San Diego, CA - The police department's scandal is a concern for residents as eleven officers are accused of misconduct etc.

Eleven San Diego police officers have been accused in recent months of serious or criminal misconduct, including drunken driving, excessive force, stalking and rape. Three officers are no longer employed by the department and five face criminal charges. The police chief has publicly apologized and proposed several reforms last week to address lagging internal oversight.

Shortly after Bill Lansdowne became police chief in 2003 he quietly disbanded an anticorruption unit assigned with proactively investigating the kind of criminal allegations that have recently stained the department's public image.

The Chula Vista Police Department announced today that another San Diego police officer is under criminal investigation. The case has been referred to prosecutors for possible charges, police said, but other details are scarce at this point.

Chula Visa police said they contacted an off-duty San Diego police officer May 20 "based on observations made by another motorist." Police did not identify the officer or provide any other information about the incident. The officer has not been arrested, police said.

San Diego Police spokeswoman Lt. Andra Brown told Fox 5 that the 19-year veteran has been placed on unpaid administrative leave while the department conducts its own internal investigation.

Citing anonymous sources, CBS 8 and Channel 10 have identified the officer as Michael Edwards, 51. CBS 8 reported that he is under investigation for DUI and resisting arrest.

Officer Bob Lopez had been with the San Diego Police Department for seven years when a drunken brawl nearly cost him his job.

It was 1986. He was drunk, at a bar in East County, off-duty, and a biker said something to him. He doesn't remember why. He does remember a beer bottle being smashed against his nose and drumming a few motorcycles with a pool cue.

He got fired days later. But he appealed to city of San Diego officials and won a year-long suspension instead. Lopez remembers the Civil Service Commission's assessment of the department: "We don't like the cavalier attitude the San Diego Police Department has toward alcoholism."

Alcohol abuse had become rampant, several retired officers say, encouraged by a police culture in the 1970s that turned a blind eye. Lopez, who says he's been sober since 1986, visited Los Angeles police for counseling during his suspension and eventually brought some of that department's practices to San Diego. He organized meetings with fellow officers to discuss alcoholism and, during his final two years, he became the department's full-time drug and alcohol counselor.

"With cops, you're taught to never give up and with alcoholism, you have to give up," Lopez said. "You have to say you're weak. You have to go against what you're taught."


Links:
http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/data-drive/article_98ed44b8-84bb-11e0-8793-001cc4c002e0.html

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/data-drive/article_3877ca88-7dca-11e0-be8a-001cc4c002e0.html

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/data-drive/article_02f549a8-889c-11e0-81ed-001cc4c002e0.html