[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

The scariest thing is that such low lifes like this cop and the South Carolina cop earlier this year have repeated, documented instances of excessive force or straight up brutality, yet they keep them out on the street. This guy for instance did this a year ago so he might have been on the street for a whole other year, doing who knows what.

There's also the fact that such psychopaths are even allowed to meet the standards to become cops in the first place. Either the standards are too low or the training is simply abysmal. But it's ridiculous to think there are many more like this cop out there. There needs to be much more work being done to train cops on community policing and not the "Us vs. them" mentality that so many cops seem to have.

Often, officers removed from the job for public complaints or excessive force simply find work as police officers in other jurisdictions.

A police officer who was hired by the city of Snoqualmie despite a history of excessive force has been placed on administrative leave and is under investigation by the department, according to city officials.

Snoqualmie will not specify the allegations that led them to pull Officer Nicholas Hogan off the streets; however, City Attorney Bob Sterbank says they do not involve the use of force there.

Hogan was placed on leave Oct. 5, Sterbank said.

He was hired by the city in January 2014 even though he was fired by the Tukwila Police Department in 2012 for aggressive street tactics and his apparent affiliation with the sometimes violent anti-drug “Straight Edge” movement.

Hogan’s commanders in Tukwila were concerned he was targeting intoxicated African-American men and was too quick to resort to force, generating complaints from citizens and fellow officers. Court records indicate that Tukwila paid out more than $425,000 to settle lawsuits filed by citizens against Hogan and the department.

Snoqualmie hired Hogan from a group of several officers as it expanded its police force to take over providing public safety for neighboring North Bend, which until last year was covered by the King County Sheriff’s Office.

Snoqualmie said it chose Hogan from a trio of candidates and said he was fully vetted and passed a lie-detector test. Mayor Matthew Larson said in a statement that the department was “aware of allegations” concerning Hogan when he was hired in 2014.

Tukwila police Cmdr. Eric Drever said Snoqualmie contacted his agency about Hogan, and reviewed his personnel file. However, he said there was no indication that anybody from Snoqualmie requested or reviewed extensive internal-affairs investigations Tukwila had conducted before firing him.

“I do not see how any department would hire him with that knowledge,” Drever said.

Sterbank, however, said Snoqualmie Police Chief Steve McCulley spoke “off the record with multiple Tukwila command-level individuals, who both spoke favorably of Hogan and indicated their belief that he had been unfairly treated by the City of Tukwila and deserved an opportunity with another law-enforcement agency.”

More than 1,000 pages of Tukwila internal-affairs documents obtained by The Seattle Times revealed Hogan used force more than any other officer on the 60-man Tukwila force.

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-...-snoqualmie-2/