Sex Offender Arrested After Woman’s Body Found in Trunk During Traffic Stop

According to Q13 News (September 26, 2018) Portland police arrested a registered sex offender after officers discovered a body in a car trunk. Investigators believe the victim is “likely” that of a missing 89-year-old woman.

Marcine Herinck was reported missing on September 19th from her home in northeast Portland. Volunteers and authorities had been searching for Herinck for several days around her neighborhood.

Police said information developed Monday identified 58-year-old Timothy J. Mackley as a person of interest in Herinck’s disappearance. The body was found in Mackley’s trunk during a Tuesday traffic stop.

Mackley was arrested for murder. Mackley is registered as a Level 3 sex offender, according to the State of Oregon Sex Offender Inquiry System.
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I recently posted about the concerns neighborhoods have with high-risk sex offenders living in their communities. These violent criminals pose a clear risk to public safety.

If you are getting on in years, or know someone who is, consider the importance of personal protection for senior citizens. Arming the Elderly: A Self-Defense Guide for Senior Citizens provides some tips worth considering.

 

Facebook Ad Preferences

Go to Facebook - Settings - Ads - Advertisers you've interacted with...

When you share information like your phone number or email address with a business, they might add it to a customer list that can be matched to your Facebook profile.

Facebook can then try to match the ad to the most relevant audience. (Target ads to you on your Facebook page).

You may have shared your information with these businesses by:

• Signing up for an email newsletter
• Making purchases at retail stores
• Signing up for a coupon or discount

Delete advertisers from the Facebook Ad Preferences section to limit their ability to associate your personal information with your Facebook profile.

 

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Apple and Firefox Tools Aim to Thwart Facebook and Google Tracking

Facebook and other companies routinely track your online surfing habits to better target ads at you. Two web browsers now want to help you fight back in what's becoming an escalating privacy arms race.

New protections in Apple's Safari and Mozilla's Firefox browsers aim to prevent companies from turning "cookie" data files used to store sign-in details and preferences into broader trackers that take note of what you read, watch and research on other sites.

Lance Cottrell, creator of the privacy service Anonymizer, said Apple's effort was particularly significant, as it takes aim at a technique developed by tracking companies to override users' attempts to delete their cookies.

Safari makes these protections automatic in updates coming this week to iPhones and iPads and a week later to Mac computers. Firefox has similar protections on Apple mobile devices and is rolling out them out to personal computers in the coming months.

To get the protections, you'll have to break your habit of using Google's Chrome browser, which by some estimates has more than half of the worldwide browser usage. Safari and Firefox have less than 20 percent combined.  (The Olympian, September 14, 2018)
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It's Meth, Not Opioids, That Holds Power in the US, And The Numbers Are Rising

The opioid epidemic dominates headlines across the country but it is crystal meth that still holds the power.

"Meth continues to be a problem despite the fact there are fewer clandestine labs," said Barbara Carreno, spokesperson for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) headquarters.

So far in 2018, Customs and Border Patrol’s Office of Field Operations have seized over 67,000 pounds of meth. Around 14,000 pounds was seized in all of 2012.

"Demand for meth is still there, it's just being supplied almost exclusively by the Mexicans," Carreno said.

About 30 percent of law enforcement agencies that responded to the 2017 National Drug Threat Assessment by the DEA said meth was the greatest threat to their community.

Nearly the same percentage said meth was the drug that takes up the most law enforcement resources. Heroin was the highest with 36 percent of responding agencies.

But in terms of numbers of deaths, opioid overdoses are still in the lead. Over 60,000 people died of an overdose related to opioids in 2017, while there were just over 10,700 drug overdoses involving meth, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Meth is not getting a highlight because it's not killing as many people as the opioid crisis is. A meth user usually doesn't overdose and die from methamphetamine. (Circa, September 19, 2018)
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Soldier Gets Jail Time in Chlorine Gas Bombing at Installation’s Gates

A former Fort Polk soldier was sentenced to 135 months on Monday for the creation of a chlorine bomb he detonated outside of the installation’s gates last year, injuring investigators at the scene.

