Our opinion: Another Albany cop police officer has been charged with DWI. A Schenectady officer has beaten such charges, for now. What does it take to stop bad police behavior? Good cops.
One cop, in Albany, has a record of transgressions culminating with his arrest on drunken driving charges just before dawn on Sunday.
The other cop, in Schenectady, had been charged with DWI, too, only to have his arrest dismissed in court because of — get this — sloppy police work.
What is it with the police around here — those who allegedly drive while they’re drunk and those who can’t make the DWI cases against their brother cops stick?
That’s two alarming strikes against what should be a given: that the rules ought to be different and, yes, tougher for the people whom we arm with guns and extraordinary powers to intrude into our lives in the name of the law.
In Albany, Officer Max Etienne has been in enough trouble already to raise questions about his fitness to be a cop. Four years ago, he was ticketed for crashing his SUV into three parked cars on an Albany residential street and then fleeing from the scene. Less than five years ago, Mr. Etienne allegedly lost his semiautomatic police pistol outside a Lark Street bar during a crowded street festival. The department at the time was said to be looking into whether he was drunk when it happened; the outcome of that investigation isn’t publicly known.
Now it’s time to initiate the admittedly cumbersome process of getting a troublesome cop off the force. Mr. Etienne is every bit as deserving of getting fired as former cop Brian Lutz was two years ago, after the debacle of a DWI arrest while the arresting officer said he was asleep in his car, with the engine running, on Interstate 787.
This time, of course, the firing must follow the provisions of the state law pertaining to the discipline of the police. Albany hardly needs a repeat of the Lutz case, where a state appeals court ruled that his firing didn’t pass legal muster.
That’s the problem in Schenectady, another city embarrassed by public incidents of alcohol abuse by the police. Most recently, courts ruled that Officer Jonathan Haigh, charged with drunken driving and leaving the scene of an accident two years ago, was improperly arrested. Field sobriety tests, for instance, were done at his house. (Are any civilians reading this surprised to learn that isn’t proper procedure?)
It does little for public confidence in the police when one of its officers is still on the job after admitting that he drank five beers and two shots of liquor before driving his car off the road.
Yes, the public is watching. Albany Police Chief Steven Krokoff addressed the perception issue two years ago, after the high-profile DWI arrest of Jimmy Miller, then the department’s official spokesman.
“Our officers are held to the same standards as everyone else,” Mr. Krokoff said.
He was half right. The reality is that the standards for the police should be even higher. Otherwise the law itself commands less respect.
Mr. Etienne wouldn’t even submit to an alcohol test. That’s a right that police officers in New York City give up when they take their jobs, a policy that Albany also should push to adopt.
Mr. Krokoff made a point of mentioning the good work that Mr. Etienne has done when he appeared in City Court on Tuesday. Which only makes it all the more regrettable that he has squandered his standing.
Mr. Haigh, meanwhile, has been reduced to serving as a cop with a “last chance” stipulation hanging over his head. Any further trouble, and he’s off the force.
If only all police considered themselves similarly warned. Bad cops must stop their drunken antics. Good cops won’t let them get away with such behavior.
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