Comments on: Frank’s Follies

By: Snark

Snark — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 01:04:53 +0000

A thousand years ago I researched polygraphs (to see if they should be administered to people working in the financial industry), and discovered that their accuracy was not much better than guessing.

That’s why they’re not admissible in court.

It’s a waste of time and money to use them to sniff out bad cops!

By: John Doe

John Doe — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:30:31 +0000

“I would like to know of those who were arrested, where were they on the hiring list, I’d bet a paycheck they went to the bottom of the list, passing over many other qualified individuals, in the name of affirmative action!”

Affirmative action, low pay, bad background checks, diversity at any costs, poor supervision, and greed will always equal bad cops. The worse these things are, the worse the cops will be.

Can anyone in the know shed some light on this: I once heard that IPD had a class (this would be late 90s) that was all African-American. I heard that Powell was part of this class. I also heard that many of the others in the class had gotten into trouble as well. Any truth to this?

As far a low pay and greed. We will always have folks who can’t live within their means. IMPD third year officers are going to $60K/year starting in 2011. When you add the take-home care at $7,000/year, that is $67K working your normal shift, no over-time, no off-duty. If you can’t live on that, you are either very, very greedy, or very bad with your money.

As far as hiring minorities, the department should resemble that of the city they serve. However, quality should not be put on the back burner just to appease race baiter types. I know some good minority officers and they hate when a bunch of minority officers end up with their faces all over the TV. Luckily we have had some white cops get thrown in with the mix. Now we are hearing the one guy who sold the gun to the felon is back in jail, because he violated release conditions.

Oh, and what is up with the background checks? I just now confirmed I went to high school with the escort service cop. I did not know him very well at all, but after high school, I found out through a friend of his, that he was involved in an escort business where ever he lived at the time. That was around seven years ago. I guess they just check for arrest and that’s it. Maybe it is time for intelligence units in this country to get on board with helping out with background checks. My guess is that there was something on this guy if he and his wife have been doing this for years, yet maybe never enough for an arrests. I also wonder what these personal references told the department? Surely some of them knew what this guy was doing, or what he had done in the past?

By: UNCLE SAM

UNCLE SAM — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:42:04 +0000

I would like to know of those who were arrested, where were they on the hiring list, I’d bet a paycheck they went to the bottom of the list, passing over many other qualified individuals, in the name of affirmative action!

By: David Myers

David Myers — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:54:07 +0000

Fipper, the ccc ethics investigation into sweet pea’s corrupt deeds has almost died. There was three hearings on the subject but no one seem to be interested from the public. The only way is to email the CCC about this matter to get the ball rolllng again. The Star was the only reporter to show even thur the media knew about it. Even our own Abdul knew of the meeting but did not show.

By: Muckraker

Muckraker — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 02:13:12 +0000

Disgusted: how about the fact that Myron was recommended for termination by supervisors…disciplinary action by supervisors, yet Chief James Toler made it all go away, it never happened.

-As many said: He’d have to kill somebody to get fired…well, he participated in it.

By: Disgusted

Disgusted — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 01:10:25 +0000

Comment #5 brought up Myron Powell…..So far I have not seen reference that Myron Powell was step-father to James Davis. “Apple does not fall far from the tree”.

By: flipper

flipper — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:06:45 +0000

Speaking of Pea Shakes. What ever happens to all the people who get arrested at the pea shake houses? Does Brizzi let them out the back door of the prosecuter’s office. Why don’t we ever hear of them going on trial?
Now to the king of the Pea Shakes. What ever happened to the CCC ethics investigation into Sweet Pea’s corrupt deeds?

By: Shorebreak

Shorebreak — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:42:28 +0000

What I’d like to know is what it’s gonna take to get IMPD to shut down the illegal peashakes and to indict those who are impeding their shutdown.
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Years ago, I moved into a temporary apt. in another city and soon discovered that the level of foot traffic on my floor was highly unusual. It was a secure building in a great neighborhood, in a nice city. It turned out that a neighboring apt. was home to several “in call” escorts.
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I called the police to report the activity (for obvious security reasons) and was assured that something would be done. After a week, the activity was the same. I called again and was promised action. Another week and no change. I called again and told the detective that I want him to show up with copies of my initial reports, and that I wanted to file another report. He showed up and hung around to “observe” activity, watching several arrivals and departures over the course of a few hours. He promised immediate action.
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A week later, nothing else had been done. I got on the horn with the chief of police, gave him the report #’s, explained the background, the empty promises, and that the dept. has 24 hours to respond before I go to the media with all of the details. My wife told me about the police raid of the property the next afternoon. Local news picked up the story and the police came out looking like an effective organization.
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It’s too bad IMPD doesn’t have that kind of leadership.

By: Really

Really — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:41:02 +0000

I will disagree. Couple of issues have come into play, directly and indirectly. It is my understanding that there has been a push/concerted effort to hire 1. minorities and 2. ex-military. Reasoning. Minorities in order to stay compliant with various laws,regulations,etc.. and to prevent lawsuits based on race. Former military because the belief is they bring a sense of self discipline about themselves plus well we are at war with terrorism, drugs, etc… And who better to fight a war than the military. I am not going to say that college educated pukes would not have done these acts or non minorities as well. What it comes down to is this…The qualifications (hiring process) to become a police officer are lax, outdated or not being adhered too within IMPD/IPD/MCSD. Funny how people selectively forget Myron Powell and how he was a Goldsmith hire.

By: Rugger

Rugger — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:20:46 +0000

While it may be possible that the culture within IMPD is changing now that the department is under the mayor’s office I would not go so far as to say that Ballard is the reason this mess is being cleaned up. You have to remember that the Feds where the ones running the investigation of the 3 officers shaking down drug dealers and the 1 officer selling guns to known felons. I highly doubt Ballard know about these investigations until right before the arrests were made. It is quite an overstatement to say this was all Ballards doing. However, I will concede that officers on the department may be more willing to cross the thin blue line to report miss-doings of others within the department.