Policing the police

Re “A bad way to lose good cops,” Opinion, Dec. 19

Celeste Fremon speaks highly of Los Angeles police officers. How soon she has forgotten the 27 L.A. sheriff’s narcotics officers convicted in 1994 of stealing property and money. Narcotics officers routinely encounter situations in which there are large amounts of unrecorded cash and no one but their buddies to help them count it. Drug dealers may be bloody and bruised by the time they get to jail, but their cash will be properly turned in, Fremon assures us. Pardon me if I don’t share her faith. The fact is that corruption is endemic in the enforcement of the drug laws. Many people who have cash and property seized are never charged with a crime. That kind of corruption is apparently acceptable because the individual cops didn’t take it for themselves. They turn it over to the department. The California Bar Assn. has reported that many police departments are dependent on drug-related seizures for basic budget items. Can we have something besides Fremon’s word to guarantee their honesty? It seems her presumptions aren’t always valid.

Clifford A. Schaffer

Agua Dulce

The writer is the director of the Schaffer Library of Drug Policy.

It is hard to understand why police officers always get the short end of the stick. A small percentage of any police force is unethical, yet the whole rank and file are scrutinized as though they all had something hidden up their sleeves. It is nice that the Los Angeles Police Department brass agreed to a provision that doesn’t affect them. Once again, the rank and file have no rights. How come the American Civil Liberties Union is not screaming mad? I think U.S. District Judge Gary A. Feess needs to rethink this provision. Has he ever heard of due process? Don’t these police officers have any rights?

Steve Velasquez

Chino Hills

Why should honest cops mind if we check their financial records? Many drug dealers claim that they were robbed of drugs and money by the police. Unlike ordinary victims, they cannot report such thefts because of their illegal drug dealing. Although some of these robbery claims are lies, there is too much smoke for there to be no fire somewhere.

Considering the many opportunities that cops have to steal, it makes sense to keep a close eye on them. The only way to keep cops honest is constant scrutiny. Being sworn to uphold the law, police officers should have no objections to proving their honesty from time to time. Exposing their financial records would provide a bulwark against the kind of police corruption that spoils community relations and puts a blot on every cop carrying a badge. Putting police officers in a special category immune from oversight is an invitation to corruption.

Ralph Givens

Daly City, Calif.