Milwaukee, WI

Maybe this is a problem that plagues every big city, but doesn’t it seem like Milwaukee gets more than its fair share of bad cops? While no one can touch LAPD’s notoriety, Milwaukee certainly makes the headlines more than it should.

Today’s “bad cop” story involves a Sgt. Jason Mucha, and the allegations are downright frightening. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is investigating allegations that Sgt. Mucha beat suspects and planted drugs on them during arrests he made between 2003 and 2006. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel takes credit for playing a role in drawing attention to Mucha’s misconduct when it revealed that Milwaukee’s police department has no real way of tracking police misconduct claims. It turns out that Mucha had been accused of planting drugs or beating suspects in at least ten unrelated cases. That was enough to get an investigation rolling.

Jason Mucha’s Mugshot:

If the allegations are proven to be true, Mucha will be just another bad cop in a long line of bad cops in Milwaukee. It wasn’t that long ago that we were hearing about the group of rogue Milwaukee police officers who referred to themselves as the “Punishers,” after the comic book character with the same name. The Punishers had a reputation for brutalizing suspects, and appeared to play a role in the Frank Jude Jr. beating in 2004. In 2005, officer Steven Lelinski sexually assaulted a woman at her home and in front of her 18 month-old child. He was found guilty of second degree sexual assault after a jury trial earlier this year. These are just a few recent and particularly heinous examples, but there are many more.

It goes without saying that every incident of officer misconduct has a huge impact on the suspect or victim involved. But the misconduct goes well beyond those directly affected. What happens when the public perception of our police force falls so low that people see the police as little more than a band of thugs? What happens to their credibility in court? When does the public stop seeing this as just a few bad apples and begin thinking that the entire police force is a problem? Are we reaching approaching that point yet?