"A Rampant Culture Of Corruption"
An Alabama Grand Jury says the Hanceville PD should be abolished after the death of jailer and the arrest of four officers, which included the chief and a female spouse (six total) on a litany of drug related and abuse of office charges.
At the news conference today, the Cullman County Sheriff, Matt Gentry (photo left), said his office would fill in any gaps and he was also of the opinion that the department needed disbanded. Evidently, the employee who died of a drug overdose while on duty, was using a broom handle to manipulate the lock to the evidence room and helping his self to drugs being held as evidence in pending cases. The death of jailer led to the investigation. This is big news for conservative community/ county of Cullman. Link to the story and photos can be found by clicking HERE.
This past weekend I watched the movie, Serpico. It's what happens to good cops.
ReplyDeleteThe police in our fair city are all solid men and women. I know a number of them by name. In fact, I spoke to the Chief last night at a social event. He is widely experienced and was popularly promoted after we canned our last Chief, who was a nice fellow but not competent. They are a good crew and mugs like these jamokes would get nowhere with our officers. Well, maybe tossed into the river, but that would not concern me.
ReplyDeleteCullman County is one of the best all around places in Alabama. It has great schools, jobs and growing, and fantastic people for the most part. The sheriff is a great guy who had announced his retirement before this happened. Cullman is transitioning from a small rural-agrarian area into a city and is starting to feel some of the negative growing pains. This corruption is not a part of that. They have good leadership in county and local government and will adjust. As Sheriff Gentry said, the deeds of a few bad cops hurts the image of good cops too. I guess the stars lined up and half of Hanceville's PD got caught. This sort of things happens (not on this scale usually) more than a lot of folks realize in small towns in rural areas where police departments and sheriff offices. First of all they can't afford to pay much ("pay peanuts, get monkey work"). Second there is a labor shortage of qualified personnel in this field. The State of Alabama requires APO certification/academy to work in LE). Most men (not many women police around these parts) who are worth their salt and want to work are already gainfully employed. Not long ago a deputy where I lived was forced to resign for sending dick pics to young women. In a lot of places he would have been fired. It isn't but a couple of weeks and that ex-deputy was hired in a town in the neighboring county. He was making about nine bucks more an hour and they furnished him a patrol vehicle to drive back and forth to work (60 mile round trip). Long story short, he crashed the vehicle and was DUI in uniform. I am wondering how long it will be before he takes a job at some other small town and so it goes.
DeleteThanks, JiA, that is some interesting and worthwhile perspective, although not entirely heartening.
DeleteTake a good look at those mug shots. Lemme guess, they're all cousins or some other familial link and if you trace them back far enough their ancestors were all criminals.
DeleteA sorry looking bunch of inbred red neck good ol boys on the sheriffs dept making for a great place to live? That's that southeren charm showing through.
Left Shoshone County Idaho due to such a sheriff department. The left-coasters moving in and blowing up house prices and taxes back in 2006 didn't help, just like the po-po.
ReplyDeleteSo much meth was running through back then, run and protected by SCSO, bodies found in gulches were pretty common.