In This Case, Narco Investigators Must Flash Their Cash

Huntington Beach narcotics investigators are absolutely right in saying they shouldn’t have to fill out personal financial statements as a condition of working the drug detail. It probably violates their right to privacy (whatever that means) and definitely insults their integrity.

Unfortunately for them, however, the police chief is also absolutely right in insisting that they do.

Tie goes to the chief.

The cops have filed a lawsuit against the department, trying to overturn the chief’s orders, but it’s one they ought to just tear up and forget about. There are times when you may be right on the principle of the thing but still wrong.

The narcotics cops could rightly argue that they’re being singled out, but they protesteth too much. Working narcotics already singles them out from the other cops because they’re potentially involved with big caches of both drugs and money. That’s temptation not faced by other cops, nor most other citizens and--sorry to break it to you, officers--the public quit believing in the tooth fairy and Easter bunny a long time ago.

We know police are only too human--heck, that’s the way we want them--which means they’re susceptible to temptation from all sorts of evils. When I see a nickel on the floor, I furtively look both ways then quickly snatch it up and hope nobody saw me. I shudder at what I’d be thinking if I was searching through some bad guy’s stash by myself in a room and came face to face with a handful of 20s. Especially if my kid’s birthday was coming up in two weeks.

All the chief is saying is that sometimes we need to be saved from ourselves.

In looking for culprits in all this, the narcotics cops don’t need to blame the chief, or anyone else for that matter. They need not look any further than their fellow officers in blue.

The public has been subjected to a steady diet from various area police departments about allegations of sex in the squad car, sexual harassment on the job, unreasonable force on the streets and on and on.

Granted, most of us are smart enough to figure out that that doesn’t mean all cops are bad apples, but neither do we blindly accept all as virtuous, just because they survived the police academy and got a job on a police force.

All we civilians are really looking for is an extra layer of assurance that the police are always on our side.

Whether a financial disclosure statement does that is an arguable point. Any cop planning to lift a few bucks or a few grams from the evidence room is smart enough to know how to conceal it. Driving into work on Monday in a Mercedes when you left work on Friday in a Dodge is probably not how they would do it.

So, the cops are right--a disclosure statement is not foolproof. It may be nothing more than symbolic. But it’s a little bit of evidence about who might be more susceptible to temptation and, therefore, better off not working narcotics.

One of my favorite underrated cop movies in recent years was “One Good Cop.” In it, Michael Keaton plays a street cop who takes in his dead pal’s three kids. Naturally, he wants them to have a nice house. So, when he runs into a drug dealer who tosses around hundred-dollar bills like confetti, the cop gets a great idea: He robs the drug dealer, buys the house and gives the rest of the money to the church.

Call me gullible, but it didn’t seem that outlandish to me. Besides, there wasn’t anyone in the theater who thought the cop shouldn’t have knocked off the drug dealer. That is, until we thought about it later and decided, Nah, cops shouldn’t be robbing people, even for a good cause.

Michael Keaton played a good guy and a good cop, who got worn down by seeing sleazeballs win too often. The Huntington Beach cops protesting the chief’s decision are probably good guys and good cops too. As such, they ought to understand where the chief is coming from: He’s not attacking their character; he’s just showing he understands human nature.

Any cop who doesn’t want to fill out the statement no doubt has the option of not working narcotics. So, where’s the beef?

There’s simply too much money, too many drugs floating around. Ergo, too much temptation.

My advice to the Huntington Beach cops: Grin and bear it.

If you can’t do that, suggestion No. 2:

Call the ACLU.

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.