Ryan Keith Taylor, 25, was sentenced by a federal judge in Lafayette to the maximum sentence of just over 11 years after accepting a plea deal in June for producing, possessing and using a chemical weapon in violation of federal law. He will also receive five years of supervised release.

U.S. Attorney David C. Joseph said in a news release announcing the sentence that the chemical weapon Taylor created is banned under international and national laws “because of its terrible effects on the human body.”

Child pornography images were also found inside Taylor’s apartment in New Llano during a search conducted after the incident on April 12, 2017, by Vernon Parish detectives and members of the FBI and the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command, however those charges were dropped in accordance with the plea deal.  (American Press, September 26, 2018)

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According to a report by CNN (September 25, 2018) Taylor detonated the bomb on the morning of April 12, 2017, in the Kisatchie National Forest beside the Fort Polk Army base, according to his guilty plea. Three soldiers in the middle of a training exercise nearby heard the blast and found Taylor filming the explosion with his cell phone. The soldiers questioned Taylor and told military police who arrived on scene to investigate, according to the Justice Department.

As police collected samples, one investigator put a rock covered in an unknown substance in a bag, which immediately popped. The investigator's plastic gloves and boots began to melt, his skin began to burn and he had trouble breathing, the Justice Department said in its release.

Taylor was detained and his vehicle was searched, the release said. Investigators found remnants of the bomb and chlorine residue in the car. Law enforcement agents ultimately found bomb-making notes, materials and chemical residue in Taylor's vehicle, apartment and storage building, the Justice Department said.

Taylor did not detonate a bomb at the gates of Fort Polk, but was instead playing with these devices in the Kisatchie National Forest. Military Police apprehended Taylor, and triggered the release of chlorine gas when they mishandled the device / chemicals that Taylor had in his vehicle.

The military police officers who were affected by the gas suffered permanent injuries (severe lung damage).

In any case where explosives or chemical devices are suspected it is essential that EOD and/or chemical DECON personnel be called to the scene.

A 2010 bulletin from the Vermont Fusion Center explains the danger of these devices, and how easy they are to construct.

Chronic Pain Sufferers Say Pain Medication Rules Unfair

A small rally was held Tuesday outside the University of Washington Medical Center. It was one of four rallies statewide -- and many more across the country -- to raise awareness of the difficulties patients with chronic debilitating pain are dealing with now that the U.S. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on prescribing pain meds are causing doctors to scale down or eliminate opioid medications that people like her say they need to function.

"The CDC has never seen my medical records, they have never examined me. They have no right to change my prescription," says Micki Forrester, who added that she use to have a vigorous and active lifestyle before her disease showed itself in 2007.

Forrester says she understands the new CDC guidelines came about from the national health crisis that has been emerging from the historic over-prescribing of pain medications. CDC numbers show that more than 350,000 Americans died from prescription and illegal opioids between 2009 and 2016. But, Forrester says the new 2016 guidelines are too strict and put bureaucrats between her and her doctor.  (Q13 Fox News, September 18, 2018)

 

An April 26, 2018 article in the New England Journal of Medicine stated that 'a flood of new prescribing rules severely limits physicians options and burdens them with extensive administrative hurdles. “Drugs are being denied by insurance companies” and pharmacies aren’t stocking sufficient quantities of opioids, leaving our staff to go through a lot of paperwork, so there are wait times, said Sue Glod, MD, a palliative medicine specialist at Penn State College of Medicine.
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This is a battle between physicians being able to treat patients and prescribe needed drugs, and big government wanting to control opioid abuse, and control the lives of each individual citizen needing medication to help control severe and chronic pain.

The CDC has stated "Prescription opioids are often used to treat chronic and acute pain and, when used appropriately, can be an important component of treatment. However, serious risks are associated with their use, and it is essential to carefully consider the risks of using prescription opioids alongside their benefits. These risks include misuse, opioid use disorder (addiction), overdoses, and death."

