opinion

Your Turn: Tempe police have not compromised Uber crash investigation

As a long-retired police officer, Bill Richardson for years has delighted in second-guessing his former colleagues on the frontlines. While Richardson is entitled to his opinion – as expressed in his column "Tempe police chief shouldn't have said Uber crash was 'unavoidable'" – he is not entitled to his own facts.

I serve as a sergeant with the Tempe Police Department and as the president of the Tempe Officers Association. Because of these dual roles, I’ve paid microscopic attention to the tragic death of Elaine Herzberg and to the ongoing investigation of that case (though I am not personally involved in this investigation) and the ensuing media coverage.

From my perspective, Richardson’s column made three grievous errors.

One word does not judge an entire case

First, he cherry-picked a single world – unavoidable – from Tempe Police Chief Sylvia Moir’s public comments and gave the false impression the police chief had somehow pre-judged this investigation.

She has not. Nor have the investigators charged with probing this case.

Using a quote fragment to impugn the integrity of the Tempe Police Department was Richardson’s second error – and by far his most serious. As Richardson put it, Moir might have created “command bias” by telegraphing to investigators her chosen outcome.

And I quote: “Just like kids want to please their parents, employees want to please their boss. In this case, it just happens to be the chief of police.”

I’ve worked for years with the men and women of the Tempe Vehicular Crimes Unit and the city’s Homicide Unit, and I can attest that these “best and brightest” cops serve only the people and the law. These professionals work tirelessly day and night to piece together the evidence, sometimes to the detriment of their family and personal lives.

It's an insult to say we're pleasing mommy

These detectives are not kids trying to please mommy and daddy. They are some of Arizona's best investigators, and they follow cases to their conclusion, wherever that conclusion may lead.

Richardson, by contrast, has already concluded his investigation – by reading about the case in the newspaper. “What happened,” he tells us in making his third and final mistake, “was a homicide.”

Actually, it is a homicide investigation – one being conducted by experienced investigators working 24-7 to come to the most thorough conclusion possible considering the available evidence and the law.

Such investigations will always come with intense public scrutiny, as well they should. But that scrutiny – like police investigations – ought to be based on facts, not on an armchair quarterback’s semi-factual opinion.

The Tempe investigators on this case – and police officers everywhere – deserve better than an insult for their intense efforts on behalf of the public we serve.

Robert Ferraro has been a Tempe police officer since 2007.

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