Washington State Police Misconduct Essay

A recent case cited on the National Police Misconduct Statistics and Reporting Project website, occurring in the state of Washington, reported that charges would not be brought up on officer Ian Birk for the shooting and death of a Native American John Williams despite a board of his professional peers urging that the shooting was unjustified and illegal (Packman, 2011). The prosecutor stated that it was Washington’s tough state law which makes it extremely hard to prosecute an officer and thus Birk like many have let go even if their actions were deemed negligent.

Legal experts cited in the case confirm that in Washington, the burden of proof in a case where a cop kills on the job is raised to a higher, near unattainable bar for prosecutors (Packman, 2011). Experts also point out how hard it is to sue a police officer for any reason because they are held to such a high esteem for the work they do (Packman, 2011). Of 186 alleged incidents of police misconduct against Washington state police officers in a 21 month span, charges ensued on only 30 cases with only five being convicted on those charges though none resulted in jail time.

The first of the five cases which resulted in convictions according to Packman (2011) was a Washington State Trooper in which was convicted on a custodial sexual misconduct charge for groping a woman in

For lowest prosecution rate, Washington state only has a 16% prosecution rate only being preceded by Washington DC in which has 05% rate. As for the list on conviction rates on law enforcement agents, Washington State has a 17% conviction rate being topped by Alaska 14% conviction rate. To show data which reflects these numbers, the National Police Misconduct Statistics and Reporting Project has been on a mission to gather information on police prosecutions and punishments and here is what they