The RateMyCop Saga

So even as police departments across the country are setting up sex offender registries, drug offender registries, and posting the mugs and names of suspected johns online, they also took a great deal umbrage early this month when Gino Sesto set up a site called RateMyCop.com. The premise is simple: Sesto wrote to police departments across the country, and obtained a list of the names and badge numbers of their officers. He then posted the names online in a format broken down by state and city, and encouraged users to rate their experiences with individual officers. All of the information he posted was already open to the public. He didn't post the identities of any undercover officers.

Police groups went nuts, making the dubious argument that posting the publicly-available names and badge numbers of police officers on the Internet somehow jeopardized the safety of individual officers. Sesto said he had even planned on adding a feature that would allow individual officers to write responses to complaints made against them. But police groups persisted.

Jerry Dyer, president of the California Police Chiefs Association, told Wired the site could give citizens the opportunity to "unfairly malign" individual officers, and said he'd be asking the legislature to pass a law making sites like RateMyCop.com illegal.

Last week, it all got weirder. Hosting service GoDaddy mysteriously terminated Sesto's account, and pulled RateMyCop.com offline. GoDaddy has offered several explanations to Wired's ThreatLevel blog, but thus far, none of them have made much sense. Sesto gave up on GoDaddy, and next tried to get the site hosted at RackSpace. They turned him down. After initial accepting his down payment for hosting services, a RackSpace lawyer sent a letter to Sesto stating that, "We believe that the website to be found at www.ratemycop.com as described to our sales representative could create a risk to the health and safety of law enforcement officers."

The good news is, the site's back up, now, though it isn't clear who's hosting it.

Me, I think police departments should be required to post all citizen complaints against individual officers online in a searchable database. Individual officers, their union reps, or their departments could post responses or explanations to frivolous claims. Police officers are public servants. Not only that, they're public servants with the power to arrest, detain, and use lethal force. If certain officers are the subject of repeated complaints and aren't being properly investigated internally, the public ought to be informed of that. This culture of secrecy—and of intimidating anyone who dares question it—isn't healthy.

Comments

Ska | March 14, 2008, 8:39am | #

could give citizens the opportunity to "unfairly malign" individual officers

Because the police would never do that to someone who isn't a cop.

How many cops suffer from the same affliction Client 9 does? The one that makes them think they can do whatever the fuck they want, but us non-police folks should respect their au-thor-i-tai?

tarran | March 14, 2008, 8:41am | #

I notice that the police unions aren't too upset about a simmilar website called www.copswritingcops.com which also publicly posts the names of police officers for public shaming. Although in the case of that website the people complaining are other police officers who feel that they aren't being treated fairly.

So, if a police officer publicly complains about another police officer, it is OK. If, on the other hand, a non-police officer does it's a threat.

Remember the score guys: if you're not cop, you're little people!

tarran | March 14, 2008, 8:43am | #

BTW, www.copswritingcops.com is also hosted by GoDaddy.

Radley Balko | March 14, 2008, 8:47am | #

"BTW, www.copswritingcops.com is also hosted by GoDaddy."

How can you tell?

Fluffy | March 14, 2008, 8:49am | #

I occasionally will rant in these comments about how the application of technology to existing rules sets can create disruption.

A typical example I've chatted about with many of you is speed limit cameras. I've argued that the only reason existing speed limits have been acceptable to the driving public is because they were difficult to enforce and were therefore overwhelmingly ignored except at those rare times when a cop was around. Using technology to allow for actual enforcement of existing speed limits creates a situation that many people will probably find intolerable, even though the underlying rules themselves are the same as they have always been.

I think this is another example of this. There are many different types of information which have always been rightly part of the public domain. But "public domain" used to mean "available if you want to research through a pile of musty paper in a basement somewhere". Now that "public domain" means "really easy to look up at an instant's notice" the subjects of public domain information are pissed. And it's very important that we don't allow their pissing and moaning or WATB tales about "safety" to change the concept of public domain information.

