Because I was once a police officer, an editor wrote a note today asking about threats from someone like Christopher Dorner.
When I was a robbery/homicide detective there were occasions when threats were issued. These people were dangerous, so we were more cautious in our daily activities. Of course in those days, the crooks had more courage, and wouldn’t think to go after an unarmed girl and her boyfriend just because her dad was a police officer. This will be the new definition of a coward. Threats will always remain a part of the policeman’s life.
Every day a police officer goes to work, there is a chance he or she will not return. I have finished my day in an Emergency Room bed thinking there must be a better way to make a living. This is no different than a person who works in a bank, a library or from a home office. Things happen and when it’s your time, it is your time. We choose our careers based on our skills, training and preferences. Every job has its ups and downs. Police Officers ask for the job, nobody makes them do it. It is very competitive and many who wish to pursue the career are not selected. So something like Chris Dorner going after a police officer, while it will certainly get their attention, it is not a life/career changing event. There will
be changes in how they safeguard their families.
Chris Dorner is justifying his case, claiming police are corrupt. Reading blogs in the last 24 hours, this seems to be a theme many people believe. One blogger even compared the police to a gang where the code of silence was the order of the day.
As a police sergeant, I had experience in handling cases of police officers going off track. Despite what you see in the movies, on television and from attorneys trying to make money for a client who screwed up, the administrations always took immediate and definite actions.
In 13 years of service, I never saw an agency shy away from taking the correct action, even when it involved higher ranking staff. When you make a mistake in business they make an entry in your permanent record, when a police officer makes a mistake they get days off without pay.
Police are held to a high standard and most have an even higher moral standard. It was always easy to investigate wrongdoing by a police officer. While a crook would deny, hedge and lie, a police officer generally admitted his transgressions.
There is one act that is more fearful than a mental case with a gun, and a grudge for perceived wrongs. Lawsuits can ruin an officer’s life and doom them to financial ruin.
In my personal experience, I was home in bed, asleep, on a night off, but one of my officers was involved in an altercation which resulted in a lawsuit.
In a normal civil action, if the officer is found to have disobeyed the law, or agency procedures, the government agency pays the loss. However, in my case they alleged punitive damages. Punitive damages are not allowed to be paid by outside sources, and must come from the officer’s personal assets. In this case, it was a $5 million lawsuit alleging negligent hiring, failure to properly train and failure to supervise.
For the next three years every time I filled out a financial document, a security clearance, or anything else it was necessary to list there was a $5 million lawsuit with me named as a defendant.
Nobody asked if I was guilty. It did not matter. It was a fact that loaning me money was dangerous because if the case was lost, I was bankrupt. This case had no merit and was eventually dismissed. There was no reimbursement for the three years of stress and embarrassment.
This is one reason I left law enforcement. It was a good decision. Today’s law enforcement not only faces criminals, they face civil action, political action and special interest groups. In the final analysis, we always end up with the law enforcement we deserve.
So the answer to the editor's question, about how it affects police officers when they are hunted by a madman, is that in the long run it doesn’t.
They will be a little more cautious, a little more on edge and a little less trustful. All this comes with the job. If Dorner really wanted to get revenge he would have involved punitive damages for his alleged wrongs.
The tax payer always gets stuck wtih the bill. So how are you going to address the problem. I ran for Congress and my ideas did not win. Now it is your turn, what are you going to do?
Let's get something straight right out of the gate, John Webb. I don't challenge people. I challenge their claims. You made certain claims. I proved you claims wrong with documented information. And you ran away from it. That says MUCH MORE about YOU than it does ME, sir. Exposing the problem is ALWAYS the first step to it's solution. I expose it while others attempt to conceal it. And that is an honorable first step to solving any problem in life. "The tax payer always gets stuck wtih the bill." ONCE AGAIN. You absolutely FAIL to acknowledge the LOWER STANDARDS (both morally and legally) are are inherent in police work as compared to those of us in the general population. I pointed out the LOWER STANDARD and you sidestep it and dismiss it. Hence, I will take whatever you write in the future with a grain of salt. You don't appear to be the same person you represent yourself to be. That is what I learned in this blog.
You seem like a shining example of what a Public Servant is supposed to be; ethical, moral, and knowledgable in the laws you have pledged to enforce. I am curious about which Law Emforcement agencies you worked for, and the highest rank you attained. Knowing the writers history regarding this opinion piece will give it more credibility.
Now The Dumb and the Willfully Ignorant are unemployable so they spend their days commenting on the Patch. Even when the article deals with topics they know nothing of; they live to spew their ignorance and hatred. They don't use their real names because they claim speaking your mind can be dangerous. Tell that to Martin Luther King, Jr. Malcolm X, Nathan Hale, Thomas Paine... They are cowards and like all cowards they bully if you point out their complete lack of logic. They ruin online communication and any chance we may have had to learn from each other. They are why the Patch will fail and our society will continue to crumble around us.
