This Again?

Imagine if we held politicians to the same standards:

• More than 100 Chicago police officers found to have a history of making false reports were not fired as a result of "structural failures" inside the department, according to a report by the city's Inspector General.

  Some of those officers instead have been promoted many times over.

  Members of the City Council Ethics Committee were briefed on that May report on Thursday.

  Many times the officers' infractions were expunged from records, which could open the city up to future liability if an officer with a false police report allegation is called to testify in court. It could put their judgment, the reputation of CPD, and the case being brought against a defendant into question.

  Inside CPD is what's called Rule 14, prohibiting officers from making a false report.

We covered this years ago. Whenever OPS then IPRA now COPA used to sustain a CR investigation, they automatically attached a Rule 14 violation to every sustained finding. Their argument was, "Since we found the Officer guilty, then he must have lied in his statements."

Which is bullshit. 

Let's say someone alleges that they got beaten by an Officer, and the Officer says he used physical force to detain/restrain the offender. The Monday Morning quarterback crew flies in and decides the Use of Force wasn't justified and issues a Sustained finding. The Officer admitted he used physical force, but he had a different interpretation of events. 

That isn't a Rule 14 violation. A lie would be, "I never touched him" and there's camera and eyewitness testimony to the contrary. A lie requires conscious decision to impede a finding, not an administrative asswipe claiming, "He must have lied or we wouldn't have found him guilty!"

And everyone knows a sustained finding sticks around for at least seven years. During those years, you can perform many police functions. But some are out of bounds like being the  Affiant on a Search Warrant. No, sorry, you aren't going to be spending time in certain investigatory units. You might be spending a lot of time in an office in front of a computer, but unemployment based on a crap investigation and an even crappier finding?