We were reading some recommendations from the "bond panel" slapped together by the Mayor of Columbia, SC after some high profile incidents involving repeat offenders constantly being released to prey upon the community. You can find the article at the website for The State. Mayor Benjamin threw the panel together in an effort to deflect heat caused by violent gang crime which has been affecting his efforts to be re-elected.
We reached out to an officer in the greater Charleston area who has been wearing the badge for a long, long time and asked about some of the recommendations. That officer was, to put it simply, stunned by what the article said.
The "bond panel" decided someone from the Columbia Police Department should go to all bond hearings.
Our local officer was absolutely incredulous that no representative of law enforcement bothered to show up for bond hearings.
The "bond panel" suggested the Columbia Police Department provide bond judges with a copy of the incident report. According to the article, the only thing a bond judge in Columbia has to go on is a criminal history printed out by a clerk.
The local officer was speechless. Utterly speechless. Mouth working like a fish out of water trying to breath kind of speechless. Apoplectic speechlessness. Get the idea?
The officer attending a bond hearing in Columbia will be required to bring a package of information to the bond judge.
Local officer - still speechless. It was getting worse. We were very concerned and almost called EMS.
A CPD spokesperson said officers do send information to the judge. It recently became a "habit". Isn't that nice? Habits are definitely much better than policies. Oh, and they can do it via email, which is absotively wonderful because we all know everyone always reads every single email and memorizes the contents or prints them out before going to work. Right?
The article also makes the revelation that CPD and RCSD call the 5th Circuit Solicitor for approval before bringing charges. Really? You are asking people, whose main objective is accomplishing their over-riding desire to clear the docket, what to charge someone with? Sure, you might need some advice in a major, highly complex case, but cops should know the law and the elements of each offense and should charge accordingly. If they don't know the elements (taught at the academy, by the way) there are things called "books" and this newfangled interweb thing where even we can look up statutes. The article alludes to a conflict between CPD and the 5th Circuit Solicitor which led to a suspect being allowed to run free even though his fingerprint was found in a burgled residence. That suspect killed an innocent woman a week later.
Oh, back to our local officer. Less speechlessness, more of a red-faced anger thing going on now.
With the help of our local officer we will detail how the bond situation is handled here. Well, at least in a couple of departments our officer was familiar with. Unfortunately, we all know even when bond hearings are handled properly by police the entire process fails when a bond judge falls down on the job.
When an officer locks up a suspect on a general sessions level charge there are a number of things that happen. Once the suspect is incarcerated the officer has to write an incident report. The officer also has to type up the charging documents, known as warrant affidavits. Then a document some call a "prosecutive summary" is completed. This document lays out the case in a brief and concise manner. The officer prints out the criminal history of the suspect. If there is evidence collected, a copy of the evidence sheet is included. If required, a victim information sheet is included.
All of these documents are placed in a "bond folder" according to a checklist. Once the folder is complete it is turned in. Most of our local departments have officers assigned to do bond hearings. These officers take a moment to read the incident report, study the criminal history, review the prosecutive summary and read any notes the arresting officer may have included in the file. The bond hearing officer collects up the bond folders from the previous day and heads over to the bond hearing court.
The bond hearing officer submits the warrant affidavits to the judge, who signs and issues the warrant. The warrant is then served on the defendant at the bond hearing. The defendant is brought before the judge and some additional paper work and advice of rights are issued. The police officer attending the bond hearing can provide input to the judge regarding prior offenses and details of the charge. The suspect can speak if he so desires. Victim's are often allowed input. Once all that is done, the judge sets the bond.
Based on what we read in the article, Columbia PD has basically been locking people up and then walking away!! Putting someone in jail doesn't mean your job is done. These failures by the Columbia Police Department have basically been sending a "We don't really care" message to your bond judges.
There appears to be a long-standing culture of a lack of sound policies and procedures in that department. It is hard to believe current and former administrations have allowed this to continue. Your line officers may be working their asses off, but it is one of those "one step forward, two steps back" sort of things.
