In March, we released our first five episodes of our #QualityMatters podcast. One of those episodes was on a botched police raid in Houston and we addressed possible processes they could put in place to prevent further instances. During the podcast, I mentioned there was talk of reviewing and/or dismissing any cases that the officer was previously involved in. Now, it’s happening.
Gerald Goines is the officer that requested the warrant. He was relieved of duty and later retired. A second officer, Steven Bryant, was also relieved of duty and then retired. Bryant said that he retrieved two bags of heroin from Goines police car that was reportedly purchased by a confidential informant. This didn’t jive with what Goines stated when requesting the warrant. The warrant showed that Goines stated Bryant identified heroin as it was brought out of the house.
Together, these two officers have been involved in 2,200 cases over the years. Five pending cases had already been dropped. On Friday, April 26th, prosecutors requested dismissal of 27 more cases. Prosecutors will continue to review the 2,200 cases these 2 officers were involved in and make a decision regarding all of those.
I don’t pretend to be an expert in police departments, prosecutor’s offices, or Judge’s quarters. I actually don’t know anything about it. I shared the extent of my knowledge on our podcast. And, that was learned just for the podcast. I can’t help but think that more than one thing went wrong along the way. There had to have been some indicators along the way of the officers’ behavior. I am also not saying the officers or the accused are guilty or innocent.
I’m saying this has become serious enough that the officers were relieved of duty, later retired, and now thousands of cases are being reviewed. I’m saying our tax dollars could be spent in a better way if better processes were put in place to review credentials and instances of misbehavior.
In quality, prevention is an important piece. If we can prevent rework, we save money. The same holds true for our tax supported organizations.