Internal Affairs Sting Worked--Too Well

To root out corruption on the Long Beach police force, Chief Lawrence L. Binkley periodically set up stings of his officers.

One particularly memorable sting in 1988 was designed to catch an officer who was suspected of stealing money from suspects and others.

The sting scenario called for the patrolman to pick up a bag containing drugs and cash that had supposedly been found on the street by a resident.

But the dispatchers got mixed up and repeatedly sent other officers. Over a period of several weeks, four other officers were asked to fetch the purse.

And all four of them stole the cash, sting officers said.

“They had to stop it because they would have had to fire the whole Long Beach Police Department,” said Carlo Cudio, a Los Angeles police commander who was hired by Binkley as an Internal Affairs consultant and who heard of the sting from Binkley.

All four were fired, according to Binkley, who recently confirmed the incident.