Police task force still needs integrity

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By Times staff | Saturday, May 10, 2008 11:08 PM CDT | () comments

Call it a task force. Call it an investigative team. But for now, leave “integrity” out of it. Without any public involvement on the police-only Rock Island County Integrity Task Force, there can be no integrity.

This is no reflection on the individual officers on the task force, who we presume are flush with integrity. This task force is comprised of officers from each of the Illinois Quad-City police and sheriff departments. It was formed to investigate when an Illinois Quad-City police officer fires a weapon in the line of duty.

Task force leader Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Rene Sandoval said the group was formed simply to share the workload of these investigations. In the past, state police officers alone were called when a local police officer discharged a weapon. Sandoval said state police no longer have sufficient staffing to provide this important service. So local police chiefs formed the task force to share the workload.

The public might have celebrated this innovation had it been disclosed before an East Moline officer shot and killed a fleeing felon. Instead, the task force lost its first chance at integrity when it was revealed to the public only after the shooting in East Moline.

The task force might have earned some integrity if formed with the help of mayors and aldermen who represent the public that pays every penny of the task force members’ salaries.

Instead, the task force squandered chances for integrity by failing to even disclose its existence to most elected representatives in each town and county.

Still, the task force had a shot at integrity when the Rock Island County Chapter of the NAACP suggested adding public members to the task force’s management board. The task force chairman, Rock Island County Sheriff Michael Huff, hastily dismissed the suggestion, missing another chance for integrity.

While the investigative work of the task force is best left to trained police professionals, the management board of this task force requires public members.

We commend the NAACP for being the first to see the wisdom of including public oversight of a cops-only task force.

They need not be alone.

There are 36 city council members, 25 county board supervisors and five mayors who should share the NAACP’s interest in the integrity of the Illinois Quad-Cities police forces and the towns they represent.

Every elected city and county official should demand that management of this important task force be broadened to include public representatives who are not police officers.

Integrity — of each police force and each town — demands it.