Police Coverups, Conspiracies, and Cost to Taxpayers

Most of the private prison contracts in America require states to keep at least 90% of prison beds filled or pay a penalty to private, for-profit corporations.

Advocacy group In the Public Interest obtained and analyzed 62 contracts between states and local jurisdictions and private prison companies that govern the operation of 77 county and state-level facilities. Sixty-five percent contained occupancy requirements between 80 and 100%, with many around 90%. Arizona (100%), Louisiana (96%), Oklahoma (98%), and Virginia (95%) had the highest quotas.

“These contract clauses incentivize keeping prison beds filled,” wrote the study’s authors, “which runs counter to many states’ public policy goals of reducing the prison population and increasing efforts for inmate rehabilitation.” Regardless of crime rates and public safety needs, these contracts require jurisdictions to maintain current levels of mass incarceration or pay millions of dollars for unused beds.

In Colorado alone, where crime has dropped by a third in the past decade, quotas covering three private prisons have cost taxpayers $2 million.

Private Prison Quotas Drive Mass Incarceration and Deter Reform, Study Finds.




Two former Pennsylvania judges who orchestrated a scheme to send children to for-profit jails in exchange for kickbacks were ordered to pay more than $200 million to hundreds of people they victimized in one of the worst judicial scandals in U.S. history.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Conner awarded $106 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages to nearly 300 people in a long-running civil suit against the judges, writing the plaintiffs are "the tragic human casualties of a scandal of epic proportions."

In what came to be known as the kids-for-cash scandal, Mark Ciavarella and another judge, Michael Conahan, shut down a county-run juvenile detention center and accepted $2.8 million in illegal payments from the builder and co-owner of two for-profit lockups. Ciavarella, who presided over juvenile court, pushed a zero-tolerance policy that guaranteed large numbers of kids would be sent to PA Child Care and its sister facility, Western PA Child Care.

https://www.npr.org/2022/08/18/1118108084/michael-conahan-mark-ciavarella-kids-for-cash

 

Most everything in the OP in one video. Corruption, looking out for each other instead of doing what's right, living by a different set of rules, etc

What happens when one dept serves a search warrant for the property of sherrif of another dept?

What would happen if the police showed up at your door with a warrant for your phone? Would you be allowed to hand if off, not comply, try to have them removed from the property, and have your family members put their hands on an officer? Would it go down the same way? Would you be allowed to wonder around aimlessly.



And how do you square that with a search warrant for a phone for a non cop? Maybe this is jails why are full. This attorney should not have been arrested, at all, and was acquitted.

 

Chalk this one up to "Cost to Taxpayers" because all unmet quota penalties are paid for by the citizens.

 

I remember this story from a few years ago and I'm glad it's being looked into. Crazy that I got a disagree bacon on there being a culture issue, and this article comes out the same day I made the OP.

The demand came Friday in a letter sent by county Inspector General Max Huntsman to 35 deputies suspected of being members of either the Executioners, which operates out of the Compton station, or the Banditos, which operates out of the East L.A. station.

The Sheriff’s Department has long faced allegations about secretive deputy groups running amok in certain stations and jails, controlling command staff and promoting a culture of violence. A Loyola Marymount University report released in 2021 identified 18 such groups that have existed over the last five decades, including the Executioners and the Banditos.

Members of the former are alleged to sport tattoos of a skull with Nazi imagery and an AK-47, while members of the latter are allegedly known for their matching tattoos of a skeleton outfitted with a sombrero, bandoleer and pistol.

I mean honestly, who would trust these guys? Who are they most loyal to, themselves or the Oath that they took? Say you stand up for your rights, which cops seem to hate for some reason, and one of them roughs you up or performs a false arrest and there are 1 or more officers there with this same tattoo, who do you think they are going to back, you, the average citizen, or their brother in blue and possible fellow gang member? That's a no brainer.

 

Here's a follow up on this attempted cover up.

PCSO medic Doug Cullison and his amateur MMA fighter son, Nate Cullison, are accused of violently detaining and beating a man in September 2022. The investigation initially was dropped by the Pueblo Police Department, which later asserted that "technical issues" hampered the investigation.

In early April, the investigation was reopened after a video surfaced showing the Cullisons' violent takedown of a suspect accused of assaulting Doug Cullison's wife, a teacher at a nearby school.

Noeller told KRDO that the lack of investigation in September was not a "cover-up" related to Doug Cullison's position at the PCSO and was instead a series of judgment errors by all four officers at the scene.

Conti said police did not take the time to gather witness statements, despite the fact that there were multiple eyewitnesses as well as security camera footage showing exactly what happened. Conti claimed that one individual made several attempts to provide the surveillance footage to Pueblo police investigating the case but the detective did not follow up.

Pueblo police refer assault charges to DA in father and son's violent citizen's arrest

Not a cover up, just "A series of judgement errors by all four officers"... mmhmm

And circling back to what I said previously, they have all the investigatory tools and authority at hand, but won't do anything until someone leaks it to the publice. Hence, "the investigation was reopened after a video surfaced." Mmhmm, like clockwork.

It's also interesting now that the swat medic and son have had charges refered to that DA, the victim has also had his charges upgraded to the same as the medic/son. The victim is accused of punching a lady once, but later he was pinned down by a man while an MMA fighter punched and kicked him at least 25 times and sent him to the hospital. Yep, that definitely sounds like those charges should be the exactly the same...

