Sunday, October 21, 2012

Main Stream Press Finally Picks Up CMPD Audit Story

More than a year ago Cedar Posts was hearing of a CMPD panic to "true up, correct and clean up" CMPD personal files.  CMPD was in mode because it seemed they mistakenly tossed a ton of Officer records in the CMPD dumpster.



CP prior posts here and here.

Cedar Posts first reported that dozens of CMPD Officers were "ordered" to provide new finger print cards in September of last year.


After reading Cedar Posts Blog as well as numerous CP tweets via twitter a couple of Charlotte's "Main Stream Media" started asking questions. But CMPD's public information officers as well as Department spokesman Rob Tufano denied that there was any issue regarding missing files.

Time and time again when more irregularities cropped up CMPD's Tufano would deny that there was an aduit underway or that there was truth to the reports of missing paperwork or missing criminal records of active officers.

At times telling one reporter to ignor crazy rumors started by Cedar Posts.

City News Watch picked up the story in October and even went as far as making a FOI request regarding the missing documents, only to be stonewalled by CMPD.

Well at last the truth, abiet with a good amount of CMPD spin has been reported by the Charlotte Observer:

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police are trying to reconcile paperwork errors after an audit by a state agency found deficiencies in certification and training records of nearly 100 officers.

Errors found by the N.C. Criminal Justice Standards Division include major and minor deficiencies in the paperwork for some 88 officers, about 5 percent of the department’s nearly 1,800 sworn officers. For some officers, past criminal charges were missing on several forms. On others, the results of drug screens were not present. Others are missing simpler things like a signature or a notary’s stamp.

Still, police leaders and the commission say most of the deficiencies were paperwork-related.
“The state hasn’t pulled their certification and hasn’t indicated that we need to pull (the officers) from the street,” said Deputy Chief Katrina Graue, who oversees administrative services.
 
The N.C. Judicial Standards Commission directed questions about the deficiencies to Noelle Talley, a spokeswoman for N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper.

In an e-mail, Talley said “The majority of the discrepancies identified have been corrected and (Criminal Justice) Standards staff are working with CMPD to resolve the remaining discrepancies. … It is not unusual for an agency to have some errors in its certification paperwork. However, the Commission and its staff are concerned whenever officers are working without being properly certified.”

At the Observer’s request, the Police Department provided the deficiencies reported in the audit, though the names of the officers involved were blocked out.

According to the audit:

• Every Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer was currently certified with a duty firearm and has completed mandated in-service training.

• 41 officers were deficient in some manner with mandated in-service training that was required in previous years.

• 47 officers were deficient in certification requirements.

• 21 officers had deficiencies related to the incorrect reporting of criminal charges. Some of the deficiencies reflected inconsistencies such as charges mentioned on some forms submitted by an applicant but not other forms.

The audit began last July, when staff at the Criminal Justice Standards Division realized three police officers on CMPD’s rolls were not on the agency’s list of certified officers.

The agency dug deeper into those three files, and “believed that it would be beneficial to the department for Standards Division staff to conduct a cursory audit of CMPD’s files,” according to a letter written to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Rodney Monroe.

Starting last September, the division reviewed officers’ certification files. “Numerous issues were discovered in this expanded review, and the decision was made by the division to audit the files of all sworn officers,” the letter says.

The division spent the first seven months of this year reviewing the department’s files – a total of 1,792 officers.

Members of the Charlotte City Council’s Community safety committee members polled by the Observer at Wednesday’s community safety committee meeting said they had not been notified of the audit.

CP's Take: With a department as large as Charlotte's there are bound to be some slip ups, files that become lost, paperwork that is misplaced.  But when the department repeatedly lies about an ongoing investigation it makes everything else the department does or says suspect.

CP Bonus: Sad that Charlotte's Main Stream Media is played by CMPD.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/10/21/3613218/state-audit-finds-cmpd-paperwork.html#storylink=cpy

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

And just one more cover up orchestrated by Little Robbie Tufano and Uncle Rodney.

There are MANY more where this comes from.

Seems the only thing Rodney and Robbie are REALLY good at is misinformation and coverups.

Really good leadership and more quality work from Sharie and Katrina.....NOT! Just fine examples of the inept, inexperienced people of questionable abilities Rodney has promoted because they are in his circle of "friends"...i.e., butt smoochers!

More is coming, folks!!

How about those crime stats Harold and Rodney? Great leadership you two!

This is gonna be so much fun to watch.....the collapse of the house of lies!

Jeff A. Taylor said...

What is truly amazing -- well, amazing for any city not CLT -- is that Curt Walton is being allowed to skate out the door as if none of this happened on his watch.

Then you have the state's legal cartel proving -- again -- that it has one primary concern. Not justice, not fairness, not anything having to do with the public good -- just protecting the status quo power structure at all costs.

Anonymous said...

And he took a hefty raise so his retirement will be extra-huge. You know, heck-uv-a-good-job-walton.

can't we get him to take the rest of his kind with him? like to a waiting cell?

Anonymous said...

Cedar I'm with you on this, why did it take the Observer nearly a year to report on this, I'll tell you why are owned by Rodney and his goons.

Anonymous said...

Lie, cheat, steal from taxpayers rather to protect and serve.

Anonymous said...

"21 officers had deficiencies related to the incorrect reporting of criminal charges. Some of the deficiencies reflected inconsistencies such as charges mentioned on some forms submitted by an applicant but not other forms."

Cedar didn't you say at one time Marcus Jackson made it into the department because someone scrubed his file before it went to civil service?

Sure seems like that is what is going on here. Officer disclosed a B&E as a teen and it never makes it formally into his file and isn't disclosed to the CSB.

citynewswatch said...

Thanks for covering this, too, and for putting the link to one of the earlier stories. Here is the most recent story from a couple of weeks ago that has some critical statistics and explanatory letters from the State regarding the Audit: http://citynewswatch.blogspot.com/2012/10/more-about-missing-cmpd-records.html

No other main stream media covered the story at all. The Observer did not credit Cedar for breaking the story last year, or Cedarposts.blogspot.com or citynewswatch.blogspot.com for for any of the follow-up stories, including the most recent one sent to them which was likely the source of their story--that they watered down to the point of uselessness.

After a YEAR of being under audit and making corrections, they STILL have this many out of compliance, and Graue's response is 'we're not being forced to take anyone off the street yet?' I have a suggestion for the first two to go.

Wait until the defense attorneys get the alert that officers are arresting people while they are not certified properly. MR. DISTRICT ATTORNEY, WAKE UP!!!

Anonymous said...

two reserve officers lost their certifications they must make up some training due to lost paperwork

Anonymous said...

215 and 45 comments over a drunk loser acting like a drunk loser, and only 8 over this going on with the chief of police and his league of unqualified sidekicks? Tufano, Cunningham, and Monroe must be laughing their asses off. there are no journalists in network news in Charlotte. This is disgusting. Only blogs are reporting anything.


Of course the drunkard's acts deserve condemnation and the Marine deserves all our support, in the correct way.

Where is the outrage over what is happening in CMPD every day?

Anonymous said...

8:04 must be the spin doctor trying to check in.

Nobody believes your line of b.s.

read the real numbers. 2 reserve officers with lost paperwork? no.

criminal background checks not done, financial background checks not done, psych exams, physicals, citiz/// oh, what's the point in telling the truth to liars?

just wait for the lawsuits and arrests.

Maybe you can get a job in Cherryville. They need replacements.

Anonymous said...

something big happened in court last week. little robbie will be pouting for a long time to come when it gets out. and all the king's horses asses are going to be pulling some long faces for a while until they figure a way out of this.