The bottom line on all cases of this kind should be: the information is public. Period. Don't like it? Tough. Is the information easier to find than it used to be? Tough. And that goes for concealed permit holders whose court filings are posted online as much as it goes for cops.

tarran | March 14, 2008, 8:52am | #

Radley I used whois and nslookup to find that out.

I'll send you an email with the text output shortly.

Episiarch | March 14, 2008, 8:57am | #

As much as I despise the current state of the police, I think in the long run it may be self-correcting.

The cops are barely restrained as it is at this point. They consider themselves a higher class of citizen, and act accordingly. Unfortunately, there are a lot of "law & order" assholes out there who support the police in every situation, and this allows the situation to continue.

However, more and more people, including those who automatically support the police, are having run-ins with the pigs. And they are learning. Nothing changes a "law & order" supporter type faster than being harassed and intimidated by a cop and then seeing nothing done about their complaints.

Everyone I talk to hates the police. Hates them. Sometimes I encounter people who are ambivalent. But I can't recall the last time I spoke to someone who unabashedly supports them. Everyone has a negative story, a bad experience.

This can only increase, and should result in a backlash.

burt hoovis | March 14, 2008, 9:16am | #

site appears not to be working again.

advantage: The Man

tarran | March 14, 2008, 9:24am | #

OK, I went back and ran some tools to look at copswritingcops and I was wrong in my most recent post.

While their IP address is part of a block assigned to GoDaddy, the IP address appears to have been sublet to a company called Wild West Domains Inc, who are the people who actually are hosting the site.

So GoDaddy is not being hypocritical. But the police unions are.

Personally, I think both websited should be allowed to operated. If you don't want the public to know who you are, don't be a cop. You know, if you can't do the time, don't do the crime.

Joe | March 14, 2008, 9:25am | #

"Everyone I talk to hates the police. Hates them."

Oh yeah, couldn't be that you hang out with a bunch of assholes, now could it?

Episiarch | March 14, 2008, 9:29am | #

Oh yeah, couldn't be that you hang out with a bunch of assholes, now could it?

I don't hang out with you, so that's one less asshole for me to hang out with.

To answer your question, however, it refers to co-workers, friends, and people I meet socially. Everyone means everyone.

Maybe you should go suck some cop dick instead of impugning my associates.

parse | March 14, 2008, 9:40am | #

Everyone I talk to hates the police. Hates them. Sometimes I encounter people who are ambivalent. But I can't recall the last time I spoke to someone who unabashedly supports them. Everyone has a negative story, a bad experience.

I don't know how Nixon won. No one I know voted for him.

LarryA | March 14, 2008, 9:42am | #

"Everyone I talk to hates the police. Hates them." Oh yeah, couldn't be that you hang out with a bunch of assholes, now could it?

I “hang out” (work) with several cops, probation officers, etc. who run our batterers/anger management classes. They have their own set of negative LEO stories and bad experiences. In fact, I hear more complaints about their fellow officers than about their court-mandated students.

if you can't do the time, don't do the crime.

“If you don’t have anything to hide...”

Pig Mannix | March 14, 2008, 9:42am | #

@Radley

Actually, it's not hosted by GoDaddy, it's registered to Wild West Domains. Check the whois database:


ppc-g4:~ xxxxxx$ whois copswritingcops.com

Whois Server Version 2.0

Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.

Domain Name: COPSWRITINGCOPS.COM
Registrar: WILD WEST DOMAINS, INC.
Whois Server: whois.wildwestdomains.com
Referral URL: http://www.wildwestdomains.com
Name Server: NS1.COPSWRITINGCOPS.COM
Name Server: NS2.COPSWRITINGCOPS.COM
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientRenewProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 14-oct-2007
Creation Date: 13-apr-2006
Expiration Date: 13-apr-2010


ratemycop.com is registered to name.com

ppc-g4:~ xxxxxx$ whois ratemycop.com

Whois Server Version 2.0

Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.

