[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLsg0EvZozI[/youtube]
One wonders after watching this public input tonight (FF: 8:35) I guess this is something I have been suspicious about for awhile, and after my day, I came to the conclusion that city government uses the SFPD to do their dirty work because if they mistreat people, there are no consequences. The day started with me taking Sodapop to the vet for some shots and his city license (I don’t have a problem with licensing him) but they force you to buy a 3 year license. Does that mean if Soda passes away in the next 3 years, do I get a refund? I know this has little to do with the SFPD, but it is an enforcement issue. I had lunch with someone considering running for city council, but he has his reservations. Of course family approval was mentioned, but I think he fears working with some of the current councilors and the way they manipulate their powers for their benefit. I would have to agree. Also not a SFPD issue, but an issue of abuse of power. Later on in the afternoon I met with a wonderful gentleman who has a ‘little’ project going on, he is rebuilding/remodeling his house (on his schedule) and he has been harassed not only by his neighbors, code enforcement and even police officers. Apparently they have a problem with a home owner working on their own home on their own schedule. After watching the above video, it got me thinking. Does the Sioux Falls police department have too much power, since, it seems they can do whatever they want to without anyone investigating complaints. Every major city has a department of internal affairs. We don’t. I’ve been told it is Human Resources, that is hardly an investigative body. I will say our police force does an amazing job keeping us safe, but when they make mistakes or abuse their powers, which they do, there should be recourse for citizens.
The SFPD is not nearly large enough for an IA unit. If they hired one IA officer, they would only be busy about 30 hours a year.
So no… we don’t need one. They already have an investigative process and although some might argue it isn’t perfect, it seems to work for the size of city we are in. If there are serious accusations against the SFPD and if someone feels the city isn’t doing enough, I believe they can work with a state law enforcement agency who will then investigate.
As far as the guy working on his project on his own time – I’d like to hear more about that. It is one thing to do your own work, but if your home is in a state of disrepair for three years and your neighbors have to listen to circular saws at 1AM or a nail gun at 5:30AM it becomes a completely different issue. If the police are paying a visit to someone about a home improvement project I’m pretty sure there is a reason.
So you think it is okay for the SFPD to investigate itself? That in itself is sorta silly. I’m not saying they need to hire and officer, but they need someone in charge of it. I think the guy testifying point was pretty good about the SFPD only screwing up 1 time a year. Give me a break.
I won’t talk about the home improvement project w/o his approval, but let’s just say, that while his approach is a bit unconventional, to say the least, I don’t think he is hurting his neighbors in anyway.
This post was kinda all over the place. We went from the Vet where you indicate it’s not a police matter (animal control anyone?). Then we went to someone thinking of running for City Council with absolutely no tie in to the Police Department? but whatever. Then we moved onto someone working on a home improvement project “(on his schedule-which I interpret to mean the middle of the night)”…and being “harrassed” by code enforcement and “even” the police. Well, if some dipshit next door was roofing at 3 in the morning next to my house, I’d probably call 911 too.
Although I’m not sure what any of that has to do with our local PD having an “Internal Affairs” division, I’m quite certain that they have someone that handles and investigates citizen complaints.
Did you watch the public input? Watch that first.
Yes, they do have someone that handles complaints, but it is the police themselves, which is not right.
We don’t even have anyone in city hall that handles ethics complaints “ethically.” Why would we have someone to handle IA in the police? It’s one big circle of curruption that continues to spin.
Again there is a state agency people can appeal to if they feel the SFPD is being unfair. I believe the Department of Criminal Investigation can cover these issues if there are complaints. If you start an IA division within Sioux Falls, or if you assign these issues to an internal person, do you really think they will act as an indepedent party?
This isn’t Law & Order or CSI where the “regular” cops and the “IA” cops hate each other and don’t get along… in the real world cops stick together and protect their own. It is a brotherhood and even if you hire someone outside of the police force to oversee such matters, they are still city employees and probably have to work with these people on a regular basis which will blur their judgement.
