Rushing to uninformed judgement isn’t real justice

“No Justice, No Peace” are the words that are used by protesters when police officers are involved in use of force incidents. The point being that regardless of what actually transpired, the police must be found guilty or there will be no peace for that city or town.

As an officer that had been an investigator throughout most of my twenty-six-year career, I knew that every individual is given certain guarantees, with one of the most important being that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. As law enforcement officers, we are bound by that guarantee and have to be diligent in the manner in which we conduct our investigations. We cannot simply arrest someone based on hearsay, and must be careful in how we interpret evidence to ensure that the correct individual is arrested and charged. That guarantee extends to the police as well.

For many, including members of the media across the country, that guarantee has been flipped on its head when it comes to officers accused of crimes. The media and the court of public opinion finds that every officer accused of a crime or involved in a use of force incident are automatically guilty. Opinions are made based on snippets of film or on flimsy “eyewitness” testimony and regardless of the outcome, the outlying opinion is the officers are always wrong or the system is broken. Officers accused of crimes must prove their innocence as opposed to the prosecution proving their guilt.

The community at large are always looking for officers to pass judgment on other officers who have been accused of wrongdoing. I never engaged in that kind of discussion because without being there at the time of the incident, I can not determine the facts based on someone’s perception. I learned early in my career that there are always three sides to a story, his, hers and the truth. Even though I was accused of being a part of the “blue wall of silence”, my lack of opinion was out of respect for those fellow officers and because I did not know or have all of facts of the incident in front of me.

With the advancements in technology and the use of body worn cameras by most police departments across the country, more police-citizen encounters are being filmed every day. There are literally trillions of videos of officers across the country enforcing the law without incident. But the one time a use of force incident is caught on camera, then the blanket of guilt is thrust upon all officers.

Officers across this country have had their names and reputations excoriated in print, and are unable to defend themselves in the court of public opinion. Even after it is found that their actions were lawful, reasonable and justified by the courts, no one is ever able to fully return the credibility that they once held. If not for the support of their fellow officers who truly know them and their family members that never leave their sides, their situations could have ended much worse.

When Officers are found to have acted appropriately, the media narrative surrounding the incident has made it almost impossible to return to work. Officer Darren Wilson from Ferguson, Missouri Police Department, had to resign and relocate to protect himself and his family from the media driven lies that placed them in danger.

There was no justice for Officer Wilson and no peace for his family and the city of Ferguson.

In the Trenton Police Department, there are approximately 280 supervisors and officers. Over the last two years there have been four incidents of officer misconduct.

Two of those incidents were not police related and involved sex crimes conducted while outside the color of the uniform and the other two were on the job incidents.

While I have read the news articles about the incidents, and have received rumors third and fourth hand, I can not provide an opinion of guilt or innocence without all of the facts in front of me.

As the public and media are always quick to point out the negative incidents, I would like to say that these were two onduty incidents in the last two years within the hundreds of thousands of police-citizen interactions during that same time period. In addition, four officers alleged to have committed criminal acts out of the approximately 280 officers, means that less than two percent of the officers are accused of behaving dishonorably within the last two years.

While no department wants to have any incidents of officers behaving criminally, this percentage shows that it is not a common occurrence for the members of the Trenton Police Department, something they should be very proud of.

In regards to the adjudication of these four incidents, I have the utmost confidence in the members of Mercer County Prosecutors office. I have worked alongside these professional men and women for many years and while we have not always been in agreement, I believe they will do their best to ensure that justice is served.

In the end, that is all we can ask for.