BATON ROUGE – Louisiana State Police launched a Drive Investigation Unit (FIU) in February tasked with investigating instances of lethal drive, retaliatory drive and in-custody deaths involving officers underneath the Division of Public Security.
FIU will function individually from Inner Affairs, a physique that investigates incidents at State Police together with allegations made towards their very own troopers. The FIU will report on to Colonel Lamar Davis. The bold program is being lauded as an important concept by troopers, however this week sources supplied the WBRZ Investigative Unit with emails that Davis despatched out telling people that if they’ve an FIU grievance, it must be filed with their chain of command.
Troopers are nervous that in the event that they witness one thing that’s worthy of being reported, they’ll now not go on to FIU. As an alternative, they must undergo their supervisors who would carry the grievance up their chain of command.
“This is similar previous story and tune,” one trooper advised the WBRZ Investigative Unit. “We will not report issues on the troop stage, and this limits individuals reporting unhealthy conduct. Reporting it to an entity separate from FIU, means you successfully need to report it to supervisors who maintain your profession of their fingers. They won’t need to promote a rat sooner or later.”
Following Ronald Greene’s dying, quite a few troopers had been retaliated towards after they advised the reality. The issue there brought about one state lawmaker to even suggest a legislation defending legislation enforcement whistleblowers.
State Police imagine this new unit can be useful and is a confirmed mannequin based mostly on greatest practices utilized by quite a few companies throughout the nation.
Three years in the past, Ronald Greene died in State Police custody. Physique digital camera footage confirmed he was brutally overwhelmed, however troopers advised his household he died due to a crash.
If the FIU was in existence again then, it will have additionally been tasked with investigating the Greene case.
The FIU is made up of practically 12 completely different LSP staff which might be damaged up into three areas.