Nothing to do with anything

Nothing to do with anything

I read with great interest your article about the Schaumburg Police Department, “Can officers’ integrity ever be guaranteed?” Eric Peterson wrote about how high ethical standards is key and that integrity cannot be compromised when you are a police officer.

Jack Riley of the U.S. DEA’s Chicago office is quoted saying how a department responds to a crisis like this is at least as important as its efforts to prevent it. He goes on to say, “I applaud the chief. As soon as he found out about this, he did everything he was supposed to do. This is a very good police department.” It would sure by nice to think that about every situation that involves bad cops.

The people of Schaumburg must feel good about that situation, knowing that their chief was on top of the situation. However, this is not the case in every city. Take for instance, The city of Elgin. A year ago, a federal lawsuit was filed against two Elgin police officers and the city. Being a civilian and naive about how police departments work, I thought, “Now they will do the right thing.” After all, the evidence was provided to them, they didn’t even have to do a thing.

I guess to the city of Elgin, the right thing was to have their corporate counsel make ridiculous and insulting comments in the newspapers about the lawsuit and one of the victims. One of the officers involved was allowed to retire with full benefits and the other is still working in a supervisor capacity. I guess in this case, as soon as they found out, they decided that ethics and integrity have nothing to do with anything.

Debra Seitz

Wasco