{"id":553,"date":"2011-05-24T10:22:21","date_gmt":"2011-05-24T15:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=553"},"modified":"2011-05-24T10:22:22","modified_gmt":"2011-05-24T15:22:22","slug":"criminal-courtesy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=553","title":{"rendered":"Criminal Courtesy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Last week, a deputy sheriff in Linn County was given citations for leaving the scene of an accident and failing to stop within the assured clear distance.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t driving a patrol car; he was off duty at the time and was driving his Ford pickup truck.<\/p>\n

Deputy James Crawford allegedly rear-ended a motorcycle at an intersection.\u00a0 No one was hurt, but Crawford was gone when Marion police arrived at the scene.\u00a0 Crawford is on paid administrative leave pending an \u201cinternal investigation\u201d.\u00a0 According to news accounts, the incident occurred at 6:45 p.m.\u00a0 However, Crawford waited until later that evening to bring himself in to the Marion City police and face the consequences.<\/p>\n

This suspicious behavior leaves some unanswered questions.\u00a0 A law enforcement officer knows that leaving the scene of an accident is a crime.\u00a0 It\u2019s a simple misdemeanor, but it\u2019s still a crime.\u00a0 Was the deputy intoxicated?\u00a0 What other reason could explain this odd conduct?<\/p>\n

But what is stranger is the reaction of the Marion Chief of Police, Harry Daugherty.\u00a0 Daugherty refused to comment because he said it would \u201ctaint Sheriff Brian Gardner\u2019s internal investigation, because only a few people know the truth.\u201d\u00a0 Huh?\u00a0 Sheriff Gardner is acting suspicious himself.\u00a0 He said that it\u2019s an \u201congoing personnel matter\u201d.\u00a0 No, he\u2019s incorrect.\u00a0 It\u2019s a criminal matter and should be treated as such.\u00a0 Especially since Daugherty admitted that there is \u201csome professional courtesy going on,\u201d and that most of this \u201cstuff would (normally) be released, but when it\u2019s internal, it gets a little sticky.\u201d\u00a0 Really?<\/p>\n

Fawkes-Lee & Ryan support civilian review boards (a.k.a. police review boards and a few other monikers).\u00a0 When law enforcement officers act like this they don\u2019t provide a lot of good argument for opposing review boards.\u00a0 This is downright blatant.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the time has come to make an exception to the exceptions in the public records statute, Chapter 22.\u00a0 When a criminal matter (or potential criminal matter) and a personnel matter clash, the public should have the information available.\u00a0 How can citizens take public safety seriously when a wink and nod supersedes the ethical behavior of those we rely upon to keep dangerous people off the roads?<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Copyright 2011. Fawkes-Lee & Ryan <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When law enforcement officers act like this they don\u2019t provide a lot of good argument for opposing review boards. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,65],"tags":[228,70,227,226,225,229,132],"class_list":["post-553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-issues","category-open-meetingspublic-records","tag-brian-gardner","tag-chapter-22","tag-harry-daugherty","tag-james-crawford","tag-linn-county","tag-professional-courtesy","tag-public-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=553"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":555,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions\/555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}