But it’s mostly not about fake drug dogs (although there is a compelling dispute over training practices; and more about general 4th Amendment violations like planting drugs, keying open mail parcels, and sabotaging cameras).

Synopsis: One K9 program collapses in 2002; Governor orders a new one in 2007; one Colonel Perry is opposed to the idea and presents a messed-up plan to the Director. Director rejects it; gives project to a different executive; master trainer from LAPD is hired, and handlers from other nearby LEO agencies.

Perry vows to sabotage and destroy the K9 unit. This is done by — interrupting pay; demanding manuals written on trainer’s personal time; interrupting training session with spurious new assignments; intercepting documents and replacing them with nonsense forgeries; demanding that no dogs be allowed on the premises of the K9 HQ; breaking into the K9 HQ to steal desks, destroy documents and files; create bogus rights allegations; intimidation; refusal to provide patrol backup; destroy an officer’s home property to remove a kennel; misappropriate asset seizure funds; steal a giant donated check from a promotional event for the K9 unit and try to deposit in the general fund; etc.

For while the Director can countermand a lot of these orders, but he retires in 2010 and Perry himself becomes the Director. Some of the handlers apparently complained to local TV which did a series and embarrassed Perry, etc. Then most of them quit en masse.

One of the many interesting things in this filing: A key claim is that a proper K9 units needs centralized training and management within the government, which was part of the downfall of the 2002 unit; and that when this is done by private agencies it leads to fraud, corruption, fake dog training, and rights violations. (There was a struggle over whether to keep the unit centralized with its own in-house trainers or not, even though it was required by the Governor’s order.)

“It is a common yet ill-conceived practice by many law enforcement agencies to rely on the good will, good faith, and integrity of the profit motivated person or company that is selling them a dog and then training and certifying the same K9 team. Law enforcement agencies like Washoe County Sherriff’s Office essentially relegate their responsibility and accountability to enterprising civilians who actually have no law enforcement experience, including drug interdiction/detection, and have never been vetted. It is a recipe for complacency and degradation of performance standards.” [p. 62]

The folks on the Nevada Highway Patrol that came foward deserve a round of applause.

Stand-up folks are few and far between when they stand tall and speak out/file a law suit about malfeasance, especially while still on duty.

Under.

Put me down for under.

Over/under on this being disappeared: 2 weeks.

Let’s see.

PS: Should this be tagged “Police Professionalism”, too?

If the money that is printed, issued, controlled and owned by the federal government is guilty of a crime, does that make the feds accomplices? Perhaps a RICO action against the U.S. Treasury is in order?

They’ve admitted that they’re using false pretense to perform illegal searches. It’s already well-understood that there is no due process for what they confiscate (“No, sir, you’re not in trouble, it’s your money that broke the law! Bad, bad money. For shame.”). So it’s now court-sanctioned highway robbery – stopped, searched, and property taken without even needing to hit the reasonable suspicion threshold.

At least with traditional highway robbery, they don’t send you on your way with “And don’t let it happen again!”