Domain Name: RATEMYCOP.COM
Registrar: NAME.COM LLC
Whois Server: whois.name.com
Referral URL: http://www.name.com
Name Server: NS1.MYCPANELHOST.INFO
Name Server: NS2.MYCPANELHOST.INFO
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientRenewProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 11-mar-2008
Creation Date: 05-aug-2007
Expiration Date: 05-aug-2008

>>> Last update of whois database: Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:38:57 UTC

Fluffy | March 14, 2008, 9:45am | #

To be fair, everyone loves the cops when they need one.

But I think it's pretty telling that the cop unions don't believe in the fundamental principles of the society they're defending.

It is an article of faith in our society that free expression and transparency benefits the good and harms the malefactor. If the principles underlying our society are valid, having cops rated online will result in good cops getting good ratings and bad cops getting bad ratings. The only reason to prevent this process is if you don't really believe in the principles of a free society.

I can't decide if the opponents of this site are primarily being assholes because they're cops, or because they're in a union.

They may be being assholes because they're cops, and as cops they don't really believe in freedom.

Or they may be being assholes because they're union members, and as union members they don't believe that their membership should be subject to individual ratings or individual criticism that isn't handled via the union.

I can't decide.

And no joe, this is not my admission that I don't like unions. I merely observe that they quite naturally have different priorities than the rest of us in certain situations.

LarryA | March 14, 2008, 9:45am | #

I don't know how Nixon won. No one I know voted for him.

I did. Another lesser of two evils election. At the time I liked him better than I now do McCain.

Pete | March 14, 2008, 9:56am | #

I bet if we had competing private defense agencies, in the interest of being transparent and professional, they'd offer to post complaints against their employees as a way to cater to customers.

The Democratic Republican | March 14, 2008, 10:03am | #

i just clicked on the ratemycop.com link, and it said the webpage wasn't there.

dhex | March 14, 2008, 10:06am | #

it seems to be up now.

i don't think something like this will have much of an impact either way, but it may be the seed for something far better in terms of transparency.

though i think the days of the genuine community beat cop are largely gone. too many people.

Reinmoose | March 14, 2008, 10:11am | #

This culture of secrecy—and of intimidating anyone who dares question it—isn't healthy.

You said it, brother.

Police officers all too frequently forget that they are there to serve us, not the other way around.
In my area there was recently a couple of incidents involving police who conducted unnecessary and improper searches (both body cavity on a public street and strip searches) of innocent people, and it has created quite the backlash. But for real... how do people with this kind of mentality get so much protection? Shouldn't the police departments be eager to get rid of corrupt cops so as to have a chance at a better relationship with their communities?

Bagehot | March 14, 2008, 10:18am | #

Don't forget: the police who killed Ahmadou
Diallou were hired under Clinton's Safe Streets
scheme. Trash in uniform is still trash, and
even veteran police will tell you most of the
new people are in the wrong job. N.B.: a lot of
the head cases wandering back from Iraq are
going to end up on the beat.

Johncjackson | March 14, 2008, 10:31am | #

Wild West Domains is Go Daddy. They are a GoDaddy reseller, which means that it is hosted by GoDaddy.

I have some domains ( 60 ish) and a few hosting accounts with GoDaddy. Probaly not enough to make a difference if I boycotted them though.

Considering Bob Parsons and GoDaddy's struggle to get their double entendre T&A commercials past the censors, I thought maybe they would have better judgment.

I guess not.

Jacob | March 14, 2008, 10:48am | #

Someone needs to tell the guy about nearlyfreespeech.net, the web host that believes in the first amendment.

https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/about/background.php

Dave W. | March 14, 2008, 10:53am | #

When the site first came back up it was reaaalllllyyyyy slow. Yesterday it seemed to be operating at a reasonable speed, but not as fast as most sites.

I have tried to engage with police at 2 sites. At one I was told by the admin that I was banned despite the fact that I had carefully avoided violating any of the rules because I was causing too many police to get upset and speak intemperately. I appreciated the explanation, although I think that is a bad way to run a board.