Opioid abuse is an issue that should be addressed, but not at the expense of allowing physicians to properly and effectively treat their patients.

 

 

Using Fax to Exploit a Computer Network

Believe it or not, but your fax number is literally enough for a hacker to gain complete control over the printer and possibly infiltrate the rest of the network connected to it.

Check Point researchers have revealed details of two critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerabilities they discovered in the communication protocols used in tens of millions of fax machines globally.

You might be thinking who uses Fax these days!

Well, Fax is not a thing of the past. With more than 300 million fax numbers and 45 million fax machines are in use globally, Fax is still popular among several business organizations, regulators, lawyers, bankers, government agencies, and hospitals / medical service providers.

Since most fax machines are today integrated into all-in-one printers, connected to a WiFi network and PSTN phone line, a remote attacker can simply send a specially-crafted image file via fax to exploit the reported vulnerabilities and seize control of an enterprise or home network.

All the attacker needs to exploit these vulnerabilities is a Fax number, which can be easily found simply by browsing a corporate website or requesting it directly.

This RCE attack is explained in this short YouTube video.

The mitigation to this vulnerability is to keep your fax machines separate from your computer network. This same vulnerability exists with printers as well.

National Cyber Strategy - September 2018

The White House has published the National Cyber Strategy, aimed at strengthening America’s cyber-security capabilities.

"The new national cyber strategy is a great step forward and demonstrates a thoughtful interagency approach to protecting national prosperity and security in our information-enabled world. It builds upon the lessons learned from previous administrations and presents a solid approach to managing cyber risk," said Brigadier General Gregory J. Touhill (ret.)

The four primary pillars of the strategy are protecting the American people and their way of life, promoting American prosperity, preserving peace through strength and advancing American influence abroad.
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Sexual Predators Stalking Children in On-Line Games like Fortnite and Minecraft

According to NJ.Com (September 24, 2018) state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal warned the public that people looking to take advantage of young teens and children have more options to do so than ever due to the ever-developing landscape of internet communication.

Authorities say, some phone apps have opened even more channels of communication between adult predators and minors -- including some video games like Fortnite and Minecraft.

"It is a frightening reality that sexual predators are lurking on social media, ready to strike if they find a child who is vulnerable," Grewal said in describing how 24 arrested suspects were attempting to lure and elicit sex with teenagers.

The suspects, all men, varied in age and walks of life.

But Grewal said most were taking advantage of a multitude of apps allowing them to reach out to children, or in this case, undercover detectives.

Arrests of alleged child predators have been made after communicating through apps like Kik, Wishbone, Tumblr and even video games like Fortnite, Minecraft and Discord.
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US CERT provides some tips for Keeping Children Safe Online

Should You Vote YES or NO on I-940?

On May 23, 2013, Annalesa Thomas warned her son Leonard that she would call the police if he didn’t hand over her 4-year-old grandson Elijah. Hours later, 27 Pierce County police officers, two SWAT trucks and a sniper arrived at their home in Fife, a small town of about 9,000 residents in Washington State near the much larger city of Tacoma. The massive police presence came despite the fact that Leonard was unarmed.

A four-hour standoff ensued: according to the police, Leonard, 30, had snatched the phone from Annalesa when she first tried to call 911 and held Elijah against the child’s will. Annalesa, however, had told the police that she called for help simply because she did not want Elijah be watched by Leonard, who struggled with alcoholism.

Near the end of the standoff, police struck a deal with Leonard in which he would hand over Elijah and the officers would leave. As police raided Leonard’s house, he panicked, grabbing Elijah. Watching the scene unfold, a sniper then fired a .308 caliber round into Leonard’s waist.
Leonard bled out on the floor just inside the home, clinging to Elijah as police pulled his son from his arms. “Don’t hurt my boy,” Leonard told the police. Those were his last words, Annalesa told The Appeal.

On July 14, 2017, a jury in federal district court awarded Leonard’s family $15 million in civil damages, one of the largest sums awarded in a civil suit over a police killing in Washington history (after an appeal of the verdict, the Thomas family agreed to settle their wrongful-death and civil-rights lawsuit for $13 million). Elijah Thomas, now 10 years old, told reporters after the verdict that he believed his father was simply “trying to protect me.”

