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While this is only a partial solution, a number of cities throughout the US have adopted or are adopting a model usually called "civilian oversight" in which co

While this is only a partial solution, a number of cities throughout the US have adopted or are adopting a model usually called "civilian oversight" in which complaints of misconduct by police officers can be directed to a separate, independent police oversight body. The police oversight body is separated from law enforcement by an administrative firewall and usually restricts any of its staff being former law enforcement officers to further improve separation (common sources of staff are insurance, personnel security, and litigation investigators). While criminal enforcement is a judicial matter and not one of administrative oversight, there's usually a perception that civilian oversight helps to bring information to light that might motivate a DA or other prosecutor to pursue the case. This is only a half-measure at best but it's something that is gaining traction, and you might be able to push for it in your area.

kingcharles 5y ago
I live in Chicago. We're onto our THIRD police oversight agency here. "COPA replaced the Independent Police Review Authority, or IPRA, which had been discredited in the aftermath of the McDonald revelations, and which, in its own turn, had in 2007 replaced the Office of Professional Standards, or OPS, in the midst of an earlier police scandal." They replace the agency every few years. There'll be another new one in a couple of years. They'll fire all the staff who, as you say, are not supposed to be related to the police, but who are all actually related to the police, and then rehire them all to the new agency. An officer in my case, who has previously been found to have lied in an investigation where he beat an unarmed Mexican man, lied to the grand jury to obtain an indictment against me which resulted in my imprisonment for many years. I tried to report him to COPA and they just disappear the complaint each time. It's like you hand the complaint to them and ask them for a receipt and they are like "What complaint? Who are you? Why are you in our office? Please leave before we call security." I've tried and tried and never got a response. If I wasn't on house arrest I would just chain myself to a fixture in their building until police had to remove me.

kingcharles 5y ago

I live in Chicago. We're onto our THIRD police oversight agency here. "COPA replaced the Independent Police Review Authority, or IPRA, which had been discredited in the aftermath of the McDonald revelations, and which, in its own turn, had in 2007 replaced the Office of Professional Standards, or OPS, in the midst of an earlier police scandal." They replace the agency every few years. There'll be another new one in a couple of years. They'll fire all the staff who, as you say, are not supposed to be related to the police, but who are all actually related to the police, and then rehire them all to the new agency. An officer in my case, who has previously been found to have lied in an investigation where he beat an unarmed Mexican man, lied to the grand jury to obtain an indictment against me which resulted in my imprisonment for many years. I tried to report him to COPA and they just disappear the complaint each time. It's like you hand the complaint to them and ask them for a receipt and they are like "What complaint? Who are you? Why are you in our office? Please leave before we call security." I've tried and tried and never got a response. If I wasn't on house arrest I would just chain myself to a fixture in their building until police had to remove me.