Tom Weitzel, the retired Riverside police chief, is right. It is time, and past time, for law enforcement agencies in America to build a database of problematic officers. A central depository of officers who have committed crimes or serious violations of policing policies would go far in keeping those troubled officers off the payroll of the department just down the road or in a nearby state.
In a moment when it is hard for most every police department to recruit and retain officers, so-called “shopping” for a new department by an errant cop is more and more common. As departments have begun to encourage “lateral hires” of an officer from another department, it gets easier for an officer to get hired elsewhere. The days when pensions held officers in place until they put in their 20 years are gone.
Weitzel, who has a history of proposing police reforms, says now is the moment for a national database as both cops and citizens recoil in the aftermath of the killing of Sonya Massey in Springfield. Sean Greyson, a deputy sheriff in downstate Sangamon County, has been both fired and now indicted for her death in a case where he was responding to Massey’s call of a suspected prowler at her home. He has pleaded innocent to the charges.
There were endless red flags about Greyson — if only all the information had been collected in one place. Greyson worked for six different police agencies over just four years, he had two DUIs and had been discharged from the Army for misconduct. Presented with that information, who would ever hire him? Who would give him a gun and policing powers?
Weitzel is right. We have the capacity to create this database of troubled officers. Collectively we lack the will to make this happen. Black women such as Sonya Massey pay with their lives for this failure.
How about our market!
The Brookfield Farmers Market is the best in Illinois, the best in the Midwest, the fourth best local market in all of America. So says the American Farmland Trust in its 16th annual America’s Farmers Market Celebration.
OK. We get it. Sometimes these prizes go to organizations that are darned good at promoting themselves in an online voting sweepstakes. And if our Brookfield market is good at that, then bless their hearts. It is certainly not the only thing this volunteer-driven, healthy-eating, community-building project excels at.
We give organizers credit for energizing their happy customers to cast their votes. Grumpy market-goers are not taking part in this sort of fun.
The market announced it will take its $850 in cash, add in some “generous sponsorships” and hand out four scholarships to Brookfield teens.
This is a happy and proud outcome.