Brickbat: Who Watches the Watchmen?

In 2020, the Austin, Texas, Office of Police Oversight referred 501 complaints against officers to the Austin Police Department for further investigation. Of those 501, 312 were about alleged officer misconduct during protests following the death of George Floyd. The department investigated 222, or about 71 percent, of the complaints related to protests. Of the 189 complaints that weren't related to the protests, the department investigated just 96, or 51 percent.

Comments

[Shayarihd]

Thanks for updating us with useful information - shayarihd

[mad.casual]

Well said.

[Adans smith]

Cops against saint George protesters. I'm sitting this one out.

[Talcum X]

Americans can choose their own poison. Chicago voters choose this. 8 killed 72 wounded in one weekend. Not a peep. When the Cops kill 8 and wound 72 for fun over a single weekend, please let me know.

Final Downward Trend: 8 killed, 72 wounded
2020 weekend tally: 20 killed, 47 wounded
2019 weekend tally: 5 killed, 55 wounded
2018 weekend tally: 3 killed, 23 wounded
2017 weekend tally: 7 killed, 47 wounded
2016 weekend tally: 8 killed, 50 wounded
2015 weekend tally: 5 killed, 24 wounded
2014 weekend tally: 2 killed, 42 wounded

Friday 6/25
4:20p 3900 N Harlem, Dunning, M/25
8:05p 1500 N Mayfield, Austin, M/20
9:05p 200 S Cicero, Austin, F/56
9:10p 13200 S Corliss, Riverdale, M/29
10:30p 5000 W Gladys, Austin, M/26
11:25p 2800 S Wallace, Bridgeport, F/28
11:25p 6700 S Indiana, Grand Crossing, M/27
11:50p 7000 S Indiana, Grand Crossing, F/28
11:50p 7000 S Indiana, Grand Crossing, F/28
11:50p 7000 S Indiana, Grand Crossing, M/31
11:50p 7000 S Indiana, Grand Crossing, M/31
Saturday 6/26
1:00a 200 S Wabash, Loop, M/39
1:20a 1200 N Ashland, West Town, M/20
2:25a 2200 S Christiana, Little Village, M/25
2:25a 2200 S Christiana, Little Village, M/28
3:00a 600 W 61st, Englewood, M/64
3:50a 6300 S Hoyne, Englewood, M/19
3:50a 6300 S Hoyne, Englewood, M/20
4:05a 300 W 87th, Chatham, M/25
4:25a 200 S Central Park, Garfield Park, M/20
4:25a 200 S Central Park, Garfield Park, M/27
4:35a 2600 W Thomas, West Town, M/21
5:00a 700 E 79th, Grand Crossing, F/30
5:30a 6100 N McCormick, North Park, M/36
5:30a 6100 N McCormick, North Park, M/25
5:30a 6100 N McCormick, North Park, M/?
5:30a 6100 N McCormick, North Park, M/?
9:00a 2300 W Ogden, Near West Side, M/21
9:00a 2300 W Ogden, Near West Side, M/26
????️????️ Rain Delay ????️????️
6:00p 1500 S Sawyer, North Lawndale, M/21
6:15p 8900 S Morgan, Washington Heights, M/17
10:35p 1500 W 61st, Englewood, M/28
10:55p 5600 W Madison, Austin, M/14
Sunday 6/27
12:15a 5900 W Wabansia, Austin, M/38
12:25a 6200 S Laflin, Englewood, F/62
12:25a 4800 S Throop, New City, M/34
1:25a 200 E 107th, Roseland, M/26
1:30a 2700 W Odgen, North Lawndale, M/30
1:55a 600 N Troy, Humboldt Park, F/21
2:05a 800 N Central Park, Humboldt Park, M/36
3:20a 8800 S Houston, South Chicago, M/34
3:40a 6400 S Marshfield, Englewood, M/33
1:15p 2900 E 79th, South Shore, M/29
1:15p 2900 E 79th, South Shore, F/25
1:15p 7600 S Cottage Grove, Grand Crossing, M/22
1:20p 7300 S Dorchester, South Shore, M/?
5:05p 100 N Oakley, Near West Side, M/20
5:20p 3200 W 15th, North Lawndale, M/17
5:20p 3200 W 15th, North Lawndale, M/17
6:40p 2800 W Fletcher, Avondale, M/23
7:25p 3700 W Lexington, Garfield Park, M/27
7:40p 5700 W Ohio, Austin, M/26
8:20p 7700 S Kingston, South Shore, M/28
8:20p 5100 S Whipple, Gage Park, M/27
8:45p 2000 E 71st, South Shore, F/?
8:45p 2000 E 71st, South Shore, M/15
8:45p 2000 E 71st, South Shore, M/19
8:45p 2000 E 71st, South Shore, M/20
8:45p 2000 E 71st, South Shore, M/21
8:45p 2000 E 71st, South Shore, M/21
9:00p 1200 S Lawndale, North Lawndale, M/15
9:00p 1200 S Lawndale, North Lawndale, M/15
10:55p 6300 S Artesian, Chicago Lawn, F/?
10:55p 6300 S Artesian, Chicago Lawn, M/21
10:55p 6300 S Artesian, Chicago Lawn, F/21
10:55p 6300 S Artesian, Chicago Lawn, F/23
10:55p 6300 S Artesian, Chicago Lawn, M/27
10:55p 6300 S Artesian, Chicago Lawn, M/29
10:55p 6300 S Artesian, Chicago Lawn, M/34
10:55p 6300 S Artesian, Chicago Lawn, M/35
10:55p 6300 S Artesian, Chicago Lawn, F/38
10:55p 6300 S Artesian, Chicago Lawn, M/42
10:55p 6300 S Artesian, Chicago Lawn, F/57
No Accountability Monday
12:10a 7400 S Dante, South Shore, M/?
12:15a 7900 S Crandon, South Chicago, M/35
12:45a 7400 S Stony Island, South Shore, M/24
12:45a 7400 S Stony Island, South Shore, M/34
1:05a 11700 S Laflin, West Pullman, M/25
1:30a 1200 S Fairfield, North Lawndale, F/24
1:35a 1500 E 53rd, Hyde Park, F/39