That is why in a city this size it makes more sense to outsource to another agency on the state level. Basic complaints can be filed directly with the police and I’m sure they are honest about how they handle them, but if someone doesn’t agree they can (and do) take their complaints farther up the chain.
You have to realize about 95% of the complaints filed against the police force involve someone who felt they were mean to them during an arrest… often times it happens after a DUI arrest. Other times the complaints involve excessive force used during a legitimate arrest. I remember a couple of years ago reading through several years of those complaints and I don’t ever recall seeing one where it didn’t involve a legitimate arrest… so no I don’t think we have massive corruption occurring in the SFPD.
Do you have a department of coherency on staff to check your posts before they go live?
This barely resembles anything that could be considered a relevant argument. It reads more like a bunch of words that were forced together in a block against their own will.
Somebody should be investigating that.
Many recent issues. 70 shots from 5 officers into a residential neighborhood. False arrest of a 16 year old MN girl. Unqualified calls to homes. Sexual harassment of casino workers. False ethics complaint against Staggers. Id compare SFPD to New Orleans. The most corrupt PD in the country. There must be a complaint process. The police chief should be replaced with someone more experienced and responsible.
The most corrupt PD in the country? You need some perspective Dan… and a good therapist.
The guy has a legitimate beef. He’s exhausted every avenue for answers to his complaint. But all he gets are form letters and buck-passing from the Mayor on down.
Simple solution is to establish a body similar to the Open Meetings Commission which investigates citizen complaints against School Boards, City Councils and the like: http://atg.sd.gov/OpenGovernment/OpenMeetingsCommission/FAQs.aspx.
Process was established by law. No criminal penalty can come from a decision, yet it makes government bodies more accountable and provides citizens a form of due process and resolution.
This guy is a psychopath that recently got fired from his job because he is a psychopath. Usually I enjoy a jab or two, but this post shows that the poster may be in the same mindset. I appreciate your investigative behind the scene articles but you were apparently joining your free love hippy k2 smoking hipocrites when you wrote this. You tried to be the shock jock journalist trying to fire people up and it apparently backfired (except for the positive reaction from the drug frenzied paranoia of pathloss). If this guy was jogging through your back yard in the middle of the night, you may also ask the police to politely ask him question him without hurting his feelings. that is the real issue, he had his feelings hurt. A legitamate beef is a steak, this guy is a legitamate nut.
Costner – so you are saying out of 72 complaints, the cops only screwed up one time is reasonable. I thought you were smarter then that.
Bad Ben – would have to agree. I tried to break it up in paragraphs, but WordPress was fucking with me and I couldn’t fix it, sorry for the mess. Report me to the publisher, maybe they will suspend my pay 🙂
Corn – Great idea. I also see that Kolbe had a great TIF idea for individual homeowners and small time landlords. I have often suggested that homeowners should get tif’s for fixing up older homes in older neighborhoods. Instead they penalize you. After I got my community development loan in which I upgraded my windows and gutters, my taxes went up. Go figure.
Dork, can you provide a link to your accusations. I would agree he is a bit strange. But if he was fired for being legally crazy, I want some documentation.
I also want to clarify about the man who has been remodeling his home, he has never received a police visit in the middle of the night. He has always done his work in broad daylight. He is self employed, so he has no reason to be shingling in the middle of the night. He is actually very intelligent, well dressed, and for being an extended remodeling project, I didn’t see one spec of sawdust or cobbwebs in his home. This is a matter of small contractors wanting city hall to force home owners to hire them instead of people doing the work themselves. A lot of the building inspectors are failed contractors, so they really like to stick it to the DIY type of guy. I have had several friends who have done remodeling projects on their own and get fucked with by the inspectors. Why? For the same reason the city ILLEGALLY forces property owners to trim THEIR trees, revenue for tree trimming companies. They know Grandma won’t be able to climb in the tree and trim a branch, so she will have to pay $100 an hour from a private contractor. This shit burns me up.