At the other police site, I only lasted about 2 hours, I was accused of being someone I wasn't. A couple of my posts were deleted, and then when I said that they were deleted, I was accused of lying about that (even though the posts were still there visible on the thread with the comment "deleted by mod" where my text had been).

My point is that if police want reasonable people (like myself) off of police friendly sites they have to understand that we still need a place to go.

R C Dean | March 14, 2008, 11:03am | #

Lemme translate:

could give citizens the opportunity to "unfairly malign" exercise their rights of free speech regarding individual officers

Rhywun | March 14, 2008, 11:07am | #

Trash in uniform is still trash

It doesn't help here in NYC that the union sold out new cops for their own benefit. Starting salary is like $24,000.

I'd say the root of cop corruption is split about 50/50 between cop culture and unions.

J sub D | March 14, 2008, 11:10am | #

People don't give automatic respect to LEOs like they used to. There are multiple reasons for that, so here's my partial list.

Too many laws ensnaring too many people who haven't done any harm. It isn't the cop's fault, but it is human nature to blame the messenger.

Unionized police forces do what unions do. One of which is to fight any disciplinary action, no matter the seriousness of the offense.

The heirarchy in the law enforcement community also has a vested interest in ignoring wrongdoing. Nobody likes airing their dirty linen in public. It make the chief, and the city government who hired him look bad. It's more comfortable to ignore the problems.

The people most likely to want to be LEOs are the least suited for the task.

The War on Drugs Sanity.

The blue wall of silence. Every violent cop who assaults suspects is known to by his co-workers. Without the videotape, which of the cops at the Rodney King beatdown would have come forward, implicating his fellow officers? Every cop who plants evidence is protected by his partner. The marijuana in Kathryn Johnstons home was not an isolated incident, and every inner city resident knows it. Every cop who commits perjury is protected by the entire criminal justice system.

They behave like assholes when they feel like it. I know of no other profession that takes out thier personal problems on the public in a way remotely similar to cops.

I've never been arrested for anything, I've gotten less than my share of traffic citations, and I no longer respect cops. There are good ones out there, but I consider it foolish to assume that the one I'm dealing with is one of them. Figger the odds is my attitude.

Saint Subversive | March 14, 2008, 11:14am | #

Why anyone would want to host their site at a company with a name as flaky as "Go Daddy" is another question. It sounds more like a forum for incestual pedophiles than a hosting company.

The site is back up and running, and more power to it. Sorry cops, this is a battle that you will lose. I realize it bruises your inflated egos to have the jackboots aimed at your own posteriors for once, but this is America, and last time I checked, you arent the SS (though many of you seem to think you are). Many cops have good ratings there. Try doing your jobs honestly and stop abusing the public and you wont have anything to worry about.

T | March 14, 2008, 11:35am | #

To be fair, everyone loves the cops when they need one.

Never dealt with the Houston Police Department, I take it? It's great to call the cops, wait 2 hours for them to show, and then have them tell you "Well, nothing's gonna happen anyway, so there's no point in us filling out any paperwork, so bye!" Way to do your job, there, piggy.

Citizen Nothing | March 14, 2008, 11:47am | #

Cops deserve all the hating they get, but I have to admit I had great experience in my last interaction.
My plates were stolen from my car parked downtown. I called in, thinking it would take hours to deal with. Instead, I got a call back from a cop on my cell phone. He took the info in about two minutes, gave me the report number, his name, badge number and cruiser phone number and said to have any LEO call him if I got stopped before I got replacement plates.
Quick, professional and, unfortunately in my experience, rare.

Jennifer | March 14, 2008, 11:50am | #

I've never been arrested for anything, I've gotten less than my share of traffic citations, and I no longer respect cops. There are good ones out there, but I consider it foolish to assume that the one I'm dealing with is one of them.

Ditto for me: not a single arrest, never a second in jail, and very, very few tickets. But with one exception, I've yet to meet or hear of a cop actually deserving of any respect beyond the bare baseline given to any human.

