Officer Darren Wilson's Life Now

Note: This is a recovered comment from Facebook that I made on August 23, 2014.

August 23, 2014

Officer Darren Wilson’s Life Now (It’s long so put on your reading glasses.)

 Perhaps it would be beneficial to understand a bit of what is happening to Officer Darren Wilson as he awaits his fate. The threat of criminal prosecution is only one of the legal worries that he faces. He will undoubtedly face a civil wrongful death case and he will have to deal with the potential civil rights action. All of these actions will cost him more money than he will make in a lifetime. Some of the expenses may be covered by his department and the political subdivision where he works and if he belongs to some type of fraternal organization that insures officers, then that organization might pick up some of the tab. Regardless, Officer Wilson is merely a small fish in the money pool as Brown’s family attorney will go for the “deep pockets” where the money is located. To do this their attorney will go after Wilson’s training officer, supervisor, commander, chief, and the town/county board where he worked and ultimately the town or county itself. This sets up an interesting legal scenario as everybody will be looking to make sure that their own ducks have been lined up and already marching in a straight row. If not, there will be substantial finger-pointing. The training officers will say that they tried to teach Wilson, but he performed poorly and that they reported this to supervisors and administrators who failed to terminate Wilson’s employment while he was yet a probationary officer. Use your imagination and you will begin to understand how everybody who had anything to do with Wilson’s employment will be interested in their own interests and nobody else’s interest.

 Wilson’s life is going to be examined as though he was a fish carefully filleted and gutted exposing everything that he is, has been, and potentially could be. Some of you reading this have experienced an FBI background investigation and understand a little of what this is all about. I assure you that the background check for a Top Secret government clearance is a Sunday school picnic compared to what will be exposed in this investigation.

 Number One: His police career will be reviewed. FBI Agents will review his hiring. They will ask how he was tested for the position and the results of the testing and the validity of the metrics used to determine if Wilson was qualified for the job. They will review the credentials of those who hired him. They will look to see if he had any relatives or close friends who greased the skids for him to get the job. They will look to see if he was the most qualified applicant or the only qualified applicant or if certain required qualifications were overlooked. His pre-service, in-service, and specialized or advanced training will be scrutinized. Lesson plans will be scrutinized and qualifications of trainers will be reviewed and test results will be examined. His overall work record will be studied to include the use of sick leave and vacation time. His personnel record will be laid open for the purpose of determining what complaints (or heaven forbid-commendations) were made, who complained, the nature of the complaint, and the resolution of the complaint and then complainants will be interviewed. People he has arrested will be interviewed. Supervisors and co-workers will be questioned. His court record will be analyzed. Police reports he has written will be studied.

 Number Two: His personal life will be examined. His personal computer, if it hasn’t already been confiscated, will be confiscated. His work e-mail and personal e-mail will be retrieved. His cell phone records and probably his cell phone itself will be taken into evidence. Anything he has written in social media will be evaluated in terms of hidden agendas as well as outright biased or questionable communication. High school teachers and college professors (if he spent any time in college) will be contacted and interviewed. His financial records will be looked at for any anomalies. Too much or too little of anything will raise a red flag. Late payments or overdrafts will draw an eye of suspicion. Large deposits or withdrawals from accounts will be questioned. His friends, neighbors, and acquaintances will be questioned. If he has children in school, his behavior at teacher-parent conferences will be looked at. If he even thought about cheating on his wife, it will be discovered. His recreational use of alcohol will be measured. His own personal driving and juvenile records, if any exist, will be examined. Those with whom he associates will be contacted. And of course, if he ever used a racially insensitive or charged term, he will be toast. His religious views will be reviewed and if he attends a church, his attendance and adherence to church teachings will be examined. His membership in any organization, even if it is Rotary, will be noted.

 Number Three: Directly related to Wilson will be the investigation of his department. Who are the supervisors and administrators? What training and education do they have? How vigilant are they in performing their duties? What are their rules of conduct? What are the department’s mission, goals, and objectives? How do they measure compliance with those goals? What trends do arrests in the community show? What is the relationship of the police department with the community? If the department is accredited with an accrediting body (which it is), when was the last accreditation review? What was included in the accreditation review? Were there deficiencies and if so, what were they and how were they resolved? What documentation is there to show compliance with accreditation? It turns out that the Ferguson Police Department is in fact accredited through the Missouri Police Chief's Charitable Foundation (MPCCF) State Certification Program. You should know that accreditation is normally a three to five year process and normally requires at least one full-time person to assure that accreditation standards are maintained and documented. Many larger police departments will have an office staff that does nothing but accreditation compliance. Accreditation standards can easily fill a 100-200 page book. Department documentation of compliance fills several file cabinets.

 All of this is just the tip of the review iceberg. How would you hold up under this type of scrutiny?

© 2014 Gregory B. Talley