“Costner – so you are saying out of 72 complaints, the cops only screwed up one time is reasonable.”
Reading comprehension fail. I never said that. I didn’t even suggest it. I merely said there are other avenues someone can pursue if they feel they have a legitimate complaint, and creating some facade that acts like an IA division isn’t going to change anything because there would still be conflict of interest in a city this size.
Get over it… it was a stupid idea and you didn’t think it through. You are long on conspiracy theories but short on facts. Don’t get me wrong – I enjoy your opinions and insight, but it is issues like this prove why bloggers will never replace true journalists because you are so willing to post unverified information without any fact checking or confirmation.
I guess that is why you aren’t “influential”. (I know that burns you… but lighten up)
The fact is Scott, I have no idea how many times the SFPD have screwed up, but I’m not about to make a claim suggesting they are corrupt unless I see some evidence to suggest they are. That whole innocent until proven guilty thing works both ways, and we surely aren’t seeing evidence to suggest the SFPD is running around abusing their power.
“I thought you were smarter then that.”
Intentional irony?
Tree trimming is a kind way to put it. Those guys who work the boulevards and around power lines are butchers. They’d NEVER stay in business without fat city contracts!
This isn’t a conspiracy theory. Out of 72 complaints, only one was valid? You don’t think that is a bit silly? Human error exists all the time. How many times do you think you messed up last year? 4-5 times? Take that times the number of PD working for our city. I am no math wizard, but I am guessing that it is more then ONE! I am not chastizing, people fuck up, but let’s be honest about it.
Seriously! 72 complaints and only one is valid? Bullshit.
Corn. No shit. They were in my backyard last year (Excel) and I never said nothing to them (heck, they were trimming my trees for free) but I thought it was kind of strange they didn’t tell me, or knock on my door. The contractors are butchers, but the Excel guys take as little as possible, job security I guess 🙂
Excel wasn’t trimming your trees for free! Take a look at your energy bill next time and you’ll see that all the crazy fees tacked onto it pay for things like tree maintenance.
DL- according to the guy in the video there were 72 complaints over the past four years and 4 of them were valid.
Did you read any of the complaints? By all means have at it: http://www.siouxfalls.org/Police/Feedback/ViewComplaints
You first need to realize there is a big difference between an unfounded complaint and one which results in the officer being exonerated. The fact they actually report every one of these is actually impressive after you read them and see how silly most of them are.
People claim the police used excessive force, but when they try to investigate many times the person who made the original complaint won’t cooperate or follow-up. How else can you close out the issue other than to say it is unfounded if the person won’t even be bothered to speak with a supervisor or follow-up?
Another common complaint is that handcuffs are too tight – yet I didn’t read that anyone needed medical treatment (I will admit I did not read all of them back through 2007)… do they realize handcuffs don’t really work when they are loose?
The other interesting aspect is that in many cases the video from the dash cameras prove nothing was wrong but it has also been used to verify a complaint. In some cases people accused officers of theft but their property was found at jail. Again – easily an unfounded complaint.
By the way how often does someone disagree with the findings of the department? How often do they take their complaint farther than the internal review? There is nothing saying they can’t appeal the decision or even get their own lawyer. I’d bet after people cool down and sober up most of these complaints are easily forgotten, but the vast majority are made at the time of arrest or while in the holding cell when people are mad and aggravated. It stands to reason why so many of them are unfounded.
Also – keep in mind the police don’t claim they are perfect. These complaints relate to conduct… they don’t relate to the validity of a traffic stop, legal procedures, constitutional issues etc. All of those types of issues are handled via the courts – and the police do come out on the losing side from time to time so I think it is dishonest to suggest they are claiming they are almost perfect.
So if you eliminate the actual unfounded complaints – how many were honestly investigated and resulted in either a reprimand against the officer, or there was not enough evidence to prove either way (not sustained)? A hell of a lot less than 72 my friend.