Nephilium | March 14, 2008, 11:54am | #

I've actually met good cops... and the good cops are worth their weight in gold... I've also had experience dealing with the high and mighty types.

By default, I'm willing to give a cop the benefit of the doubt until he does something dickish... which with the bad cops, usually takes about five minutes.

I think one of my favorite times seeing something was when one of the good cops was telling bars that vice was coming down to crack down on everyone... except the bars that paid them off.

Nephilium

thoreau | March 14, 2008, 11:55am | #

A student at my university started a site for rating professors. I'm getting trashed there, so you know what I did? I wrote to the admin and asked if I could post my own self-evaluation there. Better to respond to criticism rather than demand that the criticism stop.

Episiarch | March 14, 2008, 11:55am | #

Jennifer, HPD is as bad as they say?

Rimfax | March 14, 2008, 11:58am | #

I've been reading a lot of anecdotes lately about GoDaddy abusing their customers and sending threatening sounding marketing promotions to current and former customers. Sorry, I couldn't find any links among the plethora of Google results with various other complaints about GoDaddy.

Rimfax | March 14, 2008, 12:01pm | #

A friend who was a cop on Long Island eventually quit, largely because he was tired of watching cops clean up the evidence when other cops wrecked while driving drunk.

Rimfax | March 14, 2008, 12:07pm | #

Remember, cops never lie:

FBI Hid Patriot Act Abuses

Jennifer | March 14, 2008, 12:11pm | #

Jennifer, HPD is as bad as they say?

That city's not my beat, so I don't know firsthand. The town I mostly cover is a prosperous suburb where real crime is quite rare, so the cops go out of their way to look for things to bust. It's similar to the way a kid raised in an overly clean home is more likely to develop an allergy, because his immune system doesn't want to sit around twiddling its thumbs.

I do recall one piece I wrote soon after I got here: a (clean cut, Jewish) young man in his 20s was pulled over and hassled for over 30 minutes. The excuse for pulling him over was that the ornament hanging from his rear-view mirror was too large (it was a mezuzah, half the size of a pencil), but then the cop started asking questions about drugs and can I search your car and are you SURE you don't have drugs and if you're innocent then why can't I search your car?

brec | March 14, 2008, 12:13pm | #

Under the first (Mar. 11) post at the Wired blog linked to by Radley there is another (Mar. 12) in which GoDaddy is reported to claim that they pulled the site not for its content but because a spike in usage caused an unacceptably high number of simultaneous connections. This claim seems plausible to me -- whether it's true is of course another question.

Jennifer | March 14, 2008, 12:22pm | #

GoDaddy is reported to claim that they pulled the site not for its content but because a spike in usage caused an unacceptably high number of simultaneous connections.

Well, there's a hell of a marketing campaign: "GoDaddy: the go-to host for unpopular sites that don't get a lot of visitors!"

Sal Paradise | March 14, 2008, 12:27pm | #

The petty bickering on www.copswritingcops.com makes me feel all warm and squooshy inside. Thanks.

Episiarch | March 14, 2008, 12:36pm | #

The town I mostly cover is a prosperous suburb where real crime is quite rare, so the cops go out of their way to look for things to bust.

So glad I grew up in a small town in NE CT that had--and still has--zero cops.

DG | March 14, 2008, 12:54pm | #

It doesnt matter who holds the domain. The question is, who is hosting it? The answer is ServerCentral. I know their management and they are standup guys.

Kwix | March 14, 2008, 1:08pm | #

DG,
Which domain are you talking about? I show ratemycop.com as being located at 205.234.222.18 which does not resolve out to ServerCentral but rather a hosting service out of Washington state.

Mo | March 14, 2008, 1:17pm | #

To be fair, everyone loves the cops when they need one.

Not me. When my mom got her passport (American) and cash stolen the day before she was traveling, she got treated like shit when she asked to file a police report to take to Passport Services. They accused her of lying about getting her passport stolen and asked for proof of citizenship (because when I travel, I always have a copy of my birth certificate).

