A recent audit revealed that as many as 96 traffic citations were dismissed improperly in Henderson NV, a suburb of Las Vegas, after having been filed with the court system. In a bit of Orwellian phraseology, one of the reasons given for those dismissals was listed as “Interest of Justice Family/Friends of HPD.”
According to the Las Vegas Review Journal:
In March, police spokeswoman Michelle French called that reason “not acceptable under our policy.”
But Police Chief Patrick Moers’ five-page response to the audit never mentions the “family/friends” case and makes no attempt to explain it. Moers did not return a call for comment Monday.
The officer who filled out that form — and two supervisors who signed off on it — are still on the force. Their ranks and assignments have not changed, city spokeswoman Kathleen Richards said Monday.
An Internal Affairs Bureau investigation into the issue started March 25 and ended May 21, but Richards said she could not discuss its findings or whether any officers had been disciplined because it involved personnel matters.
City Manager Robert Murnane, who took office last week, was not involved with the audit. But he said audits — and responses to them — generally focus on what needs to be changed to prevent future problems, rather than on why an employee might have done something wrong…
Under state law, only a judge can throw out a ticket once it’s been filed in court, but the city auditor said officers routinely had citations dismissed by filling out an internal form and filing it with Henderson Municipal Court staff. The citations were then dismissed by court staff without a hearing before a judge…
Officers are allowed to ask that a ticket be voided for legitimate reasons, such as an error made in writing the citation or a speeding driver proving he was on his way to a family emergency.
That’s sort of a fancy (and unconvincing) way of saying, “we promise not to do all that illegal stuff again, but we’re not going to bother to hold anyone accountable for it.” Of course, Henderson is the city where police officers got away completely unpunished for beating a motorist that was having a diabetic seizure, because according to District Attorney Steve Wolfson, they are trained in the academy to kick people in the head while arresting them. So, this intentional lack of accountability should not come as any more of a surprise than it would with the rest of the police departments throughout the Las Vegas area.
Kelly is a lifelong resident of Las Vegas, who’s been very active in local grassroots activism, as well as on a national level during his extensive travels. He’s also the founder/main contributor of Nevada Cop Block, served as editor/contributor at CopBlock.org and designed the Official Cop Block Press Passes.
____________________________________________________________________________
Connect with Kelly at these social networks; Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
KNOW where your cops live… (as well as JC and Common Sense).
SPREAD this info around.
The rest is self self explanatory.
Slightly misleading, it was in fact one (1) ticket that had the words “Interest of Justice Family/Friends of HPD” on it, not “one reason.” A friend told me that here tickets are voided out because of officer mistakes, wrong dates, failed radar/laser testing, or the driver’s become a CI (you be surprised how many people become CIs to beat a DWLS ticket).
March 2015
http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/crime-courts/audit-henderson-officers-improperly-voided-traffic-tickets
I’m not buying this story. Cops don’t have that many friends. Unless you include the ones they sword fight with at the FOP lodge. What a bunch of narsasistic losers.
State police in Clearfield, Pa were called to the scene of the county’s district attorney….who had crashed his mortorcycle while drunk.
The policeman lied in his report that the DA had crashed on “private land”, and therefore they lacked jurisdiction to press charges. ALL Bullshit.
These guys (cops, prosecutors, and judges) are as thick as thieves….and make sure the others can be as corrupt as they wish with no consequences.
Your article is bullshit. You have no specifics and you only rant about the bullshit in your head. In other words, you know nothing about the subject
The only bullshit around here is the fact you hang around here all daynight sucking cop dick. Please cut your own wrists and do the world a favor
The hilarity of you telling somebody that they know nothing about a subject, I couldn’t write better irony.
Breach of public trust is a very serious crime and needs to be punished.
I know of cops voiding tickets for almost every conceivable reason-change of heart after learning that the driver had 4 small children, not wanting the city to get the ticket money after they gave the city manager a raise(a lot of tickets got dismissed that week), after hearing that the driver had recently saved someone’s life, voiding it after seeing that they show up for court, or because you find out it is another officer’s sister. You will never see a ticket voided because the driver was wearing a “fuck the police” shirt and that has some people pwetty mad-whaa, not fair.