Cop Accountability in California?
Police officers and sheriff’s deputies in California are now being rated at RateMyCop.com, a web site recently created by a Culver City, CA couple.
RateMyCop covers most states with a focus on California, Texas, and Florida. Users can search for officers by name, department or state and then rank them up to five stars, according to a story appearing today in The New York Times.
Users must register before rating or commenting on the officer, but their identify is hidden otherwise and the lack of contributor transparency is the cops’ biggest beef, claiming there is no method to verify whether or not the information is accurate.
Cops are in an uproar, of course, not being used to any kind of real citizen review of their work.
Success of the site seems assured in that February 28, 2008, its first day online, GoDaddy.com was forced to shut it down after too many users tried to access the site. It is now running on another server.
The publisher of CaliforniaCriminalDefenseLawyerblog.com hopes to provide the same transparency for a number of Californians who suffer every day in dealing with their POs.