Again – do your research before making wild claims and relying upon the testimony of one guy.
I still find it hard to believe that a job that has a starting pay in the low 20’s has people working for them that don’t make mistakes.
And I have heard from several people, including two today, about how they have been treated by the police, and the lying in the police reports. That is why I find it really hard to believe that 4 complaints out of 72 were confounded. But go ahead and write another novel about it Costner.
You say you talked to two people who say how they were treated by police. Yet you fail to say how they were treated. You challenged me now I cahllenge you. Provide me a link where these two were treated badly or give me a link where they were lying in a report. I don’t care if you find things hard to believe. Prove it before you make accusations. You will quickly lose credibility withthese “some one told” crap.
As far as your challenge to me. It has well been documented that the definition of insanity is to repeat an action over and over again expecting a different result. You have featured this guy two or three times and it has always been the same result. He is not happy. He complains to two sergeants, they tell him no issue. He complains to a professional Standards captain (internal affairs) who tells him Officer was not a problem. He complains to the Mayor and Council repeatedly who tell him there they support the police action. When does he (or you) finally think that maybe he is the issue, not the police.
In the video, he says who he is and where he lives. You have a direct line to the mayor and now have access to this guy since he told you where he lives and what his name is. Have you considered maybe, since you want respectability, talking to either side or are you happy to drink martini’s and put cheeto’s stains on your underwear in your “loft” and speculate over stuff you watch on your apple? You complain about lazy journalism, and I agree with you alot, but when you set the bar, we expect you to be able to do the fillsberry flop over it. Otherwise, you are them!
First person told me about how a son of a PO got out of paying for damages to another vehicle because he called his dad to the scene of the crime.
The second person told me that a PO lied in the police report about an incident report. This happens quite a bit.
Obviously I can’t use names (heck you are not using your own) but trust me, it is reliable information.
I could care less about the incidents, I am just having trouble swallowing the police are perfect.
As for your comments about blogging. I don’t get paid for what I do, I do it for a hobby. If you really want to piss and moan about laziness in journalism, I suggest you complain to our local newspaper and TV stations (which apparently steal from our local newspaper). Unless in some way shape or form you are paying me to read my website, your snarkiness has no bearing. Who are you gonna file a complaint with? My HR department? My accountant? LOL!
Again DL, nobody is claiming the police are perfect. They aren’t, but you can’t use those official complaints as an indicator because if you actually take the time to review them you can quickly see how many of them are idiotic and totally without merit.
Officers aren’t infallible – and I don’t see anyone claiming they are. However your entire argument falls flat because you’re basing it upon one guy who told a story that you haven’t even bother to research, and a couple of other people who “told you” things. Why automatically assume they are telling the truth? What assures you their versions of events are any more accurate than an alternative version?
Let’s not kid ourselves. We know police screw up, but it doesn’t happen any more often than you or I, and SF is not a hotbed for massive police corruption.
Never said their was massive corruption. I have actually said they do a good job. I just struggle with the fact that they have only screwed up a few times in the past few years. That is such bullshit. On top of that, you defend them. All I am asking is that there is an investigative body LOCALLY that looks at it. I’m not asking them to be fired. Correcting mistakes and helping officers to understand why they made the mistake is a good thing. I’m not from the school of cookies and milk. If someone fucks up, I also don’t think they should be fired, they should be reprimanded and be trained to correct themselves. I don’t see this happening, especially when you seem to believe 4 complaints a year are founded is reasonable.
I refer you back to my earlier post #10: a panel comprised of citizens, legal, and law enforcement (active or retired) that operates similar to the Open Meetings Commission. Former AG Larry Long (now a M’haha County judge) first put that together.
“I just struggle with the fact that they have only screwed up a few times in the past few years.”
As is so often the case… the point continues to fly above your head.
Maybe it flew over your head?