Calexico, California
“Exactly like the Mafioso in New York. That’s exactly how they are operating,” Calexico Police Chief Mike Bostic said of city officials and police union members
Calexico Police Chief Mike Bostic was brought in to clean up the border town's police department last month, when Chief Pompeyo Tabarez was removed "in the interests of the citizens", after just over a year on the job. But his efforts are being thwarted by members of city council and the local Police Officers Association, he said at a press conference. He also claims Tabarez and remnants of his administration are actively working to have him ousted. At Bostic's request, the FBI is currently examining allegations of botched investigations, and lack thereof. The new chief also claims,
“The councilmembers in conjunction with the police officers association and members of that association have used city funds and city resources to run what I would call an extortion racket,”
adding that the officers purchased up to a hundred thousand dollars worth of surveillance equipment to spy on elected officials.
In addition to those charges, he told reporters detectives used "professional tools" to break into vehicles, without warrants. So a hell of a mess in a small town, but it does leave one to wonder if this sort of behavior common place. Bostic seems to think it might be. From the clip.
"Do you wonder why city council members from time to time, in cities act in a very strange way? They're being extorted! They're being extorted with information and with pictures. And unfortunately some of my officers were up to that, and we have the physical evidence currently in the hands of the FBI to prove it."
Some members of the department were
given a vacation placed on paid leave or demoted.