Effective public scrutiny of law enforcement practices can help prevent corruption and fight the organized crime behind modern-day slavery and domestic terrorism. But avenues, as well as other quality assurance mechanisms, are missing.
(PRWEB) December 31, 2004 -- We are overlooking the simplest of solutions in our fight against domestic terrorism, including that associated with modern-day slavery and other organized crime. Expectations motivate performance quality. We know that but we forget. Communication of performance standards is key. Corruption is merely poor performance. Public scrutiny is essential in ensuring quality but so disused that many are unaware that mechanisms to do so don't even exist.
Organized crime uses and abuses the legal system, law and other infrastructure components to facilitate and protect activities. Acknowledgement is evident in federal law, for example:
·18 USC Sec. 1589 Forced labor, "Whoever knowingly provides or obtains the labor or services of a person - … (3) by means of the abuse or threatened abuse of law or the legal process"
·18 USC Sec. 1591 Sex trafficking of children or by force, fraud, or coercion
(for more info, see "12/23/03 - Yes! Who IS minding the store?" on MKS web site, i.e., http://mykindredspirit.home.att.net or http://mykindredspirit2.home.att.net )
Fairly easy research will reveal that what many of us assume to be in place really isn't. Public scrutiny can identify where quality assurance mechanisms are missing and pressure to get discrepancies corrected. Public audit can begin with the following areas of Law Enforcement (LE):
State P.O.S.T. (Police Officer Standards and Training): LE training requirement for officer certification and re-certification should include training in current crime trends. Many state and local enforcement officers claim to not be aware of modern-day slavery, for example, despite that it is the fastest growing crime in the world. Many members of state and local law enforcement also claim to believe that "human trafficking" refers to smuggling illegal aliens into the country. They, as well as federal law enforcement, also reveal unawareness of current scheme trends of perpetrators of these crimes. Including current federal laws as part of P.O.S.T. curriculum, as well as procedures that circumvent/prevent corruption, can significantly reduce the current shortcomings of needed law enforcement.
Many may be surprised to learn that, despite laws in many states requiring current certification of law enforcement officers, little or nothing may be being done to enforce it. There is also little or no means for a member of the public to monitor this. The practice of police showing their badge and/or other proof of identity has also fallen out of use in many areas. Police providing cards that include their name and current certification number, coupled with an online P.O.S.T. database that enables the public to verify that information, can significantly increase accountability, improve performance and reduce corruption.
Organized crime relies heavily on the use of "bad cops," but not every cop is "bad." Because of this, often those organized crime need at a particular scene are not scheduled for duty during that time. It is illegal for non-scheduled LE to engage in arrest or other police activity. (See "Color of Law" under the FBI's web site: http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/civilrights/color.htm) The public's ability to easily verify scheduling, such as through the police department's website, can help keep some of this corrupt activity in check.
Continual public review can push LE to use due diligence in ensuring integrity of criminal procedures and help prevent abuse of law and the legal system by organized crime, particularly against tampering, undue force and retaliatory false arrest. Such diligence needs to include routine mechanisms and practices that verify the integrity of statements of LE, witnesses and others, evidence-gathering equipment, such as breath analyzers, 911 recordings, etc., and review and attestation by superiors/department heads. A paper trail of accountability should exist. This needs to be coupled with ease of appeal against illegal or inappropriate LE activity. Public review can also push for parallel inclusion of these items in LE entity audit, management training and justice analysis, by organizations such as CALEA, U.S. BJS and entities such as PERF.
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