Page 20 - Demo

The age of law without order
Back in the early 1990s, when I was a young police officer, there was an excellent relation- ship between the various members of the Po-
a growing level of distrust between the two departments. This is unfortunate but it also underscores the impor- tance of individual responsibility. It is your job to prepare
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yourself for testimony. Do not rely on the prosecutor to prep you. Do not assume that a defense attorney will be prevented from asking inappropriate ques- tions. As a police officer, you need to take own- ership for your testimony because, unfortunately,
no one else will.
A case directly on point played out in a Cook
lice Department and the prosecutor’s of- fice. The two entities worked together, jointly, and supported each other on numerous investigations and prosecu- tions. There was a significant amount
FOP
Legal Rep t
DANIEL HERBERT
of trust and camaraderie between the offices and it resulted in a dynamic force in the
area of law enforcement. As I began testifying more fre- quently in felony courtrooms, I was introduced to a dif- ferent world, one that existed between the police and the prosecutor’s office. They went to our parties and we went to theirs. There was a genuine friendship, and a few love connections, between the prosecutors and police. When I became prosecutor in 2001, I was part of a committee that planned social events throughout the year, dedicated to connecting the prosecutor’s office with the Police De- partment. It was a perfect symbiotic relationship. But all good things come to an end.
Unfortunately, the relationship is dissimilar today. With some exception, the two sides view the other much differ- ently. Gone are the days of a partnership between the two agencies that once shared common goals to protect the innocent and fight the bad guy. Worse, there seems to be
County courtroom recently when a police officer was on trial for perjury. My client was fortunate on that day, as he was found not guilty on a directed verdict. The facts in this case highlight the tension between the prosecutor’s office and the Police Department. In that case, my client was working for a suburban Police Department. He was summoned by his supervisors to accompany a group of undercover Chicago Police Officers who were conducting a narcotics investigation in his suburb. He was used for his uniform and suburban squad car. An individual was stopped and subsequently placed under arrest for pos- session of marijuana in that case. My client did not pre- pare any of the reports documenting the arrest.
When the case went to trial on a motion to suppress ev- idence 11 months after the incident, my client was sub- poenaed to court. He met with the arresting Chicago Po-
20 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JANUARY 2017