Maybe I missed this, I wasn’t able to hear the entire report. Did anyone address the issue of why two command officers were ordered to leave the scene and report to the Chief for a press conference regarding the PSD?

I agree OMGWTF. If that’s the Chief’s excuse for still demoting the two officers, then the Chief and Straub are refusing to accept the blame for their lack of action.

Yes Ernie. Page 23 of the report specifically addresses this. IMO it’s enough to discredit the Chief from ever holding any leadership position in any field, ever again. When one prioritizes style (a press conference for ‘image rehabilitation’) over substance (one of your subordinates involved in a fatal crash, regardless of future subsequent factual situations involving the crash), then you effectively disqualify yourself to have the right to even Think you LEAD a body of people. At least they were honest about their nonfeasance, but the fact that they (PSD and Chief) stubbornly and defiantly opine that their stance that day was correct should give pause to anyone who thinks they belong in their positions, including their ultimate boss, Mayor Ballard.

Well anyone who has been around him knows that he is full of himself. One could conclude that as the reason for the look…..that, and since most of what comes out of his mouth is poo. Quite the back up in his system, unfortunately I don’t see any relief in his future.

“Both the Ed Zych of the Marion Prosecutor’s Office and IMPD’s Lt. George Crooks failed to keep the Department up to speed on changes in Indiana’s law regarding blood alcohol draws in crash scenes involving fatalities and police officers.”

If this denotes that it was lawful and procedurally correct to perform a breathalyzer on Bisard at the scene of the accident, will either one of these guys face a review, reprimand, or anything? Or, that gets overlooked similar to the breathalyzer.

This doesn’t bring the victim back, but it appears it’s going to be mandatory for the on-site breath test “next time”. I had to fire a guy driving a service truck with a beer can left on the floorboard. Has there been a change in requiring a second DUI before a policeman, responsible for upholding the law, can possibly lose his job?

I can’t think of a group of people more deserving of our respect than those who literally risk their lives on behalf of the public. But, that doesn’t excuse any of us when we’re out of line. The average person would not get the breaks Officer Bisard has.

This is an excellent run-down. The “roll” -vs- “role” typo had me a bit stymied–I wasn’t aware a car rolled at the scene. But I make enough typos myself, so I’m not criticizing.

Does anyone know where I can read the entire report? Is there a link anywhere? Thanks

MH, I just read The Star’s PDF copy of the report. I don’t come to your conclusion regarding p-23. But here’s what I don’t understand, and it happened in the Bisard case as well as the Brandon Johnson case:

What is the policy for police officers running to a scene when they’re not called there specifically? The crash report indicates that there were so many unneeded officers at the scene, they actually hindered the proper preservation of evidence and crash scene materials.

I have a suspicion about the extra LEOs running to scenes of crimes or accidents, but I’ll resist posting it here. But in two cases in the last few days, we’ve seen that extra folks on the scene caused huge problems.

This all started because a bicycling marijuana probation violator might be in a certain area, and was subject to arrest. Bisard offered to run and help–from miles away. He felt the need to drive there at 70-plus MPH. To catch a biking probation violator? It’s like rat hunting with a cannon.

Is there no one at IMPD to oversee these over-zealous pursuers, and to clarify and prioritize the need for speed, extra officers, etc?

It’s pretty clear to me that some (not all) officers can’t resist the temptation to run to a scene whether they’re requested or not.

MH, IMPD had best gets their arms around this part of the issue fast. It has the potential to blow up in the wrong way. There will be some Barney Fife comparisons, and that’s not fair to the good officers out there. I respect the fact that initial calls took 911 might not clearly identify a problem, and thus the degree of response needed, might not be generally known for a time.

But Bisard begged to come to that probation violator scene. The radio transcripts prove it. It’s almost as if he was trolling for action, hungry for the adrenaline jolt. And he sped there, miles away, with disregard for traffic.

Was it worth it, to have an officer speed there, to help catch a guy on a bike?

It’s almost laughable it’s so preposterous. Except someone died, and two others got badly hurt. Very poor judgment and prioritization. And of evaluation of resources required.

This demands better training and adherence to common sense, GOs, and protocol.

Oh yeah–the CVS clerk should be fired for spreading that nonsense. If she is the one responsible.

No, I believe that is the two-hundred millimetre stare one gets when one is at stage four syphilis.

Part of the problem is that you are addressing common sense, GOs, and protocol as if they are the exact same thing.

If somebody runs, you need at a bare minimum 4 cars for a perimeter, a K9 officer, and an officer to track with K9. Common sense would dictate that on all runs where there is a possibility of a flight risk, if you have that many cars shouldn’t you send all of them? Why wouldn’t you? Mind the fact that response time is pivotal to setting up a perimeter.

GOs are extremely vague. I could find a half dozen that the Chief has violated in the past (asking subordinates to change police reports comes to mind.) They’re intended to be that way, that’s why they’re called “general.” You could argue both ways that Bisard equally followed or violated several of them, or did both on the same one at the same time.

Policy is written by people who don’t understand the things that have to be done for the department to operate at a given efficiency standard in light of the current manpower. If the people in charge knew what was going on, they wouldn’t be taking people from doing policework and putting them in community outreach programs.

Of all the things you criticize, why his work ethic? For Pete’s sake that’s about the ONLY thing you can’t touch at this point.

Bisard and Bisard alone were responsible for his actions on that day. The Chief and PSD can hemhaw all they want, but the fact of the matter is that the only standard by which those were demoted could possibly be held at fault is the same and only standard by which the two of them could be held accountable.

Ignoring an urgent police matter in the interest of a politicial meeting to address an image problem is a blatant violation of general order. It would possibly even violate rules & regs regarding political speech in uniform.

