Folks in Blue Caught Red-Faced

By: Mr. Wilson on April 1, 2010
Twenty-eight LPD cops will be suspended without pay for watching videos while on duty. All of the officers were part of the overnight shift. Their suspensions will be served on an extended, staggered basis so that LPD doesn't run into staffing shortages. I'm speechless. Not because cops would do such a thing. (Employees slacking off while on the clock? No! Never happens!) No, I'm speechless because of the punishment. We live in a city where watching YouTube is enough to get a police officer a pretty harsh reprimand. If you don't appreciate how nifty that is you don't read enough news. There are oodles of police departments around the country in which this series of incidents wouldn't have caused so much as a flinch. There are departments where misconduct -- serious, right-infringing, public-harming misconduct -- goes unpunished or gets covered up. Cops buy and use drugs, ignore crimes among certain populations, assault people, tamper with evidence, manufacture crimes, destroy property, and so on. Meanwhile, in Lincoln our police chief gives cops a real good smack upside the head for catching up on their TV watching. Think about that. Neither Lincoln's police officers nor LPD are perfect, but damned if this response doesn't make me feel more -- not less -- confident in them.

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Michael Sauers
April 1, 2010 at 2:53PM

I don’t know all the details, and I’m sure you don’t either, but if it was just a cop or two watching a five minute YouTube video once or twice a shift, I’d be ok with that as that’s how work-life is these days. But from the sounds of it there were whole groups, who should have been out patrolling, sitting around computers and watching DVDs and Netflix. That’s a bit much.

Michael Sauers
April 1, 2010 at 3:01PM

Ok, I totally mis-read your final paragraph… My bad. If you could delete my comment I’d totally appreciate it.

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