When the Associated Press’s story on police officers who’ve lost their licenses due to sexual misconduct broke last year, it sent chills down many spines. The conviction of Daniel Holtzclaw, the former Oklahoma City police officer, on 18 counts of sexual assault also last year was another one of those moments of awful realization: the ones who are supposed to protect and serve actually prey and attack. But the story of former Pepper Pike, Ohio, police officer Jeffrey Martin has to be one of those that not only frightens you it also, in the sick and demented way of certain people, makes total sense.
Martin was arrested last month on charges of rape and menacing. Like many of those in the AP’s report, Martin had committed inappropriate acts on duty before but escaped accountability. A couple of weeks ago, a judge assigned the case to the Ohio attorney general’s office so that a special prosecutor could handle the case. The case was taken out of the jurisdiction of the county prosecutor because it was found that Martin had stalked his victim; not stalked her like an average person would, but stalked her in the way that only a police officer could: he stalked her utilizing a police database … the database from the police department where the victim made the complaint against Martin in the first place. Martin even posed as a special investigator in an attempt to gain access to this victim.
Sick and depraved are some good adjectives right about now but they’re not enough. Actually, it’s kind of tiring trying to find more, better words for something like this. It’s tiring because enough should be enough. Enough examples of the lawlessness of too many individuals who wear a badge and gun; enough examples of the dysfunction, incompetence, and indifference of those who could reign them in and hold them accountable. The general public, regular old folks, should have more than enough examples now to know that something has to be done about the system—or lack thereof—that holds law enforcement accountable for their transgressions and crimes, that serves as a check on their behavior, and that truly, truly keeps members of the general public safe.
Martin now has an added charge of “misusing a police database” added on to his plate.
Enough.