DO WHAT I SAY, NOT WHAT I DO

Maybe in the whole scheme and history of police misconduct, this is small potatoes. Or maybe not. It certainly gives rise to legitimate concerns regarding police enforcement of laws, as well as concerns as to the culture within police departments. These concerns are not new. Several books have been written in the past by well known authors describing allegedly fictitious police departments. These books while fiction have had no difficulty in describing alcohol and drug abuse along with other morally questionable behaviour.

Today's K-W Record carrys a story titled "Officer guilty of Police Act charges in drug scandal". If it were only one or two Officers it could be written off as a couple of bad eggs. Unfortunately although only one Officer pled guilty this time to buying and using marijuana, she testified that a fellow Officer supplied drugs on occasion and she bought and used them in the company of fellow Officers in social settings. This article goes on to state "Last year, four other Waterloo Regional Police officers pleaded guilty to discreditable conduct charges under the police act for failing to report drug useage by officers and citizens during poker parties held at officers' homes".

The hypocrisy in these same officers charging citzens with drug offences is unbelievable. Questions need to be answered. Are our drug laws ridiculous? If police officers (plural) behave as if they are, then how are the rest of us to behave? Is there a systemic problem within the Waterloo Regional Police service? Exactly how accountable are our police officers and to whom exactly?