Texas police department ordered to close for failing to provide public benefit

jagged-chisel

Can’t read without subscribing.

abeppu

The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement investigated in response to a specific incident that got national news coverage. One has to wonder if there are other PDs that also are not providing public benefit but just didn't attract attention in this way. > The department also failed to provide resources to its officers, including bulletproof vests and an evidence room. Of course this will be used to bring back a PD with a bigger budget and more weapons. They may use some of the expanded funds to buy body cams but they won't work.

xnx

I shudder to think how much of this type malfeasance went unpunished. At least now with ubiquitous cell phones and social media, there's the chance it will catch the attention of a higher authority.

thinkcontext

> Last week, the [state] agency sent a letter to the city notifying it that its five-member police department would be closed effective Sept. 18. Law enforcement duties will be transferred to the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office until a permanent solution is found. > The agency said its investigation found the department failed to meet minimum standards and failed to provide sufficient evidence that it provided a "public benefit to the community." The department also failed to provide resources to its officers, including bulletproof vests and an evidence room. The US has many thousands of little law enforcement jurisdictions like this. The argument for it is local control but in practice you too often get situations like this one. Poor quality, abuses, corruption, good-old-boys network, lack of accountability, frequent unnecessary use of force, etc. Large police organizations are certainly not w/o problems but at this point there are accountability mechanisms and modern standards. The WaPo did an excellent article a few years ago looking at the fragmented LEO landscape "Most police departments in America are small. That’s partly why changing policing is difficult, experts say" https://archive.li/05zA7

josefritzishere

There's a reasonable argument to be made that many police departments fall into this category.

alsetmusic

Seems like the most blatant corruption turns up in small towns.

schmookeeg

I'm guessing Oakland PD is sitting up a little straighter today.

Taikonerd

Some interesting context: the city of Camden, NJ had its (much larger) police department closed by the state in 2013. Its duties were handed over to the county police, the same as they're doing in the linked article. The Camden County police successfully brought the crime rate way down. And in the summer of 2020, when riots rocked the US, the CCPD was held up as an example of good policing. [0]: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/new-jersey-city-disband... (EDIT: corrected name of city)

nabbed

In BC Canada, many, and possibly most cities use the national police force (RCMP) as their local police force. A city that contracts out with the RCMP gets a local RCMP detachment with local headquarters, etc. Imagine, say, Framingham Massachusetts contracting the FBI for their local police services. I imagine that could be a big problem if the national police force suddenly had a corruption problem: many cities would also suddenly have a police corruption problem. As far as I know, that's not currently the case, although somebody might correct me. Some BC cities, like Vancouver and Surrey, have their own police forces (Surrey is actually in the middle of phasing out RCMP usage in favour of their own police force).

duxup

I wish I knew what the report said exactly…. what did they do? Nothing? >The mayor said he invites anyone with knowledge of water systems to get in touch with the city to help. This seems like a bad way to fix things….