Crime-ridden big cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and New Orleans have police-department oversight — but it has only added another layer of bureaucracy, rather than help stem the bloodshed.
In the Windy City, the murder rate last year was four times that of New York, and investigations have languished under its inspector general-like office.
“I have an officer going to give a statement to [the Independent Police Review Authorities] today for an incident that happened in August 2004,” noted Jim McCarthy, chairman of the Chicago police union’ s legal defense fund.
“It’s really not fair to question an officer about an incident that happened so many years ago.”
McCarthy said that when the office does act, “They are very inconsistent; there is a lot of disparity” in doling out punishments.
New Orleans’ Independent Police Monitor has not “been terribly effective” said Mike Glasser, president of that city’s Police Association.
And, “they try to get involved” in police investigations, Glasser said. “That’s not how their job is designed.”
Erwin Chermerinsky, dean of the University of California-Irvine School of Law, supports IG offices in principal, but noted that “there’s always a question of who’s going to guard the guardians.”
“There’s always a risk that this person is going to have their own political agenda, and how are you going to rein in that person?”
Former NYPD Commissioner Howard Safir said IG offices for any police department are “unnecessary” because all of them already face investigation by both local prosecutors and US attorneys if they violate laws or civil rights.
“It would be a creation of much more bureaucracy,” he said.