A special thank you goes out to the Mesa County Sheriff's Dept., for having the courage to and taking the much needed step to, bring accountability to prosecutors and agencies.
Amanda Brandeis:
"MESA COUNTY, Colo.- Mesa County is one of seven counties in the nation involved in a research project that aims to help law enforcement make better decisions on the job.
Mesa County Sheriff Stan Hilkey said, "There is now a large body of research out there that is very informative about things. For example, if you do certain things you can increase the chances of an offender not getting back into the system. Or if you do certain things wrong, you can increase the chances of that offender staying in the system."
The project is called the Evidence Based Decision Making Project (EBDM Project). Mesa County applied to be a part of the project and was selected.
Hilkey also said, "The entire goal of this project is to, number one, not cause any more harm, and not keep people in the system who shouldn't be in the system, but also, for those people who need to be in the system, do the right thing with them and make decisions that are informed by research."...."
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"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."
7 comments:
Most of the DA's in Colorado that we have in office right now do a good, ethical job. Getting rid of Chambers in the 18th this time around is very good thing. She's one of the ones that give Colorado a bad reputation. It's not about the scores, bragging and the wins. It's not about a DA like Beeson who rides the good reps of cops and selective picks what he wants to brag about. Chambers has been one of the least reputable the 18th has ever had. Thiebaut over in Pueblo has been like the worst kind of sleaze ambulance chaser carrying that over into the service of a prosecutor standard. What he's done to the 10th will take a long time to clean up. He needs to be voted out and find some other way to be a career politician. Beeson's latest photo op with the guy he caved to because Tipton would have wolloped him in the congressional race for the 3rd, alongside Eric Cantor is classic Beeson. Riding another's tails and bullying his way up. The look on his face in that photo on his website says it all. Worst real record in history of the 9th. Beeson's real record hidden is like the real unemployment rate in Colorado and the nation. Hautzinger really needs someone running against him, he's got little sense of reality and is way too zealous to the point of jamming it up with cases that should never be brought. At least Hautzinger has something Thiebaut and Beeson will never have because it comes from within. Pete understands the higher bar and standard of what being a prosecutor means. Doubt anyone will run against him. God save the 9th if there isn't a step-up and Thiebaut will lose the 10th. Chambers is out, at least she's not pulling a Beeson and creative working the interpretation of term limits just so she can have a job.
My guess is that your Nanny is going to toss me out on my ear with my political comments above.
Which brings me to the topic of Stan implementing this evidence based training.
Our cops have got to turn around the damage that Sheriffs like DiSalvo, Braudis bring and prosecutors that have no business being prosecutors force on our districts. There isn't anyone else that stands between "serve and protect" and the system. It's been painful to watch a few of our good cops go through recent years of witch hunts in the system and political free for alls like a couple of our Sheriffs who don't deserve that in any way have gone through at mid-terms. But on the other hand, those same standing in front of the citizenry can use the lessons learned and the information from good, reliable news outlets to get to know that citizenry. Improve themselves. Get back to just a cops world that is not influenced by these prosecutors that do nothing but use them for political gain. Geting back to "serve and protect" is what I see Hilkey doing here.
It feels pretty damn good to feel pride again in the Mesa S.O. and City of G.J. enforcement. Keep up the good work, this is very good to see.
'Anonymous', there are two reasons I am not going to pull your brutally honest comment and allow it to go up live.
First, your references are to prosecutors...
(who are always politicians first, that is just reality and our system of adversarial justice. They are not like Sheriffs in our political system who must be cops first. Nor like Judges who must be above all. District Attorneys, by the nature of how we as a free nation choose, are the only justice related entity that is a political nature beast first and always an attorney. Simplistically, it is a job first and only for a set period of time. Their personal values, character and skill set are what make the standard of whether or not they become what all of us, including law enforcement and judiciary feel are "good" prosecutors)
....currently in either hotly contested or highly controversial political races. So, they are 'fair game' and SandBox has no bias.
Second, you emailed your comment in first and asked my permission.
In the world of "trolls"...that shows "SandBox Nanny"...that you rank up there in the higher levels. Thank you for letting me decide.
