I know, it does baffle my mind. However I WILL say that I do know of some people getting in via nepotism preferences, meaning, they could have gotten in even though their testing was shoddy. My family members is police so I hear some interesting stuff from time to time.
I believe that.
When I was with the VPD Explorer Post (1997-2004), I knew two men who I really admired and looked up to. One man, Howard Anderson, rose to the rank of Lieutenant while he was employed with the VPD, and his son was the Captain of our Explorer Post, and a good friend of mine.
One night, while on assignment in Arizona with the Phoenix Police Department, he got drunk, fondled a female police officer (Phoenix PD), and then tried to force his way into her hotel room.
He was immediately put on unpaid Leave during the investigation, and then fired by Chief Martinek once the investigation was concluded.
The damnest thing though....I always got a bit of an "uneasy" feeling when I was around him. He was a very strict man who didn't smile a lot, and had a lot of weight and respect in the Department. I also personally believe, though I never addressed this with my friend, that he was a bully towards his son. Not abusive, just a bully.
After he was fired though, it hit me like a ton of bricks: the guy was an alcoholic. It was right there in front of me, and he had that "air" about him. And that's what it was.
I knew another Police Officer, a Sergeant with the Traffic Division, Shane Yates, who was given the option of resigning his Commission, or face Termination for his role in selling stolen motorcycle parts.
I got curious about these cases after all these years, and went online and tried to look them up. I found a document from 2008, that talks about the Navin Sharma incident. He was an officer with the VPD while I was in the Post, and he was always polite and respectful. The guy, in my opinion, totally got screwed by the Department. I think it had little to do with race, and more to do with some sort of power struggle at the top, with him being a pawn.
http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-9338-good-cop-mad-cop.html
There was a lot of baggage back then that I had forgotten about. The article also mentions the officer Fisk incident. IIRC, that guy took a bullet to the neck and almost died during a standoff in 2003 (again, I'm recalling this from vague memory...), and he was never quite the same after that. I'd be surprised if he's still employed with the VPD; though as of 2008, he was.
Thankfully, I surrounded myself with good mentors and good police officers, such as my good buddy "John" (I don't wish to release his name for his privacy, as he is currently employed with the VPD; he works for the Traffic Division). I shudder to think if I had known more personally some of these other fuck ups.
Huh. Quite a trip down memory lane.....
