Three members of KCK Police Department's SWAT Team indicted

[Silent_Bob]

http://www.kctv5.com/story/15090956/indictments-handed-down-in-kck-police-officer-misconduct-case

KANSAS CITY, KS (KCTV) -

A federal grand jury indicted three members of the KCK SWAT team this week, sources tell KCTV5.

The indictments, which include conspiracy charges, won't be unsealed before next week, the sources say.

The three were part of an investigation into whether money and property were taken from a family during a raid. A sting operation was set up by the FBI after a resident complained about the officers' conduct.

Surveillance cameras were planted throughout the home and furniture was installed in the vacant house to convince officers that they were serving an actual warrant.

"I think we are sick. The reaction yesterday was sick to our stomach," said Police Chief Rick Armstrong

The three officers had been placed on unpaid leave after the January raid and they remain on unpaid leave after the indictments were handed down by the federal grand jury in Wichita.

Ten officers initially were detained in early January. Three have returned to work while four remain on paid leave.

KCK's SWAT Team is called the SCORE unit.

A KCK woman told KCTV5 last winter that her complaint sparked the investigation.

[Russell Kanning]

i wonder how much they have stolen over the years

[toowm]

i wonder how much they have stolen over the years

"Officially" almost $11 billion. http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Forfeiture

[Russell Kanning]

wow

here is some that struck me:

#

(asset forfeiture and SWAT raids) "Asset forfeiture has a long and troubling history in drug cases and has been frequently and thoroughly assailed by critics. But it has a unique application in the case of paramilitary raids. SWAT teams are typically expensive to maintain. Federal grants and free equipment get them up and running, but local departments are often then forced to foot the costs of keeping members up to date on tactics and weapons training as well as the upkeep of equipment. Because the more traditional uses of SWAT teams—emergency situations like barricades, hostage takings, and bank robberies—don't bring lucrative forfeiture opportunities (or federal funding), police officials feel increasing pressure to send SWAT teams out on drug assignments, where the assets seized come back to the department and can help offset the costs of having a SWAT team in the first place."
Source:
Balko, Rodney, "Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America," Cato Institute (Washington, DC: 2006), p. 26.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/wtpapers/balko_whitepaper_2006.pdf

#

(asset forfeiture and corruption of law enforcement) According to a 1998 article published in the University of Chicago Law Review, the ability of law enforcement agencies to financially benefit from forfeited assets, and the provision of large block grants from Congress to fight the drug trade "have distorted governmental policy making and law enforcement." The authors believe that "the law enforcement agenda that targets assets rather than crime, the 80 percent of seizures that are unaccompanied by any criminal prosecution, the plea bargains that favor drug kingpins and penalize the 'mules' without assets to trade, the reverse stings that target drug buyers rather than drug sellers, the overkill in agencies involved in even minor arrests, the massive shift in resources towards federal jurisdiction over local law enforcement - is largely the unplanned by-product of this economic incentive structure."