A former SWAT team commander with two master’s degrees, Whitney was terminated in August 2019 after raising concerns about alleged misconduct within the department. They included a tradition, revealed by Open Vallejo the following year, in which Vallejo officers would throw parties and bend the tips of their badges to mark killings committed in the line of duty.
The revelations are likely to impact state and federal litigation for years to come. Criminal defense attorneys have already sought to leverage badge-bending to impeach the credibility of police witnesses; civil rights attorneys amended ongoing lawsuits to argue that the practice — and the alleged inaction of senior officials who knew about it — justifies a federal takeover of the police department.
… Whitney’s lawsuit alleged that senior officials targeted him for retaliation after he repeatedly raised concerns about unethical and potentially illegal conduct within the Vallejo Police Department. In addition to badge-bending, Whitney complained about killings and other uses of force, time card fraud, unfair modifications to a promotional exam, and racial discrimination directed at a Black detective by the head of Vallejo’s police union, according to the lawsuit. The leak investigation, he alleged, “was simply a pretext for illegal retaliation.”
The lawsuit also alleged that Vallejo police officials sought to sabotage Whitney’s career. At the time of his firing, Whitney was the third-highest rank officer in the Vallejo Police Department, where he had worked for more than 19 years. He eventually found a job with the nearby El Cerrito Police Department, where he works as a patrol officer.
A cop, with master’s degrees? How did he pass the police screening to get hired? He’s clearly too intelligent to police
Not all departments do the intelligence limit thing, but this story demonstrates why some do.
Wait, is this an actual thing?
USA moment
Moonguide’s link isn’t working for me, but here’s another link to the same article.
It is absolutely an actual thing.
This is what happens to the mythical “good cop” bootlickers keep harping on about. They get fired.
Or they get shot when someone “accidentally” brings live rounds to a training exercise
Has that happened yet?
Yep, year or two ago
Not all cops are bad cops. They get targeted by the bad cops, and get run out of law enforcement.
Sadly, it’s the taxpayers footing the bill for this settlement.
Don’t get me wrong, he has compensation coming, but how about from the salaries of those responsible? Or from their departmental budget for the next five years?
Quit allowing them to dodge responsibility.
It should come from the cops’ retirement/pension fund. Super Fucked Cop Crimes ought to disqualify you from that if not the job entirely
Half of any police misconduct settlement should come from the Police Union’s coffers.
EDIT: @RubberStuntBaby is a bootlicker.
Or their pension fund. Maybe 50/50.
100% not half.
Vallejo has had problems for a long time. It’s really is a department that needs a reckoning.
I lived in the Bay Area for many years. I avoided that city like the plague.
