150 cops, population 300: pay-to-play policing, from Tulsa to Kid Rock's town

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"“A small blip on the map, the little village of Oakley, with less than 300 residents, has got dozens and dozens of no-show secret police officers,” said Philip Ellison, a lawyer who is representing the family who own Oakley’s tavern in lawsuits attempting to force transparency from village leaders about the scheme.

Ellison said the singer was one of the names on a document released to him which he is not allowed to make public in full.

“None of the reservists, with the exception of one, live within an hour and a half of the village of Oakley,” said Ellison. He and others say the police force is in effect running a “pay to play” scheme with parallels to the controversy in Tulsa, Oklahoma that erupted after a wealthy white 73-year-old reserve deputy with close links to the sheriff shot dead a black man during a botched sting operation after apparently mistaking his gun for his Taser.

Bob Bates, an insurance executive who has been charged with manslaughter and is out on bail, gave money to the sheriff’s re-election fund, went fishing with him and donated expensive equipment including cars to the Tulsa County sheriff’s office. On Thursday, Tulsa World reported that at least three of Bates’s supervisors were transferred after refusing to falsify training records to give him credit for training he never took and firearms certifications he was not entitled to receive."


Link: [link to www.theguardian.com]