Welcome to the box.
Good for Sheriff Stan. Now if he and his crew would talk it up to all the other counties and get everyone on board with same we all would be far better off than we are now. As far as you're saying, anonymous about the DA’s, you’re right. The only thing that saves the system is that they’re elected. It’s the most powerful spot on the board and yet they don’t even have to have a skill set to get into it. Sadly, a few of them don’t and worse, most all of them use it as a political springboard. Have always wondered why justice and law enforcement don’t put together a pre-req screening of basic skills, personal beliefs, political aspirations for prosecutors. Put them through a lot of the paces that cops have to go through and do it in order to screen them for candidacy. If they don’t make that pre-screen, they can’t even run. Sign up to run is an agreement to term limits and to hold to the standards of the courts and law enforcement district they serve. That has got to have occurred to somebody somewhere, I would think. Instead anybody can just dive in. This evidence based only sounds to me like we’ve got at least Mesa county breaking away from being anybody’s agent except for their own. Cops first and it doesn’t go out of their hands without sign off by top cops. Good luck on a successful program and stay the course.
Decided to do some reading up on this method before comment.
If all that it represents really is used by an agency, it stands the potential of not only getting cops back to what a cop is supposed to be. They are not lawyers. They've got issues on teaching the basics to what's now generations of younger cops. There's a lot to be said for the old cop walking a beat and spending time flushing out the evidence. Nanny used the phrase gum-shoe somewhere lately. Says it all. We really need this not just on local but state and fed levels as well. Good job to Sheriff Stan.
I think that for far too long our top cops have pulled the “not our problem” mantel in front of their office way too many times. The lives of the people they serve and shield with protection do matter. I hope this evidence based discovery program has a component that forces them to dig into life dynamics of families, kids and not just from what they think is the victims side. The comment that I saw started here on this hub I think, about proving innocence makes more sense than anything I’ve ever heard about law enforcement. If they can’t prove innocence then they have found guilt. Pretty basic and the safety net of making sure they’re right first is in place. I too am very sorry to see things like the Lawyer case and so many more happening. But it’s a good thing for our cops to know that what they think about prosecutors and the court system and how it all works is probably dead out wrong. The thing is a quagmire so twisted and most of that is from the prosecution end. They just don’t have anybody policing them to make sure they follow their obligations. Public defenders are noble but they’re a government job that is at the mercy of a jammed system. Nobody watching them either and making sure they get it right in giving completely same treatment as a private defense would. Cops have to be trusted and to do that they need to know their community and the people in it. The politics and the players. It’s so important and yet the chiefs and sheriffs just don’t dive in. Truth comes down to they are no different in their jobs than anyone else and it’s a mistake to let the power of a badge be a mantel. Good for Sheriff Stan. Let’s see what he does with it and whether or not his people care enough to get their arms and heads around the dynamic and concept.
This is great news. Thanks goes out to Sheriff Stan. Way past time for all of our cops to get back to the biz of just focus on the folks and the life they hold in their hands in front of them. If they don't, no amount of politics is going to get enough money in for more cops, more gear and more programs. The problem is in the basics and the basics are corroded. I don't think it's in the agencies themselves but people like Braudis and DiSalvo and McNeill don't help anything. The problem is in that area of changing how we vet our DA candidates and what kind of a culture they create in their districts. The courts are so bogged down it's mind numbing. Time for a wakeup call and that job has to come from the guys and gals on the ground alongside the folks.
I don't know. If it's something that will give them the wakeup call they need on getting in tune with the individual people in their areas, then fine. It's a good thing. If it's just another way to look at evidence that's not something that even gets close to the real problem. That problem is that cops don't have a clue where the lives they touch end up after leaving their hands. Somebody needs to set some law and ethics down in front of commissioners, councils, trustees and prosecutors. The county runs on the vibe that comes from the people. Whether they feel secure, safe and able to trust. You don't have that, which none of our counties on the slope really have, you got nothing but more layers being piled on top of the daily lives. Put all this serious hard core crime piping in on top of us and it's a scary world. I'll hold back approvals on this until I see if their really going to get a clue.
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