Despite the verdict and public outrage over Leonard’s death and others wrongfully killed by police, including protests, no officers were criminally charged in the case. But this is not an unusual outcome in Washington, where an officer may not be found criminally liable if he or she acted “without malice” according to state law. The legislation was passed in 1986 by lawmakers who were concerned about insufficient protections for the police after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1985 in Tennessee v. Garner that it was unconstitutional to use deadly force against an unarmed suspect fleeing arrest. But because of the law, no officer in the state has been convicted of wrongfully killing someone in the line of duty in more than 30 years. The sole homicide case against a Washington officer was brought in Snohomish County in 2009 when Everett police Officer Troy Meade shot a suspected drunk driver in the back, killing him. Despite another officer testifying against his colleague’s excessive use of force, a jury acquitted Meade of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter.

“It’s difficult to prosecute a police officer, and it should be, but today it’s impossible,” King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg told The Appeal. “That’s been the result of our legal analysis in every police shooting we’ve ever had.”  (The Appeal, September 20, 2018)

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I have posted about this case and I-940 on August 30, 2018 and on September 9, 2018. There is a lot of debate about I-940. Is it good law? Is it bad? Does WA State really need to change the way it investigates officer involved shooting?

Do we want to make it easier for an "anti-cop" jury to convict an officer for doing his or her job? Can we expect a jury to return a fair verdict when it has weeks or months to make a decision, yet the officer on the street had only seconds to make a life and death decision?

If police officers know that they may be prosecuted and face homicide charges following an officer involved shooting, won't they hesitate to use deadly force to protect themselves and others in the community?

If we, as a community, expect police officers to put their own lives at risk to protect the community they serve, shouldn't we as a community protect those officers from criminal prosecution when they are forced to  kill someone in the line of duty?

I can't tell you how to vote on I-940 this fall. What I can tell you is that this is an important issue that directly affects the safety of our police officers and our communities. Take time to consider all of the issues surrounding I-940 and make an informed and considered vote on this issue.

 

 

China's 'Super Aggressive' Spy Campaign on LinkedIn

Reuters News Service reported on August 31, 2018 that the United States’ top spy catcher said Chinese espionage agencies are using fake LinkedIn accounts to try to recruit Americans with access to government and commercial secrets.

The Chinese campaign includes contacting thousands of LinkedIn members at a time, but he declined to say how many fake accounts U.S. intelligence had discovered, how many Americans may have been contacted and how much success China has had in the recruitment drive.

German and British authorities have previously warned their citizens that Beijing is using LinkedIn to try to recruit them as spies. But this is the first time a U.S. official has publicly discussed the challenge in the United States and indicated it is a bigger problem than previously known.

U.S. officials said China’s Ministry of State Security has “co-optees” - individuals who are not employed by intelligence agencies but work with them - set up fake accounts to approach potential recruits.

Chinese intelligence uses bribery or phony business propositions in its recruitment efforts. Academics and scientists, for example, are offered payment for scholarly or professional papers and, in some cases, are later asked or pressured to pass on U.S. government or commercial secrets.
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Unfortunately, many don't realize that LinkedIn is just another form of social media, and one that allows unfettered access to the information individuals post on it. Given that it is used to "manage your professional identity. Build and engage with your professional network. Access knowledge, insights and opportunities," it comes as no surprise that it is a wealth of sensitive information that would be of interest to a foreign intelligence service.

JBLM Officials Are Investigating the Death of Another Soldier On-Post

Joint Base Lewis-McChord officials found SPC. Matthew Pollock, 25, of Grand Junction, Colorado, dead in his personal vehicle parked at Sequalitchew Lake, Sept. 18

Pollock enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2014, he has served as a radio communications security repairer in 5th Battalion 3rd Field Artillery since July 2016.  (Tacoma Weekly, September 20, 2018)

 

 

The number of recent deaths of JBLM Service Members is concerning. In August 2018, three JBLM Soldiers were found dead in separate cases. The death of SPC Pollock adds one more Soldier to the JBLM death toll.

