Brickbat: Take These Chains

Bradley County, Tennessee, sheriff's department officials say they are investigating how a prisoner was left shackled and locked in a courthouse holding cell overnight without food, water or access to a bathroom. Deputies placed Nathaniel Caldwell in the cell around 3:30 p.m. They apparently forgot about him until court reopened the next day.

Comments

[Old Man With Candy]

But the officers made it home safely and that's really all that matters.

[db]

Yet another example of why there should be.no.such thing as police "internal.affairs" offices. All investigations.of possible police.misconduct should be.performed by an independent auditor.

[UnCivilServant]

Preferrably one where no former law enforcement are allowed to serve, and who are barred from entering law enforcement after they leave. And with full authority to charge cops, but no one else, and force a trial.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I say make it another police force that, if they find wrongdoing, gets to appropriate some of the offending agency's budget.

[db]

Maybe just create a fund to.cover investigatory fees and payouts to aggrieved party's. This account would be.funded by attaching the wages of.police.officers.and.officials on a sliding scale sort of like this:

Officer(s) responsible: 50%
Chief of Police: 35%
All other employees: 15%

Every time a ruling goes against the police department, the.costs get.divided by the table above among.all employees. The debt would be real, and taken out of each.paycheck.

Each employee is.given.a ceiling of debt above which their employment is terminated, and the debt remains.

[db]

Auto correct "party's" s/b "parties." I hate that.

[Zombie Jimbo]

If the official in question is not legally permitted to do any kind of law enforcement work in the future I'd be willing to forgive the debt, after termination, and the confiscation and sale of any government issued equipment.

We don't want the thug to turn to a life of crime, do we?

[Rich]

He declined to provide any details until the investigation is complete, which he said likely will be next week.

"Likely next week", eh? Don't rush to judgment on this one, Chief -- it looks pretty complicated.

[airforce]

Why didn't anybody notice this fellow was missing on the evening and overnight count? This guy could have escaped, started randomly murdering people, and nobody at the jail would have noticed he was gone.