“Secondly, for the conspiracy theorists in the room, for a “cover-up” to work in this case it would involve the complete cooperation of police, medical lab technicians, the prosecutor’s office, multiple witnesses and the FBI. The only thing missing would a book depository, second shooter and a one-armed man. The Mayor’s Office should have done a better job at dispelling the rumor mill without compromising the investigation by explaining how the process would work.”

Hmmm….odd that the police do NOT have these problems when they want to investigate or arrest one of us MOPES (yes, that is what they call us ‘citizens’, along with ‘scrote’, ‘scrounge’, etc.).

Why is that, huh ???

TA,I saw a very hairy wooly worm yesterday, that means a very cold winter.I have lots of wood in the shed.

Full report here: http://www.indystar.com/assets/pdf/BG1666511110.PDF

I have an idea that will rebuild the image of IMPD in the community, with very little direct cost to the department.

1. Follow ALL traffic laws and rules all the time unless you are on a run.
2. Don’t speed in the left lane with your family in the car and no seatbelt on. Go the speed limit.
3. Do not roll up to a light, turn on your lights, drive through and then continue on just because you don’t want to stop at a red light.
4. USE YOUR TURN SIGNAL.

If all officers were to begin doing these things today it would go an untold distance toward earning more respect from the citizens of the city.

WTHR has it on their site, at least they did last night.

I roll now

want some cheese to go with your whine?

The Mayor looked tired because he realizes after last Tuesday, that even in a sweep Republican year, this is still a 56% baseline Democratic city. The only way you beat a Democratic city-wide candidate, is to make sure the Dems are fighting among themselves. Which they’re not.

Ballard knows he’s screwed. He might as well do what’s right, without regard to politics, for the next 13 months.

If there’s a God in heaven about 20 of the council members will get swept out, too. (Both parties)

I had high hopes for him, too, believe it or not. He owed nothing to anyone. Two law firms co-opted him within 15 minutes of his inauguration. The end result: everything’s for sale, as long as they’re in on the deal. In less-polite circles, we’d call that whorish. But, we’re polite.

As for the deputy chief: will any of you allow, that someone who does her job well, and still thinks highly of the PSD, whatever kind of jerk he is/isn’t, that she might just STILL be a good person?

My God, you folks play the all-or-nothing game to the hilt. Zero-sum games are for losers. Nothing is that black-white any more. Kepe it up, and you’ll be able to hold your meetings in a phone booth.

“The end result: everything’s for sale, as long as they’re in on the deal.”

That pretty much sums up the ballgame in the Mayor’s office.

Knee jerk indeed! Welcome to Police Management 101, the department according the Straub! I’m begining to think Ballard keeps him around just so he can have someone to join in his fairwell party after the next election.

He’s over the top in his complaint, speed, but parts of his complaint are true, and aggravating.

It’s not entirely relevant to this very serious case, but it’s not without merit.

LOL.

“Federal pukes” ?

Man, who peed in your oatmeal?

“Federal pukes,” as you describe them, defend your Constitutional rights. Hourly.

Not if they are inflicting themselves upon OUR business. And, yes…for the most part, they are pukes.
Deal with it.

Which uniform did you wear serving your country?

abc, you crack me up! You expect us to believe that the Federal Government passed a law telling the City of Indianapolis to establish “incident command” at a traffic fatality??? Please specify the law? Is that in Title 18 USC?

The answer is NO!!!! A traffic fatality is NOT a federal matter and our constitution specifically denies Feds authority over same (10th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution).

Indy, perhaps the following will help you better understand abc’s point:
Standardized Emergency Management System or SEMS. In 2003, SEMS went national with the passage of Homeland Security Directive number 5 “mandating” all federal, state, and local agencies use NIMS or the National Incident Management System to manage emergencies in order to receive federal funding.

Weaknesses in incident management were often due to:

Lack of accountability, including unclear chains of command and supervision.
Poor communication due to both inefficient uses of available communications systems and conflicting codes and terminology.
Lack of an orderly, systematic planning process.
No predefined methods to integrate inter-agency requirements into the management structure and planning process effectively.
Freelancing by individuals with specialized skills during an incident without coordination with other first responders
Lack of knowledge with common terminology during an incident.
(Any of that sound familiar with the Bisard crash??)

Further:

All levels of government are required to maintain differing levels of ICS training and private sector organizations regularly use ICS for management of events. ICS is widespread in use from law enforcement to every-day business, as the basic goals of clear communication, accountability, and the efficient use of resources are common to incident and emergency management as well as daily operations. ICS is mandated by law for all Hazardous Materials responses nationally and for many other emergency operations in most states. In practice, virtually all EMS and disaster response agencies utilize ICS, in part after the United States Department of Homeland Security mandated the use of ICS for emergency services throughout the United States as a condition for federal preparedness funding. As part of FEMA’s National Response Plan (NRP), the system was expanded and integrated into the National Incident Management System (NIMS).

So, it IS a guideline adopted by IMPD (and most other emergency response agencies throughout the state) to meet the needs of an incident the size of the Bisard crash. It is in their GOs and was not followed or even instituted.

There’s your citation!!

an incident the size of the Bisard crash? Laugh. Get some perspective, Blue! This was a traffic fatality. Nothing more.

Now, does the police dept receive federal funds to investigate traffic fatalities??? I doubt it.

Geeezzzz, we got abc comparing a traffic fatality to air piracy that resulted in over 1000 dead and a natural disaster that resulted in millions of dollars in damage and many dead. Keep it in perspective.

Which uniform? Who the hell are you to make judgments based solely on uniforms?

We all share the same federal Constitutional rights. Even you.

That’s the beauty of the document.