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tfrazier wrote:

flintknapper wrote:tfrazier wrote:

Like a salty old sergeant at Greenville P.D. told me when he was blemishing my beautiful stack of commendations with my first reprimand, "Get over it. If you don't have a stack of reprimands at least as thick as your stack of commendations, you ain't been doing your job."

I'm guessing the sergeant said that more for your benefit than anything else. Surely, he does not support the practice of poor performance (the basis of the reprimand) on a 50% scale as compared to good procedure. To say otherwise is to admit he "expects" behavior worthy of reprimand at least half the time from his officers. Worse yet, he condones it.

Well, anyone who has been in law enforcement any length of time, especially in a smaller department OR in a politically charged Sheriff's Office will probably agree that reprimands are not always appropriate, and are sometimes used to make an officer a scapegoat. Sergeants, Lieutenants, Captains, etc are human, too, and sometimes they lose their objectivity just like everyone else. Just like sometimes the commendations stack up for the "golden boy" who happens to be the Captain's son's best friend from high school.

And 50/50 reprimands vs. commendations is actually pretty believable if you work in a department where the top brass is regularly giving officers three-day suspensions without pay because they exceeded the "20 mph over the speed limit maximum" pursuit policy in chasing down an armed robber. Or ordering commanders to write up officers every time a released prisoner showed up claiming the officer put the hand cuffs on too tight, IMMEDIATELY after hearing the complaint and without giving the officer any opportunity to respond. That's the sort of thing that causes 30 of 32 officers to form the first ever patrolman's union in a town...and gets the K9 officer on the front page of the paper as the president. Having served under three different chiefs, two were outstanding. One gave me an indefinite suspension without pay (that means "fired" in Civil Service) because my dog chewed up the seat belts in the K9 unit and I refused to pay for them (that means I organized the troops and formed a union). Then I got fired again over trumped up stuff when they discovered it wasn't legal to fire me for not paying for the seat belts (meaning for forming a union). I was reinstated and received back pay. Twice. And I was still there when he turned in his resignation. So there you have it, the background on why I tend to so aggressively defend individual officers and try so hard to give them the benefit of the doubt.

But the point I'm trying to make over all is that I have suspicions that this whole episode may have been a bit unfair. The media vilification of this guy just nauseates me. He did a 'bad' thing...that doesn't automatically mean he is a bad person and should have his entire career destroyed.

And yes, I am a political conservative, and don't like to admit that I was once an AFL-CIO Union affiliate president, but when you need union attorneys, you need union attorneys.

I'd also like to add: Nobody gets better without making a few mistakes (except for the Originator of the "first stone" statement Charles quoted) and learning from those mistakes; even though the bar is justifiably raised when it comes to the law enforcement profession, people should consider the fact that these guys spend a lot of time putting themselves in harm's way.

If every cop was fired immediately for being rude to a citizen or using 'poor judgment', we'd be out of officers in record time.

Like a salty old sergeant at Greenville P.D. told me when he was blemishing my beautiful stack of commendations with my first reprimand, "Get over it. If you don't have a stack of reprimands at least as thick as your stack of commendations, you ain't been doing your job."

The job of a patrol officer is so full of split second decisions and legal complications nobody on the planet has the ability to do it perfectly all the time.

I'd be shocked if Powell hasn't done a lot of good things and even risked his life to help someone out over the past three years or so.

One 'uh-oh wipes out a thousand 'Attaboys!'...and nobody is digging for those facts anyway, are they?

At least Charles was smart enough to put on the flak vest...I forgot mine when I waded into this thread.

Charles L. Cotton wrote:I am sorry to see he resigned. I was critical of his actions in a prior post and I stand by my comments, especially as they refer to the negative impact on other Dallas PD Officers. I saw his interview last night on KHOU Ch. 11 and I accept his apology. He didn't try to justify his actions and he admitted that he acted poorly. He went on to say that he thought about how he would have felt if it had been his mother, and he would handle it differently if he had it to do over again. Unfortunately, none of us get a "do-over."

Many will claim his apology was not sincere, but an attempt to keep his job. Perhaps, perhaps not, none of us will know for sure. But that can be said about anyone's apology. What I saw was a 26 year old "kid" who has only been with DPD for three years. I suspect that he will never act that way towards a citizen again. I say this not based solely on the predicament he created for himself, but on my experience as recruiting director for the large firm I was with before starting my own law firm.

For ten years I was responsible for law clerks and "baby lawyers" in addition to my own law practice. Many of my partners would want to fire a "baby lawyer" that made a mistake, regardless of how remorseful they were about missing something. If I felt the person truly cared about screwing up, as opposed to a nonchalant attitude, then I wouldn't fire them on a first offense. People who make a mistake, especially a major one, are far less likely to do it again, if they truly care about their professionalism. I was seldom proven wrong by people who got the proverbial second chance.

I'm sure Officer Powell has learned a lot and he will either be a better officer because of it, or he will become bitter and his law enforcement career will be shortened. Too bad he won't get the chance to do it at Dallas PD. I'm sure a lot of my friends here on TexasCHLforum will think I'm being too soft on the officer, but if we were all drawn and quartered for our youthful mistakes, rather than being given an opportunity to learn from them and improve, few of us would be where we are in life. I remember well a comment I made to a judge when I was a baby lawyer that brought the "wrath of god" down on me and embarrassed the senior partner in our firm who was standing next to me at a hearing. The judge later became a good friend, the senior partner said "don't worry, your job is safe, but if you ever do that again I'll kill you!" I never did. For me, I guess it goes back to something said 2,000 years ago; "let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

Chas.

[flack vest on]

stevie_d_64 wrote:With the scrutiny Officer Powell has received from the media and the public, he should be concerned about his future in Law Enforcement...

The Dallas reporter that interviewed him recently rally hammered him...Those folks investigated him al the way back to his academy days...

A loose quote from a posting he made 18 days before he graduated says a lot...He was basically looking forward to finishing up his training, and getting out on the street to shoot people...

Which goes to show what you post on an internet accessable chat forums can and will find you again some day...And we have had a tremendous amount of discussion about that issue...

Officer Powell should get his day to explain further his conduct before, during and after this incident...That is the way it should be...And I would be appalled if he didn't before any punative action be taken on his ability to enforce the law in this state...

Law Enforcement is a tight community, and you guys and gals know I have my opinions about a lot of things, but you know I support the community 150%...

I bet I don't get an answer (publicly) to an ultimate gut-check question here:

"Would you work a shift with this guy, knowing what you know now, or may know before something like this could happen???"

Hindsight is 20/20, but this actually a pretty good lesson to be learned by anyone, regardless of experience...

Remember, both sides have communicated about this...Powell apologized, and looks to be intent on trying to save his job...Sincerity being needed to try and accomplish this obviously...Moats has accepted the apology (publicly), and stated it appeared to him to be sincere...
What is damning about this is the media is driving the bus now, and is pushing buttons that I do not believe need to be pushed...With the intent to get Powell fired, which may happen without their help...

Is Officer Powell salvagable???