 

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of SPC Pollock and to the families of the other Soldiers who have recently died at JBLM.

 

 

Seattle Court Agrees to Clear Past Marijuana Convictions

Judges in Seattle have agreed to clear past misdemeanor convictions for pot possession that were prosecuted before marijuana was legalized in Washington state.

The Seattle Times reports that all seven judges of the Seattle Municipal Court signed an order Sept. 11 setting out a process for vacating the cases.

City Attorney Pete Holmes filed a motion in April asking the court to vacate the convictions. He argued that possessing small amounts of marijuana is no longer illegal and clearing past convictions would right the injustices of a drug war that targeted people of color.

About 542 people could be affected. The ruling covers from about 1996 - when municipal courts, rather than county district courts, began handling those misdemeanors - to 2010 when Holmes became city attorney and stopped prosecuting low-level pot cases entirely.
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Seattle Municipal Court web-site explains what vacating a record means:

Vacating a conviction for a misdemeanor crime means the court determines you meet certain conditions and orders. If you pled guilty to a crime, your plea will be changed to not guilty and then the charges are dismissed. If you were found guilty, the court may set aside the conviction, dismiss the case and vacate the judgment and sentence.

If your record is vacated, your name, the case number, the charge, a "V" for vacated, and, "DV" if the file was related to domestic violence will still show up in the court's information system and online portal. Vacating a record does not remove information from the court's electronic record. The record will remain and is public. The record will be updated to contain information about the vacation of the record.

If you were arrested and fingerprinted, these records are maintained by the arresting agency, the Washington State Patrol and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Cell Phone Video Shows a Yakima Police Officer Kicking an Unruly Teen

Yakima police are reviewing an officer’s use of force when breaking up a fight Sunday night at the Central Washington State Fair.

A video posted on Facebook shows an officer kicking a teen boy to the ground after he had been sprayed with pepper spray.

The video shows several youth running from the area while a few remain fighting. Then one of the teens appears disoriented, rubbing his eyes while officers order him to get on the ground.

That’s when an officer is shown thrusting a kick into the boy’s backside, sending him to the pavement.

It’s not clear what may have led up to the officer kicking the boy, said interim Chief Gary Jones.
Such a brief video may not provide an accurate account of the entire incident, he said.

“Anytime you only see a snippet of a video, you’ve got to look at the totality of what was going on — what was going on around the officer” Jones said. “With a very short amount of video, it doesn’t give us all the information.”  (Seattle Times, September 24, 2018)
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As with many short videos posted to the Internet, it is hard to know the totality of the circumstances and what else is going on around the officer.

Perhaps this is an appropriate tactic for gaining control of a teenage subject who has just been pepper-sprayed?  Or... perhaps it is not? What is likely however is that we will see a civil lawsuit brought against the officer and his department as a result of this incident.

 

Techniques For Information Research

Techniques For Information Research (December 2017) is a 98 Page PDF document with useful resources for anyone conduction on-line research, OSINT, or other reporting and analysis of data.

The guide is free, provided under a Creative Common License: "The work may be freely distributed or modified for commercial or non commercial purposes."

- Understanding Internet Search Techniques
- Search Engine Manipulation
- Open Source Intelligence Resource Publications
- Specialized Information Resources
- Manipulating Data In Documents
- Specialized Software
- Information Software
- Data Mining
- Firefox Web Browser Related
- RSS Feed Reader
- Monitor Events In Real Time
- Real Time Global Trend Information
- Maps And Satellite Imagery
- Visualize Social Media Connections
- Online Remote Radio Monitoring
- Information Research Tools and Resources
- Search Engine Resources
- News
- National News Agencies
- Intergovernmental Organizations
- The Universal Language Of Mathematics
- Citations

State Can Still House Sex Offenders in Lakewood Family Homes, Judge says

A Pierce County judge ruled Friday that the state can still house sex offenders in 90 adult family homes in Lakewood, WA.