Key:
shooting
homicide
Weekend = 12p Friday – 6a Monday

[mad.casual]

????️????️ Rain Delay ????️????️

The delay only lasted for abou 2 hours. The rest was spent rolling the tarp out over the city.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Geez, how long does it take to do a cursory and predetermined review of one's own actions.

[Chumby]

Is there a video with this “article?”

[Jerryskids]

I don't think "Police Oversight" means what they think it means.

[Ragnarredbeard]

Did the rest of the article get lost? Seems like it should have more meat to it.

[Don't look at me!]

Some people did some things.

[mulch]

Hard to say if it's a big deal without knowing more. Were the uninvestigated complaints obviously frivolous or were they serious? Not like they're trying to hide the fact they didn't investigate -- they published their own report about it.

[Stuck in California]

Exactly. I'm pretty big on the notion of police oversight, but let's not pretend that everyone from psychopaths to angry Karens getting a traffic ticket are willing to say the police were abusive when they weren't.

Cops have to get a LOT of spurious complaints.

[markm23]

So why aren't cops going on strike demanding body cameras so they can prove those complaints are spurious?

[Social Justice is neither]

So the assumption here seems to be that every complaint is valid and so serious as to require action otherwise I'd expect some context from a competent journalist to evaluate the raw numbers presented.

Does this standard apply to every profession or just icky cops? How many stories and story perspectives did journalists fully investigate in the same period and should we consider them failures and insufficiently monitored for that?

[Ben of Houston]

Now, I will say that these were referred by a committee, so they have probably already been filtered to remove the true nonsense. However, it doesn't mention whether the uninvestigated cases were redundant, deficient, or if internal affairs is just short staffed.

[Social Justice is neither]

And the committee is usually filled with community activists so even assuming the true nonsense is filtered out is possibly a stretch. They could choose to pass on nonsense to generate exactly the narrative crafted here of "the police won't even monitor their own mosconduct" and without context you just can't tell.

[mad.casual]

And the committee is usually filled with community activists

Not to disagree with your overall point/narrative, but is this true for Austin? Chicago's CRB/COPRA/IPRA has been rife with ex-cops and retired brass over several iterations. Fair to say that, either way, pointing at 51% and acting like the cases were over-/under-investigated is exceedingly uninformative.

[buckleup]

more blathering over riots as art or something.

[Unicorn Abattoir]

"Who Watches the Watchmen?"

That would fall under the Bureau of Weights and Measures.

[Ben of Houston]

Obviously the correct answer is the Timex Quality Control department.

[Ben of Houston]

What was the reason for the uninvestigated complaints? Were they baseless? So vague as to be meaningless? Missing critical information necessary to perform an investigation? Was only a random selection investigated?

The implication is that these numbers are sinister, but investigating over 50% of complaints is hardly a horrific statistic. Are you alleging that they investigated the trivial while ignoring the serious? You need to say that.

Brevity is important, but being concise is a skill. This article is missing so much information that it is worse than useless.

[The Jeffersonian]

We are living in a world where accusation equals guilt and there is no accountability for false accusations.

[Brandybuck]

More attention spent on cases being watched by the breathless public. So? Human nature is human nature. Am I missing the barb here?

[Agammamon]

So, what is the problem here?

That they investigated a series of complaints that trickled in over time but only investigated *most* of a large glut of complaints that came in an extremely short time period?

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[dada]

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