Those types of abuses are great for movies and television shows; the public ends up thinking the system is corrupt, but it's far from that and those types of abuses are extremely rare. By the way, loved how you called out JustUs. He's every where and says nothing. And he pulled his "you're running away from me" game. Like the other readers will believe that. If one has followed JustUs's commenting on these boards and then thinks about what sort of hell an officer faces in an extremely long day, one can certainly understand why an officer might pull out their nightstick to adjust JustUs's attitude. Have fun, John. See you at the next blogger's meeting I hope.
This little barfly seems to follow me no matter what room I enter. Honey....toss me the swatter again. And I think you got it backwards. Either that or your comprehension skills are lacking. JustUs called John out on certain issues and John failed to come out and play. Which is fine. That's his choice. But get your facts straight. I know that's asking alot from a guy like you though. :^) Cops are nothing but blue collar workers and used to be treated as such when I was a kid. For some odd reason today they are treated like kings who are immune from the laws and paid like medical doctors. Today it's almost like a political appointment based on connections. Naturally, the corrupted unions are partly to blame. But it takes a village. A man who receives heisted goods from a heister and afterwards maintains a 'code of silence' is just as responsible as the actual perpetrator. "Have fun, John. See you at the next blogger's meeting I hope." As vigorously as I disagree with John on some issues, I think he has way too much class for the likes of you. If you see him I'm pretty certain it would be from a distance. heh. :^)
So if I came to your little gathering I would not show up to learn anything. My opinions are based on researched facts. And until those facts change - my opinion remains intact. If the facts change, then I have an open mind. If someone could show me evidence that Frankenstein was a philanthropist my opinion of him would change in a NYC minute. I have no pride when it comes to that type of thing. But thank you for your invitation. If I were to show up it (which I likely wouldn't) would be for the entertainment and the finger foods. If Dan were there I wouldn't give him the time of day. I have failed to encounter a tool on the comment boards as large as Dan. I'm sure there are some out there. I just haven't crossed paths with him or her yet. I am only one person and can't be everywhere.
(1) No evidentiary material will be released for public viewing. Not the dashcam or anything else, even though the Kelly Thomas beating video was released. Not enough public pressure. (It's got nothing to do with legalities). The intention is to hide the facts. (2) The media will not further question the OCSD about this case. The media will claim that they haven't mentioned it for a long time because OCSD has not offered any additional information. So instead of digging and doing their own investigation, like the media should do, they play the part of the passive victims who are being stalemated. Out of sight, out of mind. (3) After months or even years with no new news out of the blue you will see a little blurb in the news that a settlement has been reached. No immediate details on the settlement amount. It will be hard to bury but they will try. Anaheim buried their settlement with the family of the black gentlemen Julian Alexander who the APD shot dead while he was standing on his front porch in 2008. They hid it (of course they claim inadvertently). That settlement was for about $2M. I suspect the Loggins settlement will be for MUCH MUCH more than that. (4) Once the settlement is reached all evidence will be buried from the public. (5) The PO Bill of RIghts will preclude disclosure of discipline against the officers. End of story.
What a boring world it would be if we both agreed on everything. One needs to listen and hear both sides of an argument. If only to solidify one's views. What I miss about teaching the most was taking the opposite side from each student's argument in conferences to help them learn how to think more fully and to help them make their arguments as strong as they could be. That is, once they got past relying on general, meaningless sentences. The law enforcement officers were always the better writers in my class. You guys are trained to notice specific details and it's those details which make writing communicate something. My new piece is on Obama. You might enjoy it. http://missionviejo.patch.com/blog_posts/presidential-whack-a-human
Where the Loggins killing case stands is that the killer, Officer Darren Sandberg, has been found non-guilty by reason of deciding not to prosecute by the OC DA's office (that was last September, you can download the findings/letter from the DA from the OCDA's website) , and the family of the deceased is pursuing a civil case against OCSD, the City of San Clemente, and probably Darren Sandberg personally. Where I stand on it is that I want to press the OC Board of Supervisor's to release the dashcam videotape of the killing to the public. (You know, The People who paid for it.) Their next meeting is next Tuesday, Feb 26th, in Santa Ana. Who knows where Patch stands on it. They haven't published anything on it in a while. I wish they would try to get more of the school's security camera video from the night and night's proceeding the tragedy to corroborate everyone who knew him's testimony that he used to take his kids there regularly and that the gate was never locked before. If that videotape shows Sandberg checking to see if the gate was locked earlier that night, and there's evidence that he checked it before and saw that it wasn't kept locked, and that he followed up with the school to make sure it was locked, then this incident looks less like a surprise traffic stop, and more like an ambush.