2/3 of Texas City's Police Department Have Been Indicted on Corruption Charges!
Throw the whole department away! The city of Llano, Texas is struggling to keep crime out of their own police department.
Over the past 18 months two-thirds of the Llano Police Department have come under fire for "abuse of power" and other corruption. The officers have picked locks on homes, kicked in doors, tampered with evidence and violently arrested individuals and all of it was caught on their own body-cam footage!
Talk about a bunch of goofs!
It doesn't stop there though, it's not just the police officers who are getting caught up in their own net, the police chief was implicated as well!
"In total, criminal charges stemming from at least six incidents have led to the resignation, suspension and termination of five Llano city police officers, including the police chief, in the past nine months.
One Lllano County Sheriff's Deputy has been reassigned pending the results of his criminal trial.
An improper arrest of a man in May 2017 led to the July conviction of former Police Chief Kevin Ratliff, and the indictment of three other officers."
This police department sound like a bunch of power-drunken Barney Fife's stirring up trouble in Mayberry!
Via KXAN:
"Llano city officials have known about the allegations against their police force for nearly a year. The first indictments came down nine months ago. Since then, the grand jury’s handed up indictments against five of the department’s eight officers. "It is what it is and you just move forward and go on,” Llano City Manager Scott Edmonson.
"I haven't got into it in too much detail yet. I mean, we're just dealing with it right now,” Edmonson said of questions over whether the city’s investigated the abuse of power allegations into its police force.
Edmonson would not talk about any details involving the charges. KXAN Jody Barr's questions didn’t deal with details of the charges but dealt specifically with the city’s attempts to figure out why prosecutors found alleged criminal conduct with two-thirds of its police force.
"Again, I don't want to get into that because I think that's going to go towards the individual cases and I don't want to go there,” the city manager explained when asked how this looks to the public.
Edmonson would also not answer any questions about Ratliff’s leadership at the department."
Formal charges have been brought against everyone involved and most of their hearings are slated to begin in October. Can you imagine what it's like to live in a city where this much of the police force is crooked? It's gotta be like living in a never-ending episode of Power! Who can you turn to and who can you trust?!
