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Given the Constitution, Police Officers
with a creative imagination may make up a reason to
justify a reason to stop the person to see if they were
drinking. A frequent violation stated is a failure to maintain
lane, or some other traffic violation. At one-time police in
Nassau County, the State Troopers and Suffolk County had Police
cars that were equipped with video cameras in their vehicles,
which were used to corroborate the offense that led to the stop
of the accused.
In the early 1990’s, various insurance
companies donated cameras to the Nassau County Police
Department for their units that did DWI enforcement. The Cameras
were installed on the dash board where they could be activated to
tape the alleged offense. These cameras were also connected to a
wireless mike that was worn by the Police Officer which recorded
the conversation between the driver and the Police Officer. These
tapes were used to show juries how a person was driving, and show
how a the tests were given to the person on the side of road.
This let jurors judge for themselves whether the person was
driving as stated, or whether the person passed the tests or not.
That allowed the jury to hear the
interaction between the Police and the driver. Soon
after these cameras were installed, these cameras soon became
“disabled”. When they were working, frequently the Police failed
to record the actual reason for the stop. After the stop
occurred, the tests the police gave were given out of the view
of the camera. The cameras were later removed. Why? Because the
Police officers did not in fact, like the cameras that objectively
recorded all of the dialogue and actions which took place. The
fact is they did not like evidence that could show that their
actions were not appropriate or their opinions where not valid.
In one case, involving the State
Troopers, one State Trooper could be seen screaming in
the face of the driver while he pushed his finger into the
drivers’ chest while he was standing outside of the car. The
sound of the tape however, did not come through for some
unexplained reason. The Trooper during his direct testimony by
the Prosecutor stated that the suspect was being aggressive to
him. However, the tape clearly showed the defendant had his hands
behind his back, and made no threatening gestures, facial or
otherwise, to the Trooper. In fact, it was clear to the jury that
the Trooper was bullying the defendant, and screaming in his face
for no reason other than to intimidate him. A quick acquittal
followed. While videotaping the driving and stop of motor
vehicles is standard procedure in many departments throughout the
country; Nassau, Suffolk, and the New York State
Troopers on Long Island have discontinued
its use. Videotaping with sound is the best way to
show that a crime was committed and to prosecute those that are
truly guilty. One famous video clip involving a DWI arrest is
where the Police in Florida are caught on tape, in a DWI case
discussing how they are going to fabricate a Police Report against
a person arrested for DWI. One Officer stated that he would fill
out an accident report showing that the person who was arrested
for DWI caused the accident with a Police Car. Shockingly, the
fact was the Police Officer caused the accident. Their plan was
uncovered after defense counsel question why the tape did not have
sound on it. Only through the efforts of the defense attorney,
was it revealed that sound existed which showed that the Police
were committing a felony and framing the defendant.
Police Officers increase their chances of
making overtime by making an arrest by waiting until
the end of their shift to pull someone over. One can easily tell
this is the case if the Officer has been on duty for several hours
and stopped few, if any, drivers during his/her shift until the
end of his/her shift. Any DWI arrest based upon the procedures
will take 5 to 7 hours, for some reason, to process back at the
station.
If the Police Officer’s time to process
the arrest brings him beyond the end of his/her scheduled tour,
the Police Officer is paid overtime. This is worked Overtime.
The Police Officer can make extra Overtime that is not worked
related to the arrest based upon their contract. The nine hour
rule states that a Police Officer must have 9 hours between shifts
to rest. This is reasonable, however, in practice what it means is
that if a police officer is working a 7pm-7am shift, and makes an
arrest and does not finish processing the arrest until 12:00 p.m.
and he is scheduled to work that evening at 5:00 p.m., under their
contract they cannot start until 9:00 p.m. Although they will not
start work until 9:00 p.m., they will be paid for the 4 hours from
5:00 to 9:00 as if they actually worked those hours, even though
they did not. To appear in Court to testify in the morning, they
receive a minimum of 4 hours pay even if they are only present
for 10 minutes. In those cases, they appear and if they have to
testify, they can be there until 5 pm. If they have to work that
night at 7:00 pm, they will not start until 2:00 am the following
morning, and then will work to 7:00 am. Therefore, receiving their
straight pay for 7 hours they did not work. This system allowed
one of Nassau County Police Officers to make over $250,000, half
of which was for Overtime.
Given the financial rewards involved in
stopping and accusing those of driving while intoxicated,
there is an incentive to make a stop when one should not, to give
tests in such a way as to cause a person to fail, or give an
opinion about subjective observations that would lead to an
arrest, such as the condition of the eyes of a subject, strength
of odor, balance and so on. Common sense tells them that if they
do not have an opinion that the person was intoxicated, they would
never be called as witness, thereby eliminating any possibility of
a substantial payday.
The
members of the Nassau County Police Department Central Testing
Section where People are brought that are accused of Driving While
Intoxicated are among the highest paid in the Nassau County Police
Department.
Police Officers and Prosecutors,
frequently fight every attempt to reveal their financial interest
even though it is public record and can easily be found on
websites like
www.seethroughny.com
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