American government, whether at the national, state, or local level is notorious for commissioning studies, unveiling them to much fanfare, then letting them sit on a shelf gathering dust.
These studies often reveal problems in government or society that if left unchecked can do considerable damage.
State audits often are treated the same way as these studies.
Last month, the Missouri state auditor released a report which should have made Missourians demand action to protect the integrity of our law enforcement agencies. Unfortunately, the media has not lived up to their watchdog role and has given this audit little, if any, publicity.
Auditor Claire McCaskill's report on the Peace Officer Standards and Training Program (POST) showed several problems with the way disciplined police officers are treated.
The report was a top of the news story on KOAM, but as far as I could tell, was virtually untouched by the remainder of the local media, with the exception of The Joplin Globe, which devoted one paragraph to it on an inside page.
The audit said local law enforcement agencies, for the most part, are not following a state regulation which requires them to notify the director of public safety when an officer is fired. "Audit tests show this is not being done on a consistent basis," the report read.
The law also requires the top officer at agencies to notify POST when it is has reasonable grounds to believe one of their officers is going to be disciplined. "Our tests also found that this notification requirement was not consistently followed."
The report continues, "Officials have taken only limited action regarding local law enforcement agencies' violation of statutes and have not developed written policies regarding action to be taken when agencies do not comply with state law."
The requirement that officers continue training is also not being adequately ensured, according to the audit.
A major problem uncovered by the report is that POST officials "do not perform periodic criminal history background checks on active peace officers. Therefore, POST is not aware of some criminal activity that occurred after the officers' initial application for training."
After the state auditor's office asked the Missouri State Highway Patrol to perform criminal background checks on 18,000 currently licensed and eligible to work officers, the Patrol identified "480 open and closed criminal offenses on their records for these officers."
After the auditor's office eliminated offenses that were more than 10 years old, cases in which charges were dropped, and cases in which the officers were acquitted, there were still 92 open and closed criminal offenses left to be reviewed, according to the report. As of Sept. 24, it added, "POST was not aware of nine of 49 open offense crimes, and 13 of 42 closed offense crimes."
Presently, the report said, state law prevents POST from giving officers' employment history to a prospective employer. "To help ensure local law enforcement agencies access to previous peace officer employment," the report recommended, "POST officials should be allowed to inform prospective employers of past employment."
POST is not doing a proper job of following up on complaints of violations by police officers, according to the audit. They learn of violations from phone calls from private citizens and law enforcement officials, media reports and departure forms submitted by law enforcement agencies.
The audit showed that:
-POST personnel do not document receipt of some complaints.
-POST does not categorize complaints by degree of severity.
-POST's tracking system is inadequate.
-Investigations are not completed in a timely manner.
-POST does not have written guidelines regarding discipline.
Most law enforcement officers are top level and deserve all of the support we can give them, but by not making sure that the bad apples are removed from the bunch, the good ones end up being tarred with the same brush.
This is a report that demands follow-up action and one of the best ways to ensure that follow-up action takes place is for the media to jump all over it and do its own investigations on what happens with disciplined police officers and how local agencies treat these situations.
Of course, many people will tell the media they can't comment on these matters because they are not allowed to by law. The media should not let them get away with that.
It probably doesn't matter, because it does not appear that any follow-up stories are in the works.