PENNSYLVANIA Report on arrests of troopers brings state police reforms

The governor said the 'very high number' of arrests indicates a problem.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- Eighty-two Pennsylvania State Police troopers were arrested on felony and misdemeanor charges that include aggravated assault, rape, bribery and incest during the past nine years, according to a departmental report released Wednesday.
In addition to the 89 sets of serious criminal charges -- defendants were counted more than once if they were charged on more than one day -- the department listed 25 troopers who were charged with summary offenses such as disorderly conduct and harassment since 1995.
Of the 114 total arrests, 45 resulted in convictions and 49 led to acquittals or the dropping of charges. The records in 12 cases were expunged, and eight cases are pending.
Speaking at an unrelated event in York on Wednesday, Gov. Ed Rendell said the report "shows there's a problem."
"An arrest or two a year is probably inevitable," but the report indicates "a very high number," he said.
Under monitoring
Rendell said state police are taking steps to address the problem and noted that an outside consultant was hired to monitor reforms in the wake of revelations of dozens of complaints of alleged sexual misconduct by troopers since 1995.
Over the past three years alone, troopers have been arrested on charges of stealing money and drugs from drug dealers in the Philadelphia area, downloading child pornography on office computers in Greene County, borrowing thousands of dollars from garages subject to state police inspection in Beaver County, and mistreating POWs while on duty with the U.S. Army Reserves in Iraq.
The most recent arrest occurred two weeks ago, when a trooper was charged with indecent assault and harassment after accusations of making inappropriate sexual comments and having indecent contact with a woman while on duty at a service plaza along the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Fulton County. He was suspended without pay.
Among all the arrests, the largest category of charges was assault. Other non-summary charges included drunken driving, hindering apprehension, making false reports, tampering with public records, witness intimidation and extortion.
'Very small' percentage
State police spokesman Jack J. Lewis said the troopers who were charged represent a "very small" percentage of the 4,300-trooper work force.
"The department has taken recent steps, including the addition of polygraph and psychological testing for cadet candidates, to try to make sure that only those persons with the highest ethical and moral standards become state police. We are hopeful that with this testing now in place, the number of crimes committed by enlisted members will decrease," Lewis said.
Bruce A. Edwards, president of the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association union, said the fact that so many cases did not result in convictions shows troopers are held to a higher standard and that "arrests were being made that might not have been made in other cases."
Michael D. Lyman, a professor of criminal justice at Columbia College in Missouri who has testified in civil suits as an expert in police misconduct, said imposing more rigorous screening of job applicants is considered the best way for police agencies to deal with corruption.
"There has to be closer scrutiny of those that go into police service in terms of their credit records, their criminal records and any red flags that indicate that these people might be tempted, with a lack of supervision, to go into criminal wrongdoing," Lyman said.
The state police arrest figures, he said, reflect "the culture of the department -- meaning all the way up through the administrative levels. Call it a culture of tolerance, if you will."
The review comes several months after a federal lawsuit filed against a former state trooper, now in prison for a variety of crimes against women and teenage girls, brought to light the extent of sexual-misconduct complaints filed against state police employees.
State police said they fielded 163 sexual-misconduct complaints from 1995 through 2001, of which 68 were deemed to have merit.
Fourteen employees were fired as a result, although labor arbitrators later reinstated four of them.