 

I see as two types of people. People that actively want to make a difference in their communities and authoritarians. IMO, many of the type we need more of, the difference makers, are sucked into the culture and Blue Wall of Silence and limited in making a difference where it's needed.. in their own departments.

I had one beer too many around 2010 and got a DUI. I was just a hair over the limit, but I don't think I put anyone in danger. Got pulled over on my road, about 7 houses down from where I lived. I didn't use the turn lane properly to turn onto my road. I went from the right lane, to the left lane, to the turn lane. I used my signal but apparently I didn't stay in the left lane long enough before I transitioned to the turn lane.. Anyways, when I was being booked, I noticed several jailors that I went to high school with. Each and everyone of them were bullied in school. I have no evidence to prove it, but in my mind, I can't help but think that this a "retribution" job, and they are going to use their authority to the max.

 

The 25 most dangerous jobs in America (usatoday.com)

Nearly 5,200 people died from injuries they suffered on the job in 2021. That is more than in 2020, when COVID-19 shutdowns and layoffs kept many people away from the workplace, but a bit less than the total a year before the pandemic set in.

Workplace injuries have been on the decline over the decades as industries adopt new safety precautions and provide more training. But some professions remain far more dangerous than others.

USA TODAY used the federal statistics to rank the most dangerous private-industry jobs in America. We’ve included the 25 occupations with the highest death rates in 2021 but provide the full rankings in our database. Fatal injury rates were calculated only for job titles held by at least 20,000 people and that reported at least four fatalities.

1. Tree trimmers and pruners
2. Commercial pilots
3. Farm and ranch animal workers (including aquaculture)
4. Logging workers
5. Roofers
6. First-line supervisors of farming, fishing and forestry workers
7. Agricultural equipment operators
8. Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers
9. Underground mining machine operators
10. Farm equipment mechanics and service technicians
11. Sailors and marine oilers
12. First-line supervisors of landscaping, lawn service, and groundskeeping
workers
13. Personal service managers
14. Audiovisual equipment installers and repairers
15. Painters, construction and maintenance
16. Pumping station operators
17. Construction laborers
18. Electrical power line installers and repairers
19. Roustabouts, oil and gas
20. Maintenance workers, machinery
21. Excavating and loading machine and dragline operators, surface mining
22. Plasterers and stucco masons
23. Elevator and escalator installers and repairers
24. Farmworkers and laborers, crop, nursery, and greenhouse
25: Crane and tower operators

 

While I agree with much of your post, and appreciate it, it's not an all or nothing thing. We need police, no doubt. What we don't need is rogue agencies, the trampling of civil rights, and lack of accountability.

A light needs to be shined on this type of behavior or else nothing will be done about it. As you can see in my OP, at least a few folks think there is nothing wrong with the culture and policing in this country.

We need more whistleblowers and whistleblower protections. I can link stories of how whistleblowers are treated, from officers refusing to provide backup when requested by a whistleblower, leaving dead rats on the windshields of whistleblowers, departments conjuring up false charges on whistleblowers, to suspensions. If that doesn't scream culture problem, I don't know what does.

We need stiffer penalties for cops who break the law. How can you have faith in police when they do the same exact thing the arrest people for, but get significantly lower charges and sentences? How can you accept retaliation against members of the public when they file complaints?

Let's face it, they are a protected class. There is a specific rule against posting about it on this very forum.

 

Brookside Police Department

Is this serving and protecting the community, or predatory policing for profit? This one is definitely worth a read. The reporters on this story won Pulitzers.

Months of research and dozens of interviews by AL.com found that Brookside’s finances are rocket-fueled by tickets and aggressive policing. In a two-year period between 2018 and 2020 Brookside revenues from fines and forfeitures soared more than 640 percent and now make up half the city’s total income.

The town of 1,253 just north of Birmingham reported just 55 serious crimes to the state in the entire eight year period between 2011 and 2018 – none of them homicide or rape. But in 2018 it began building a police empire, hiring more and more officers to blanket its six miles of roads and mile-and-a-half jurisdiction on Interstate 22.

By 2020 Brookside made more misdemeanor arrests than it has residents. It went from towing 50 vehicles in 2018 to 789 in 2020 – each carrying fines. That’s a 1,478% increase, with 1.7 tows for every household in town.

Police stops soared between 2018 and 2020. Fines and forfeitures – seizures of cars during traffic stops, among other things – doubled from 2018 to 2019. In 2020 they came to $610,000. That’s 49% of the small town’s skyrocketing revenue. As more tickets brought in more money, the town began to spend much more. From 2018 to 2020, spending on police rose from $79,000 to $524,000, a 560% increase. The town’s administrative expenditures rose 40% and overall spending jumped 112%, from $553,000 in 2018 to $1.2 million in 2020.

Police in this tiny Alabama town suck drivers into legal ‘black hole’ - al.com

A town that had one full time police officer in 2018, 1,200 residents, and only had 55 serious crimes reported in an 8 year period now has this:



And These:



A town with no traffic lights collected enough money, almost $500, in fines in forfitures in 2020 to account for every man, woman, and child. They made 4.4 arrests per household. Just one of their police cars is marked, the other 9 have no emblems at all. The officers wear uniforms with no Brookside emblems.



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