Before she attempted this, I told her not to bother because NYPD is worthless.

Ayn R. Key | March 14, 2008, 1:24pm | #

The website is up, but not interactive. It even resists "view source".

Dave W. | March 14, 2008, 1:27pm | #

I wrote to the admin and asked if I could post my own self-evaluation there. Better to respond to criticism rather than demand that the criticism stop.

Lissen carefully to what they say, T. It is when the students become the teachers that the learning can really begin!

robc | March 14, 2008, 1:30pm | #

I fall into the never arrested/fewer tickets category (except for a 2 year period in the late 90s where I couldnt get my car without getting a ticket for something, it seemed). I have only had 1 positive interaction with a cop and that was for the "worst" ticket I received - 50 mph in a 25 mph school zone. The ticket was semi-bogus and he was almost apologetic for giving me the ticket (he did check the box allowing me to go to traffic school, which saved me a ton of money because 25 over in a school zone aint cheap). Every other cop who has pulled me over has been a dick.

sven | March 14, 2008, 1:31pm | #

...and said he'd be asking the legislature to pass a law making sites like RateMyCop.com illegal.

So, in essence, Jerry Dyer would like to get us to a place where police could potentially arrest people for criticizing the police? Hmmm. Nope, I really don't see a problem.

Smappy | March 14, 2008, 1:31pm | #

By my recollection I've dealt with cops five times (in four states). Three of those interactions the cop was fair and professional. Twice the cop was an ass. So the majority of the time I've had no issue with the police, but if my interactions count as a random sample, there's way too many bad apples out there.

robc | March 14, 2008, 1:32pm | #

It even resists "view source".

I had no problem viewing source. Could that be a Firefox v IE issue? Im using firefox.

Dave W. | March 14, 2008, 1:49pm | #

My breakdown of encounters:

Above Average Good: 2 (one involved going after an armed neighbor, the other was a massive, sustained response to a persistent peeping tom)

Average: about 12 or so (most being me getting traffic tickets or warnings)

Below Average: 2 (one was an arrest of my designated driver (who ended up blowing 0.00 at the station), the other was a rude, late, violent and intrusive response when I reported an attempted late night break-in at my apartment)

Episiarch | March 14, 2008, 1:54pm | #

Ironically, the 6 (yes, 6) times I've been arrested and booked (never for violence) I was treated pretty well. It's been the non-arrests, such as traffic stops and the like, where the cops ranged from arrogant to hostile.

However, the one thing that is ever-present: total indifference. They don't give a shit, even if what they are doing to you can fuck you terribly.

DG | March 14, 2008, 2:01pm | #

To be more clear: RateMyCop.com at 205.234.222.18 is hosted by HostForWeb, which is a downstream client of ServerCentral. Both are located in Chicago, and HostForWeb is colocated at SC. I utilized traceroute and dig to determine this. Its not tough for a network engineer of any skills at all.

J sub D | March 14, 2008, 2:02pm | #

When my wife passed, the cops of course responded to the 911 call. One asked me, while my wife's body was still laying on the living room floor, "Do you have a permit for that porch work?"

I shit you not.

Episiarch | March 14, 2008, 2:18pm | #

Jsub, that doesn't surprise me. The job desensitizes people to such a degree that they don't even seem human any more.

johnl | March 14, 2008, 2:21pm | #

The funny thing is that I might never have heard of ratemycop if it had not been for the shutdown.

pinko | March 14, 2008, 2:22pm | #

No pity whatsoever for these guys, even if some of the better among them are unfairly maligned (which the whole lot of them deserve to be until they get their house in order). We finally have the tools technologically to at least begin to hold them accountable. Tough shit for them.

I am another one of those folks who've had minimal contact with police (one arrest, and several tickets years ago), and I've consistently found cops to be rude, arrogant, aggressive, and generally hostile to all non-cops. I actually love to see them squirming and on the receiving end of something. It's a nice turnabout. And this from a white, well-educated, law-abiding citizen who has had no contact with any of them for years.

