Legal Commentary

The Tallahassee Police at Work

By TChris

The Tallahassee Democrat, mentioned in this post, has two interesting stories about the Tallahassee Police Department. Five TPD officers were placed on leave yesterday after a "botched drug sting" ended in the death of Rachel Hoffman.

Hoffman, 23, was working for police as a confidential informant when she was killed May 7, after the plan for her to buy drugs and a gun went awry. Police lost track of her, and her body was found 36 hours later in Taylor County. ...

In its presentment last week that cited police negligence in Hoffman's death, a Leon County grand jury reported the vice lieutenant — [Lt. Taltha] White — signed off on the flawed buy-bust plan but didn't actually read it. Grand jurors also said she was in charge of monitoring radio transmissions during the deal but was conducting a computer audit at the same and was distracted.

Drug police are famous for coercing those they arrest into working to set up busts of dealers. They too rarely mention the dangers involved in that effort. It's better to take the jail time than to end up dead. [more ...]

In the other story, police used a Taser on a man who ran after dropping a pill bottle containing powder cocaine and crack. It must have been easier to tase him than to chase him.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on August 05, 2008 (boomark / email).