Another suit against the Tacoma police department
March 24th, 2008 by Republican By DefaultTacoma police lieutenant Alan Roberts is suing for $500,000 claiming he was harassed by two superiors. The story ran in the Tacoma News Tribune and was the source of stories in several other area papers and media outlets.
There weren’t a lot of details given in the news story and there was nothing to indicate the motive for the alleged harassment. Off the top of my head I’m going to guess it wasn’t race or sexual orientation because both the lawyers and the media would have focused on that little tidbit.
Cronyism and favoritism seem to have always been a big problem for TPD. David Brame seemed to have landed his position as police chief because of his association with the (previous) city manager. I’m sorry to have to put it this way but that’s how Tacoma city government has run for as long as anyone seems to be able to remember.
I remember when the Washington State Patrol investigation into the David Brame case was concluded and no indictments came out of it. When the investigation was still underway I remember telling someone that if no one gets indicted from that fiasco that we would likely find ourselves back in the news about corruption in city government sometime in the next decade. This case isn’t it, but it’s a possible indication that things continue as they always have in this city.
I don’t think all police officers in this city are corrupt. I’m sure most are just regular cops who love and hate their jobs, just like every other cop in the world. However, I think there’s still a core group that do things the old fashioned (Tacoma) way, taking care of their own at the expense of others. My guess would be that this group probably has ties to other city departments, local officials and politicians and they use their connections to the group’s advantage. It’s nothing new for any police department or government agency, but that doesn’t make it acceptable.