You folks in Columbia need to get pissed off and start raising hell.
We reached out to an officer in the greater Charleston area who has been wearing the badge for a long, long time and asked about some of the recommendations. That officer was, to put it simply, stunned by what the article said.
The "bond panel" decided someone from the Columbia Police Department should go to all bond hearings.
Our local officer was absolutely incredulous that no representative of law enforcement bothered to show up for bond hearings.
The "bond panel" suggested the Columbia Police Department provide bond judges with a copy of the incident report. According to the article, the only thing a bond judge in Columbia has to go on is a criminal history printed out by a clerk.
The local officer was speechless. Utterly speechless. Mouth working like a fish out of water trying to breath kind of speechless. Apoplectic speechlessness. Get the idea?
The officer attending a bond hearing in Columbia will be required to bring a package of information to the bond judge.
Local officer - still speechless. It was getting worse. We were very concerned and almost called EMS.
A CPD spokesperson said officers do send information to the judge. It recently became a "habit". Isn't that nice? Habits are definitely much better than policies. Oh, and they can do it via email, which is absotively wonderful because we all know everyone always reads every single email and memorizes the contents or prints them out before going to work. Right?
The article also makes the revelation that CPD and RCSD call the 5th Circuit Solicitor for approval before bringing charges. Really? You are asking people, whose main objective is accomplishing their over-riding desire to clear the docket, what to charge someone with? Sure, you might need some advice in a major, highly complex case, but cops should know the law and the elements of each offense and should charge accordingly. If they don't know the elements (taught at the academy, by the way) there are things called "books" and this newfangled interweb thing where even we can look up statutes. The article alludes to a conflict between CPD and the 5th Circuit Solicitor which led to a suspect being allowed to run free even though his fingerprint was found in a burgled residence. That suspect killed an innocent woman a week later.
Oh, back to our local officer. Less speechlessness, more of a red-faced anger thing going on now.
With the help of our local officer we will detail how the bond situation is handled here. Well, at least in a couple of departments our officer was familiar with. Unfortunately, we all know even when bond hearings are handled properly by police the entire process fails when a bond judge falls down on the job.
When an officer locks up a suspect on a general sessions level charge there are a number of things that happen. Once the suspect is incarcerated the officer has to write an incident report. The officer also has to type up the charging documents, known as warrant affidavits. Then a document some call a "prosecutive summary" is completed. This document lays out the case in a brief and concise manner. The officer prints out the criminal history of the suspect. If there is evidence collected, a copy of the evidence sheet is included. If required, a victim information sheet is included.
All of these documents are placed in a "bond folder" according to a checklist. Once the folder is complete it is turned in. Most of our local departments have officers assigned to do bond hearings. These officers take a moment to read the incident report, study the criminal history, review the prosecutive summary and read any notes the arresting officer may have included in the file. The bond hearing officer collects up the bond folders from the previous day and heads over to the bond hearing court.
The bond hearing officer submits the warrant affidavits to the judge, who signs and issues the warrant. The warrant is then served on the defendant at the bond hearing. The defendant is brought before the judge and some additional paper work and advice of rights are issued. The police officer attending the bond hearing can provide input to the judge regarding prior offenses and details of the charge. The suspect can speak if he so desires. Victim's are often allowed input. Once all that is done, the judge sets the bond.
Based on what we read in the article, Columbia PD has basically been locking people up and then walking away!! Putting someone in jail doesn't mean your job is done. These failures by the Columbia Police Department have basically been sending a "We don't really care" message to your bond judges.
There appears to be a long-standing culture of a lack of sound policies and procedures in that department. It is hard to believe current and former administrations have allowed this to continue. Your line officers may be working their asses off, but it is one of those "one step forward, two steps back" sort of things.
You folks in Columbia need to get pissed off and start raising hell.