Fighting Crime From Above?

David Smiley from the Miami Herald has an interesting story of how a dashboard mounted camera with audio captured police allegedly framing a DWI suspect.

A video that once again has the Hollywood Police Department investigating allegations of corruption against its officers went undiscovered for months because a DVD filed March in court did not contain the incriminating clip.

The video, in which officers are heard discussing plans to doctor an arrest report in order to fault an accused drunk driver in a police-involved crash, is now at the center of an internal affairs investigation into the actions of five department employees.

According to court documents, prosecutor Cathy Berkowitz received the clip from Torrensvilas attorney Lawrence Meltzer. Prosecutors dropped all charges against the 23-year-old Hollywood resident Wednesday, despite evidence that she had a blood-alcohol level twice the legal limit at the time of her arrest.

FAR-REACHING

Now, with the video in-hand, Finkelstein said the allegations against the officers could act as legal dominoes in pending and resolved cases in which they were called as witnesses.

"This could have huge, far-reaching implications and that's why you need to understand this is more important than a couple of cops did something bad," he told The Miami Herald.

The state attorney's office is now evaluating 27 pending cases involving the accused officers to determine whether it can prosecute without the officers' testimony, according to Morton.

Those cases range from misdemeanor DUI to murder, said chief assistant public defender Mindy Solomon.

She said the Public Defender's Office is also reviewing cases closed during the last 30 days and during the last two years to see if they could be potentially reopened.

"We have new evidence we didn't have before," she said.

When will these city workers stop self-indicting themselves?   Here's the rundown:

1. Taxpayer pays for pricey monitoring system and salaries of police officers
2. Cameras catch officers allegedly doing something wrong
3. Officers are put on desk duty, may lose their jobs, maybe goes to jail
4. Taxpayer pays for impending settlement
5. 27 cases will have to be revisited