FREE e-Newsletter
Important News - Hot Topics
Get them Now!
Subscribe to This Thread

Domestic violence in law enforcement families

3/6/2008 9:57 PM
Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 511

Domestic violence in law enforcement families

I have wondered for a very long time why officers protect other officers who murder, beat up, and otherwise violate their code of ethics when it comes to family violence within their own families. The people who do this stuff are not worth protecting. So, can someone please explain to me why departments go through such great lenghts to protect these people?
REPLY 1  -  3  of  3
3/7/2008 7:57 PM #1
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 379

RE: Domestic violence in law enforcement families

I cannot explain why anyone would protect a murderer in anything, but it has happened. AS for the rest (family violence not resulting in murder) there are two parts to the explanation. The first is that family violence was always accepted by all of society until recently. There are still many parts of society where it is still acceptable. Police officers tend to be very conservative and resistant to change, so they would naturally be slower to change in this respect.

The second reason is that cops try to protect each other in general. They form very close bonds when they work in potentially life threatening situations. Some partners get to be closer to each other than to their spouses. This makes it family and we generally still see family protecting each other in society. There is also a perspective of unfairness where a cop will lose his job for crimes that do not affect other people in society the same way. So cops try to find ways to help the victim while still protecting the job of the suspect.

The good news in all of this is that police are changing. As society has changed and other things are no longer acceptable, police work is changing and the blue wall is coming down. More and more you are seeing cops who will arrest and charge other cops just as quickly as they would any other citizen. This is a definite improvement in cleaning up law enforcement. And, while I support this change and work to hasten it, I am still slightly concerned about the possible unintended consequences it might bring about.
3/8/2008 2:48 PM #2
Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 511

RE: Domestic violence in law enforcement families

Steve,
Based on some observations I have made regarding LE agencies policing themselves where dv is involved, it seems they have made steps backwards since OJ. LAPD for one was very proactive in handling officer involved dv, but it seems in some of their divisions, the buddies of officers go out of their way to cover up for their friends. I investigated one of these cases for an LAPD wife, and funny thing is, her husband had been rejected twice for hiring because of psych issues, and then they finally hired him. So, what does this tell you? He brandished his duty weapon at her head. I was present when IA interviewed her and they asked her about the weapon, she described it perfectly, and she has no knowledge about weapons of any kind.

Luckily for me, I know the assistant chief at LAPD., and he inititated a criminal IA investigation. This was a over a year ago, and the investigation is still ongoing. But, the point is, unless I had personal contacts, what would his division have done to advocate for her? Answer is nothing. This was proven by the mounds of evdience she had against him. The guy is a clown. He stupidly posed in his uniform on a hospital bed, pants down around his ankles, blanket over his midsection and he is using his finger to replicate his penis. Can you imagine what detectives thought when they saw this? The guy is a screwup, a sex addict and an alcoholic. He is abusive to trainees and his children. The trainees can at least fight back against physical abuse, but his children could not. Scumbags like this guy need to be outted and prosecuted!
8/3/2008 7:51 PM #3
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 2

RE: Domestic violence in law enforcement families

Gentlemen it has been a while since the last post and I don't know what the genesis of the initial conversation was, but I want to point out that while police-perpetrated domestic violence must not be tolerated I find it to be poorly studied or understood. You'll find many websites quoting the statistic that 40% of police families have domestic violence. This figure was based on two highly suspect surveys that do not constitute good research. Many of the websites addressing this issue seem anti-police biased, stating that we are trained to injure without bruises, plant evidence, and have many other unsavory and slanderous attributes. Until advocates can operate with facts and objectivity, the problem will not be adequately addressed.
Police Magazine