Dallas police sort 2,000 family violence cases found in garage

[Are_grits_groceries]

DALLAS (AP) — The Dallas Police Department is investigating if more than 2,000 family violence cases stored in the garage of one of its 35-year veterans were handled properly and filed with the district attorney's office.

Detective Mickey East says he took the documents home to organize them and put files together. He has entered only about 10 of his cases into the family violence unit database since 2005.

Officials are reviewing department policies to determine which rules he violated.

Police say it could take months to sort through the files.

Dallas County First District Attorney Terri Moore says prosecutors will wait until the police department complete its internal review before deciding how to proceed.
http://hosted2.ap.org/txdam/f22b22b1d99442e7850b3c580474bcc1/Article_2009-10-10-US-Abuse-Cases-Garage/id-pb3f211f4fdcf41c9a76380c5badd2b3a

Only 10 of his cases were entered since 2005????? What about others????

This not only is a corruption of the justice system, this action probably screwed over people who had or have those issues. If there is no prior record in the system, then an offender may get a lesser punishment unless I am mistaken.

[Zix]

1. As an administrator for the public sector, I have mixed feelings.

There's no question that this is a bit of a disaster but you often find in public sector positions that the admin is the last thing anyone thinks about and if there's just way too much of it people kinda shrug and say "deal with it". Which I try to do, by going in at weekends and after hours, but you get so SICK of being ignored when you point out that their workflow analysis is screwed. Mostly it's not the bosses fault and they're in exactly the same boat. I don't know if it's the same in the States.

Underfunded public resources are a hazard! You want public services? Pay for them!

Having said that, the guy should have pointed out to his employers how badly behind he was, and it's possible this is just his screw-up. I haven't read the article fully yet, just wanted to stick in my little "take responsibility for your public services and fund them properly!" rant... :D

[pipoman]

2. I wonder if any of those cases resulted in the person who

should have been charged being able to buy a gun and kill the victim.. Domestic violence convictions result in NICS denials for requests to purchase firearms.