chief is quick to address poor performance. I am pretty sure most departments address poor performance efficiently. It is a liability issue. From a group that numbers more than 500,000 people in the USA, we do not hear that much about this kind of behavior among police.

You make a great point that I over looked . . . malicious retention or neglligent retention; in other words keeping an officer who has been a habitual offender will get a department sued and a Chief fired very quickly.

[edr9x23super]

I'd say that one Newport News police officer just committed career suicide. If I were the chief of police I would not want this guy around.....

[paramedic70002]

From my days of working private security from one end of Hampton Roads to the other, I can say that NN LEOs were about average. The worst were Norfolk, and the best were Hampton with Portsmouth in second place. This opinion is completely subjective. I had some good experiences with NN LEOs.

In one instance I had arrested a shoplifter. The LEO was called to transport to the magistrate. He did not know we had arrest powers, so I showed him a copy of the law that said armed security officers had arrest powers. I was in plainclothes at the time. He asked me if I was armed, and I lifted my coat to show him my weapon. He asked me if I had a permit, which at the time I did not, and I answered honestly. He blew it off when he could have arrested me.

[mosouthpaw]

Unfortunately for Newport News, they have had quite a few problems with their LEOs being arrested, indicted, or accused of crimes. They also tend to treat gun owners (both CCW and OCers) like criminals.

they want to be the only one with guns so they can continue to break into houses off duty to commit crimes....