In May, the City of Lakewood filed a lawsuit against the State of Washington over the unsafe release of those with a criminal history or sexual offenses into the city.
 

State officials said there have been no reports of new sex crimes by offenders released into these adult family homes.  (KOMO 4 News, September 21, 2018)

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So, what is the risk of housing sex offenders in a community after they are released from prison? Is there a high recidivism rate - are these offenders likely to commit new crimes?

According to a New York study:

• 95.88% of arrests for all registerable sex crimes are of persons previously non-convicted of a sex offense.
• 95.94% of arrests for rape are of previous non sex-offenders.
• 94.12% of arrests for child molestation are of previous non sex-offenders.

(Sandler, Jeffrey C, et. Al., Does a Watched Pot Boil? A Time-Series Analysis of New York State’s Sex Offender Registration and Notification Law. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 2008 Vol. 14, No. 4, 290)

These results are closely parallel to figures compiled by the US Department of Justice that show that 93% of child sex abuse is committed by a person whom the child knows. In 47% of the cases, the perpetrator is a member of the family. Only 7% of offenses are committed by strangers.

Other studies show similar recidivism rates:

• Missouri DOC study of 2,777 sex offenders released from 1998-2007 found that the recidivism rate was 1.9% after 3 yrs.; 3.5% after 5 yrs.
• A Maine study tracked sex offender releases for 2004-2006 and reported a recidivism rate 3.8% in 3 yrs.
• A Connecticut Criminal Justice and Planning Division study of 746 offenders released in 2005 showed 3.6% re-arrests; 2.7% convictions over 5 years.

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While the probability of recidivism is low for sex offenders, the nature of these crimes increases the overall risk to the community, even with a low probability of occurrence. Of further concern is the concentrating of sex offenders in small geographic areas. This increase the likelihood of an event in the defined geographic area. Statistically we say,  When two events, A and B, are mutually exclusive, the probability that A or B will occur is the sum of the probability of each event. P(A or B) = P(A) + P(B).


The National Sex Offender Public Web-site allows users to search by name or location for registered sex offenders living in their community. It should be noted that this web-site only list sex offenders with an assessed moderate or high risk to the community (i.e. Level-II or Level-III).  

In WA State there are approximately 22,000 registered sex offenders. Of these around 3,500 are Level-II (Moderate Risk) and around 1,800 are Level-III (High Risk). There remainder are assessed as posing a low risk to the community, or do not yet have an assessed risk level.

Offender Watch will allow you to view maps of sex offenders living in your community, as well as to sign up for notifications if a sex offender registers to live in your neighborhood.

 

  

Google Quietly Bought Mastercard Credit and Debit Card Records

It’s common knowledge that Google knows when we click on ads. But now, it also knows what we buy in brick-and-mortar shops, due to a deal it cut with Mastercard to get our transaction histories. The offline credit card spending data gives Google an unprecedented advantage over competitors such as Amazon, by helping it track users’ offline spending in stores.

It’s unknown whether Google has struck similar deals with other payment companies, though one source said that it’s approached other credit card companies. What we do know is what Google has already bragged about: it claims to have access to about 70% of US credit and debit cards information, shared through partners, though it hasn’t named those partners. (Bloomberg, August 30, 2018)
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To protect your privacy make it a habit to spend cash as often as possible for point of sale (face-to-face) transactions. Whenever you use your credit / debit card to make a purchase you create a record of that financial transaction, along with a location record of where you were on the date and time the purchase was made.

For on-line purchases consider setting up a Privacy.Com account that lets you generate one-time-use debit card numbers, and mask your personal identity when making purchases.

JBLM Soldier Playing with Handgun Shoots Girlfriend in Lakewood

A Joint Base Lewis-McChord Soldier playing with a pistol shot and wounded his girlfriend Tuesday (September 18, 2018) in Lakewood, according to Pierce County prosecutors.

The 21-year-old was charged Thursday with one count of third-degree assault and released on his own recognizance with orders to live on base.