Please keep posting this stuff. The collective police mentality towards civilians is an issue that stinks to high heavens and needs a good airing.

Aresen | March 14, 2008, 2:24pm | #

LarryA | March 14, 2008, 9:45am | #

I don't know how Nixon won. No one I know voted for him.

I did. Another lesser of two evils election. At the time I liked him better than I now do McCain.

I think you mean "evil of two lessers".

Ayn R. Key | March 14, 2008, 2:43pm | #

I'm using IE, and that is resisting "view source". But more importantly, I'm not able to actually click on any links on the site. Is that also an IE vs FF issue?

Episiarch | March 14, 2008, 2:50pm | #

If he is bouncing around from host to host then he's constantly changing his IP address, and it can take time (hours or more) for "ratemycop.com" to be associated with the new IP address in all domain name controllers. Some people may be going to the old host (and not finding the site).

It is possible to javscript it so the page does not allow "view source", at least in IE. Don't know about Firefox.

Nash | March 14, 2008, 3:01pm | #

"Everyone I talk to hates the police. Hates them. Sometimes I encounter people who are ambivalent. But I can't recall the last time I spoke to someone who unabashedly supports them. Everyone has a negative story, a bad experience."

It's always been this way but the sphere of influence has increased significantly and is reaching higher income levels. In the past only the poor or people of color had these types of run in. Now the average middle class Joe is getting hit up this type of harassment (car searches, DWI's, loitering etc).

It's pretty sad that it had to come to this for us to wake up and it will correct but I think it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

Chris Potter | March 14, 2008, 3:13pm | #

Jerry Dyer, president of the California Police Chiefs Association, told Wired the site could give citizens the opportunity to "unfairly malign" individual officers, and said he'd be asking the legislature to pass a law making sites like RateMyCop.com illegal.

I know it's a quaint concern, but wouldn't such a law run afoul of the right to "petition for a redress of grievances" in the 1st Amendment?

R C Dean | March 14, 2008, 3:23pm | #

one of the good cops was telling bars that vice was coming down to crack down on everyone... except the bars that paid them off.

Wait, you're telling me one of the good ones was running interference for the extortion ring? Nice. Real nice.

johnl | March 14, 2008, 3:24pm | #

The site works fine on Safari, view source included. Sounds like an IE problem. Or a windows problem. Try the universal Windows antidote (restarting).

Gan | March 14, 2008, 3:49pm | #

The site appears to be hosted by SC Net (http://www.scnet.net/).

TrickyVic | March 14, 2008, 4:12pm | #

""" If you don't want the public to know who you are, don't be a cop."""

Or, if you don't want the public to know who you are, don't be a public servant!

I say a public official, doing a job on behalf of the people, in a public place, has NO expectation of privacy.

wingtip | March 14, 2008, 5:20pm | #

Citizens' Police Review Board

If you feel that you have been treated inappropriately by an officer, you may file a police misconduct complaint with either: 1) the Citizens' Police Review Board (CPRB), a civilian police oversight agency or 2) Internal Affairs Division (OPD/IAD).
The CPRB has civilian investigators and uses a public process to review complaints.
After a complaint has been filed with the CPRB:
Complaints are investigated by a civilian complaint investigator who prepares an investigative report for the Citizens' Police Review Board. The Board is a nine member advisory body.
The Board conducts public hearings on some cases and make written recommendations to the City Manager for discipline of officers or rangers.
The City Manager decides whether to implement the recommendations of the Board, to implement them with modifications, or not to implement them........

prison guard's union

California Correctional Peace Officers Association
The California Prison system is the third largest penal system in the country, costing $5.7 billion dollars a year and housing over 161,000 inmates. Since 1980 the number of California prisons has tripled and the number of inmates has jumped significantly. In the past few years controversies involving prison expansion, sky-rocketing costs, and claims of mismanagement and inmate abuse have put the California prison system under heightened public scrutiny.

