November 18, 2003
More On The Strange World Of Police Discipline
So it was peculiar enough that an officer with false expenses will be fired while another officer whose actions helped lead to a civilian death was merely suspended.
In today's Oregonian, Steve Duin compared the firing-for-expenses to a story in that paper this weekend about an "11-month Portland Police Bureau internal investigation, obtained by The Oregonian, [which] provides the first detailed looked at how far some officers and their supervisors went to protect their colleagues instead of investigating a crime."
As Duin puts the comparison:
All you need to know about the priorities and ethics of the Portland Police Bureau was bared this past weekend.
There is no room in this curious culture for Capt. C.W. Jensen, who filed a bogus expense account. But there's plenty of shelter at the ol' frat house for a half-dozen cops who helped cover up what a grand jury called "an aggravated felony assault by two off-duty officers."
The original Oregonian article is a must-read. And, as Duin puts it: "The culture of the Police Bureau ... requires serious reform. ... But all too often, the conscientious objectors are shunned or overwhelmed by a community that is painfully slow to police itself."
To make is all weirder still (if that's even possible), there's today's column by Phil Stanford in the Portland Tribune, which tells the tale of a KGW story -- aired when the officer to be fired for expense discrepancies worked at the station -- critical of a then-commander who is now the assistant chief recommending the officer (now back at the Bureau) be fired.