The Idaho Peace Officers Standards and Training academy is rooting out more crooked cops, reports the Idaho Falls Post Register. (The full article is available only to paid subscribers). Before 2001, POST looked only at egregious conduct, such as murder, as a basis for decertifying officers. If an officer cheated on his time card, there’s a good chance POST wouldn’t investigate and decertify him, said executive director Jeff Black. Now, the agency at least will investigate.
From 1973 to February 2007, POST decertified 113 officers. Today, 78 investigations into officer misconduct are in progress, some dating back three or four years. The volume of cases prompted POST to hire four new investigators last year, bringing the number to seven. Today’s officers aren’t behaving worse than their predecessors, Black said. He believes more officers would have been decertified in the past if POST had dedicated more resources to investigations. POST Council Chairman Gary Aman cites a shift in generational attitudes. “We’re getting people who look at the job in a way that is different from the past,” Aman said. “They see it as a paycheck.” George Gotschalk, president of the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training, agrees. Law enforcement candidates who served in the military understood concepts like chain of command, he said. “These are things that are a surprise to people who are not used to them,” Gotschalk said. “The culture has changed.”