Today's blog theme seems to be public officials who are willing to lie to the public but do it in ways that are inartful.
Two Colorado Springs Police Department police officers were accused of inflating the number of traffic tickets they wrote in internal police reports. They retired before the story broke.
Two Colorado Springs motorcycle officers falsified the number of traffic tickets they issued, apparently in a bid to take credit for work they didn't do, police said Tuesday.
In a practice that went undiscovered for two months, officers Elvin Hill and Dan Myers sometimes duplicated each other's traffic stops on internal log sheets they presented to supervisors, according to the 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office, which reviewed an internal investigation conducted by the Colorado Springs Police Department.
The best part of the story told by The Gazette was this quote:
Asked if officers in the 24-member motorcycle unit must meet quotas for the number of tickets they issue, police spokesman Lt. David Whitlock said no such order exists in the General Orders that govern Colorado Springs police.
That kind of carefully worded quote isn't a flat denial that there are quotas. It is simply a dodge stating that the quotas aren't stated in the general orders.
The reporter obviously pressed him on the point:
But he added that he could not rule out the possibility of a "minimum performance standard.
Even the Police Chief got caught up in his own version of the lie:
The police news release - titled "Internal Investigation Yields High Level of Accountability" - quoted police Chief Richard Myers as saying that police are "particularly sensitive" to those alleging that police rely on traffic tickets to fill the city's coffers.
"This is why we are providing details about what we discovered, what we did about it, and reaffirming the sense of accountability this community expects and I expect from our police officers," he is quoted as saying.
Note to the Colorado Springs Police Department: If you want to appear to be truthful, don't use weasel words. These are weasel words. Try saying flatly, if you dare "There ain't no stinkin' quotas."
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