McNamara on Cops

Joseph McNamara’s article, “America’s Plague of Bad Cops” (Opinion, Sept. 17), contains another example of opinion based on philosophy and not experience or fact.

McNamara’s support for his statement that more and more police officers are going bad or that criminality is increasing among the police is weak at best. He submits that the police administrators’ defense for bad officers is that there are very few bad cops when looking at the “400,000 cops nationwide.” How many officers are charged, let alone, convicted of crimes, compared to the total number of officers? Probably a lesser percentage than politicians, doctors, lawyers and priests.

McNamara uses the LAPD for an example and declares, with what insight I do not know, that the “Los Angeles Police Department is probably the most arrest-happy department in the country.” Excuse me, sir, but the majority of taxpayers expect police officers to arrest bad guys. That is their job and I believe that we (I am a 22-year veteran and still going) are doing an outstanding job, considering that we are the smallest major metropolitan police department in the U.S.

McNamara provides a contrast to the LAPD with examples of unnamed police departments that “send drunks home, overlook minor violations and seek to keep the streets calm without resorting to arrest.” That sounds nice and fluffy but he failed to tell you about the people that the drunk kills, maims, beats, threatens, etc., when he gets home.

The majority of society knows who the bad guys are and they know what they want from the police. The same goes for the poor neighborhoods; the majority living in those neighborhoods would like to see a police officer on every corner.

MARK J. SAVALLA

LAPD