What's Happening to Law Enforcement?

I read a news item today that disturbed me, as it seems to be part of a frightening societal trend. A deputy was suspended for arresting teenagers involved in a burglary. On the face of it, considering the circumstances, custodial "detention" (you don't actually "arrest" juveniles) may not have been the best option: the teens had invaded a lake house to have a party. Some damage was done, but this wasn't a typical break-in-take-what-you-can-and-sell-it type of "burglary." Nevertheless, the deputy had parents bring kids in for questioning, and about a dozen ended up at DJJ in Columbia. Many comments posted to the article were from citizens outraged by the suspension, though a few pointed out the fact that burglary is a felony, and that kids often get scared enough by this type of experience to think twice before doing something equally stupid. All are good points, but the main question is: Why is the deputy suspended from his duties? Was custodial detention so far beyond reason that his ability to carry out his duties is in question? Is he accused of a crime? Did he beat up the kids? Barring some accusation of something beyond putting the kids into custody, I believe suspension is unwarranted. Any benefit gained by the fear generated in the kids over being incarcerated has been effectively negated by their parents' "outrage" and insistence on disciplinary action against the officer.

Good job, PARENTS. You took what could have been a painful but valuable lesson for your kids, and all the kids they would have relayed their horror stories to, and turned it into another example of how the world owes them something and they need never take responsibility for their actions as long as they can claim someone else did something wrong. Please don't tell me how you took away their Mustang convertible, or their XBox, or their cell phone, or whatever luxury you deprived them of for a short time as "punishment". Kids need to understand that when they do something wrong, the results, and the response of the world, will not always be in "fair" proportion to what they did wrong - sometimes the consequences can far outweigh what they anticipated, and they will have to live with it. Driving too fast, drinking irresponsibly, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, can COST you, and often it costs much more than can be easily recovered. Why deprive them of that lesson? Why coddle and protect them from their own actions? These are teenagers, not 6 year olds! Old enough to drive, taking their lives and ours in their hands every day. Old enough to be out unsupervised, making decisions that can cost them their lives, and others their lives.

I believe the proper response from the parents to law enforcement should be: "Thank you for getting to the bottom of this matter. Where can I pick up my child, and what time do I need to be there? How much damage is my child responsible for, and whom do I make the check out to?" And the response to the child should be: "How did you like jail? We'll get to what you are actually responsible for and how we will handle it later, but for now, do you understand that things can go very badly, very quickly when you go places and do things on your own? Looking back on this, what should you have done? What should have led you to conclude for yourself that you should "stay away" or "not go" or made it click in your mind that "I need to leave?" How are you going to earn the money to pay for your attorney?" Unfortunately, it's too late for that now......

I don't know where we went wrong, but societal standards have taken a rather frightening turn for the worse in recent years. It has to have been a slow, insidious process. No one would have suggested 25 years ago that a deputy be suspended for carting kids off to juvie for ONE NIGHT. Parents would have been outraged at their children, and too embarrassed to complain at all, and certainly not to the tune of "my child should not be subject to being put in jail like anyone else charged with a crime can be." Parents held their children to standards, schools reinforced discipline that was expected to START at home, and kids generally had a healthy combination of respect for, and fear of, authority. There were limits, they were known and we were all a lot better off. But somehow, some way, the idea that discipline is bad for children crept into the collective consciousness of our society. We give out trophies to every kid who shows up for a sports team. Kids are given "social promotions" in school whether they've learned the required material to advance a grade or not. Colleges give credit for "effort" whether the students demonstrate mastery of the subject or not. Parents let their children run wild at home, in stores, restaurants, theatres and in school. Schools can't discipline children except to suspend them for the least little things, giving them free days out of school (how is this a punishment, exactly?) while having no ability at all to deal with the utter lack of self discipline created by parents who refuse to demand respect and obedience from their offspring.

When are we going to wake up from the stupor and realize that we have been WRONG to accept downright freakish psychological "models" of childrearing that forego discipline and confuse parenting with befriending kids? I hope it's sooner rather than later.....

Now, what does all this have to do with Criminal Defense Investigations? I believe that the increase in crime is directly attributable to the aforementioned decline in discipline by parents and schools. We are overwhelmed with crime. Law enforcement has too many cases, too few investigators and too much pressure to resolve the big cases quickly. This translates into investigations being done too quickly with inadequate personnel and other resources. Many law enforcement investigators are good at what they do, or would be if given adequate time and resources, but the overwhelming work load makes it almost impossible to conduct thorough, complete investigations every time. Often they come up with the correct conclusion even so, but if they don't, there is not only a victim who doesn't get justice, there is a criminal who isn't caught and convicted, and all too often a person who is innocent of the charge is punished. That's where we come in. No good defense investigator actually believes that law enforcement in general doesn't care or doesn't try, though there are those few LE folks who really don't care. Good investigators have a great deal of respect for law enforcement investigators even as we pick their work apart after the fact. We're all on the same side, though - we want the right person to be punished, which of necessity means that the wrong person shouldn't be.