The California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) is the California prison guards' union. In recent years the CCPOA has become a major player in California politics. Its political influence has grown to the point that it is widely considered to be one of the most powerful political forces in Sacramento. Its lobbying efforts and campaign contributions have greatly facilitated the passage of legislation favorable to union members.
San Diego Union Tribune
DATE: August 15, 2000
Have you ever wondered why California's prison population grew from 23,264 in 1980 to 160,846 in July 2000? It is not because rapists and murderers are finally getting their due; for the most part, that was already happening. What has driven the growth of the prison system in California over the past two decades is the 25-fold increase in the number of drug offenders sentenced to prison under harsh new state sentencing laws for virtually every offense imaginable. Because of these laws, California now has the highest rate of drug offender incarcerations in the nation - 134 per 100,000. A rate that exceeds states such as Texas and Louisiana, where compassion and sympathy for law breakers is not highly prized (49 per 100,000 and 106 per 100,000 respectively). Although such a system seems counter to public safety interests, there are powerful political forces at work in California that promote and sustain the present system. Chief among these forces is the prison guard's union. Because they benefit from prisons teeming with inmates, the guards lavish campaign contributions on political candidates. The influence that the prisons guard's campaign contributions buys, allows them to pressure elected officials to enact sentencing laws that keep inmates in prison longer, thus expanding the overall pool of prisoners and creating a "need" for more prisons. The guards union blatantly uses its political influence to promote the funding of more prisons.


http://igs.berkeley.edu/library/htCaliforniaPrisonUnion.htm

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=prison+guard+union&btnG=Google+Search

Ayn R. Key | March 14, 2008, 5:21pm | #

I just double checked. It's an IE problem.

cactus | March 15, 2008, 1:12am | #

Some of the most hateful, vitriolic and scathing comments I have heard as of late directed at the police hasn't been from 20 something kids, urban types or assorted dope smoking longhairs. The most pointed criticism has been from old ladies. Little gray haired grandmas and great grandmas in the 60s, 70s and 80s. They have expressed a seething hatred for various officers of the law as of late. They have all had personal experiences with different officers and they have what is best described as seething hatred for them. These aren't poor minority residents from public housing in the inner city. These are little old ladies from very small towns and farmers wives from very rural areas. I was frankly shocked at the profanity the subject evoked from little church going old ladies. I was stunned.

It's one thing to have people Liberty loving people from LE families and backgrounds like myself who witness and experience abuse hating you, but when the geriatric set starts wishing you dead - literally hoping you get killed - you've really got to start looking at how you're doing business.

dd | March 15, 2008, 1:12am | #

When I click it brings me to Loving Family Doll Houses?

Wylie H. | March 15, 2008, 1:30pm | #

Just to clear up a misconception about www.copswritingcops.com , it's NOT a website for police to complain about other police behaving improperly.

Instead, it is a website to for cops to complain about other cops who refuse to turn a blind eye towards illegal conduct-- typically, writing another cop a ticket for speeding, for example.

Evidentally, the norms of police behavior encouraged by this website are that police should be exempt from punishment for minor violations of normal laws that apply to civilians.

Ironically, the behavior the website attacks is that which most civilians would believe is professional (applying the law equally to all).

Cop Watcher | March 15, 2008, 4:25pm | #

Wonder how many of the anti-police whiners in this thread have taken any positive steps to correct the problem?

Benjamin Wright | March 15, 2008, 11:55pm | #

A modern police officer should assume that everything he does on duty is recorded and reviewed in public. Authority figures are finding it harder and harder to hide anything. Ask Eliot Spitzer!

| March 17, 2008, 12:38pm | #

What action do you suggest, Cop Watcher, shooting the motherfuckers?

Because every action the so-called "anti-police whiners" have taken from campaigning for candidates more in tune with civil liberties to writing letters to the editor to complaining directly to police departments have fallen short.

And whose to say that "anti-police whining" is not a positive step? Getting the word out and exposing these assholes is necessary for change to occur.

Unless, like I asked earlier, we should just shoot the motherfuckers.