Garner’s Public Defender: Cops & Prosecutors ‘A Team’
When a non-officer is accused of a crime, invoking his or her Miranda rights is the typically the role of the accused and their defense attorney. Yet, when a police officer is the accused, the entire department and district attorney’s office defer to an employment policy, rather than the overarching public interest of investigating serious crime by police officers.
If we as a society expect police to be held accountable for unlawful, and sometimes abusive and deadly actions, we must rid these cases of secrecy, favorable bias, and conflicts of interest. Immediate answers include independent prosecutors and investigators, or employing the use of public preliminary hearings.