The Soldier is a specialist within the 7th Infantry Division.

The Soldier admitted he was playing with the gun and pointed it at his girlfriend, joking he was robbing her. He pulled the trigger, thinking the gun wasn’t loaded.

It was loaded, and the gun went off and shot his girlfriend.

(Tacoma News Tribune, September 18, 2018)
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So, a Soldier who has at least some training with firearms points his handgun at his girlfriend and pulls the trigger!  How is this an accident? He thought the gun was unloaded? He was just joking around... with a firearm?

JBLM Service Member Arrested on Suspicion of Second-Degree Attempted Murder in Yelm

A 31-year-old Yelm man was booked on Sunday into the Thurston County Jail on suspicion of second-degree attempted murder and two counts of reckless endangerment, according to Yelm police.

Officers responded about 4:40 a.m. to a report of shots fired during a domestic dispute in the 16000 block of Prairie Heights Road.

They found the 31-year-old man standing in the driveway, his hands in the air and holding a handgun, police said. He was taken into custody without incident.

Police said he had fired two rounds, one into the floor of the residence and one at his wife. She was able to get out of the house and call 911. Neighbors also reported the emergency.

In addition to police, a member of the man’s chain of command responded to the incident because he is active-duty military.  (The Olympian, September 23, 2018)

 

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California Police Uphold Few Complaints of Officer Misconduct

The LA Times (September 23, 2018) reported: Angry that she had been falsely accused of a drug crime, Tatiana Lopez filed a complaint against a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who had arrested her on suspicion of possessing methamphetamine.

But when Lopez met with a sheriff’s lieutenant to discuss her accusation, he urged her to drop her complaint. After a preliminary investigation, the Sheriff’s Department ruled the deputy had done nothing wrong, without giving her any explanation.

It would take years of legal battles before a judge exonerated Lopez and a new internal investigation led the department to fire the deputy for lying about her arrest.

Lopez is one of nearly 200,000 members of the public who filed a complaint against California law enforcement officers in the last decade. Her initial complaint ended the way most did — with police rejecting it without saying why.

A Times analysis of complaint data reported to the California Department of Justice shows law enforcement agencies across the state upheld 8.4% of complaints filed by members of the public from 2008 to 2017.

In a state with some of the strictest police privacy laws in the country, those who make complaints against officers are entitled to learn little more than whether their allegations were found to be true or not. They are given no other explanation about how a final decision was reached, what was done to investigate their allegation or whether an officer was disciplined.

Police officials argue that a large number of the complaints they receive are frivolous, filed by suspects they have arrested or others who have an ax to grind. Some said the proliferation of body-worn cameras among California police agencies has helped disprove a larger number of allegations about interactions between police and the public.
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So, what do these numbers tell us? Well, the average number of complaints filed against California police officers per year was 20,000 of which 8.4% or 1,680 were found by police internal investigation to have merit. California has roughly 77,000 sworn law enforcement officers (with full arrest powers). So, in any given year, 2% of California police officers had a founded complaint of misconduct conduct filed against them... or put another way 98% of California police did their jobs without out any founded complaints against them.

The question then is whether 92% of citizen's complaints against police in California are frivolous? There certainly are documented cases of police misconduct, as we saw with the above case of Tatiana Lopez, and in reports such as:  An LAPD officer accidentally filmed himself putting cocaine in a suspect’s wallet. But how many more complaints are just because someone has an ax to grind with the police?

How many videos and pictures of police misconduct, posted on-line, have more to the story than what we see? The picture, at the top of this post, of a police officer beating a black man with a sap is horrific police misconduct... except that it never happened. The photo is really actor Woody Harrelson filming a violent scene in Downtown Los Angeles for the movie "Rampart".

Does police misconduct occur? Yes, of course. Police departments are made up of people and sometimes people make mistakes, or even intentionally commit crimes. Is police misconduct common? No! And when we consider the repeated number of contacts that any police officer has with members of the public in any given year, police misconduct is far less common than even the 2% of founded cases mentioned above.