As an active duty law enforcement officer myself, I will be the first admit that not all of us walk the "Thin Blue Line". Some of us fall off. A few years ago we had an officer in my agency fall off the line. He was removed from duty and subsequently removed from the agency all together after an internal investigation. His "offenses" were not criminal. They were more civil offenses than anything else (profiling, making inappropriate comments about suspects, etc.,). However, don't take that as me defending his actions. He was wrong and he got what he rightfully deserved (loss of job and authority). As long as I can remember, we have never had an officer commit a criminal offense on duty (that I can recall). In fact, we have had more officers get killed (both on and off duty) by criminals this year than any other neighboring department has in 10 years (most recent officer lost was actually today).
That brings me to this: do I agree with what the Obama administration has done by creating a "committee" to investigate state and local officer and department's actions? No. Those investigations should be conducted at the local or state level and the DOJ should only intervene if absolutely necessary. Do I think certain department's could use a review and (possible) overhaul of their training policies and other departmental procedures? Yes. My agency reviews and updates all of its policies and procedures AT LEAST twice a year.
