I was contacted by an anonymous source inside Hathian Police Department (HPD) a few days ago with a story that lifts the lid on what REALLY happens inside HPD, and the different issues our brave officers face. The identity of the source of this information will not be revealed only that I can confirm their identity.
Firstly I have to say as a more senior member of the Observer Staff I was sought out, while I may often be critical of HPD, their officers, their tactics, and the many crimes committed by officers wearing the HPD Uniform, I also understand that those officers are in the minority, the general public has a lack of trust in HPD, and their issues with HPD are, while worrisome, also not endemic as some would falsely have you believe.
The Officer firstly revealed that there is a complete lack of a hierarchal structure within HPD. the source claimed that most senior officers were there purely to pick up a wage packet and had little to no real input in the general organization of the junior ranks below them resulting in a situation where duties were handed out by junior offices as they see fit rather than given out at roll call by a Sergeant or Captain, as you would expect them to be. This has led to some junior officers having free reign with no come-back for their actions.
The officer would go on to mention how there was a high turnover of officers within HPD, and as such, they were forced to re-hire old officers to be able to complete their duties. Old officers being rehired by the department is astounding according to the source who would ass that a lack of tangible leadership and mentorship within the force meant many officers lacked the skills and abilities to perform their duties as required, a second reason they explained was just the sheer violence officers faced on a daily basis which, you would assume, would make most officers turn in their badge quite quickly especially considering some of the things we’ve had to report recently about violence aimed at HPD. To quote the officer:
‘When I joined the force years ago, I wanted to do good, and protect and serve as was my oath. But within six months, I had been shot, stabbed, tortured and sexually assaulted by those I was meant to serve and protect’ so yeah” HPD Officer
It was at this point that the officer indicated that this had not just been something they had experienced but a number of officers had also reported being the victim of sexual assault. The officer said that they faced ‘astounding violence’ on a daily basis and that some first responders would see using a similar level of violence as being the only way they are able to defend themselves in what is most of the time a life and death situation for the responder.
When I mentioned the situation with the ever-growing number of gangs in Hathian the Officer commented about how some of their female colleagues had been kidnapped and sold on the black market where they are forced into among other things pornography though there is evidence that some officers have been the victims of the torture of worse in videos released on the Dark Web. As ever being a member of HPD was the only reason these officers were chosen, usually randomly irrespective of how they went about their duties.
We started to discuss some of the other internal issues with HPD, we have a department of mostly patrol officers, with basic equipment dealing with multiple gangs and criminal organizations that would usually be dealt with by specialized departments. The officer would confirm this expressing that they were regular cops dealing with the many issues in Hathian without access to an Organized Crime unit to focus on gangs, serious crime, etc. In addition to this, the limited number of Detectives the department does have is overworked dealing with the increasing number of serious crimes and does not have the staff they require to be able to assign them to a task force to deal with specific cases.
The officer would confirm what was already known, HPD is grossly underfunded, poorly staffed, and lacks the management it requires to be able to be organized to operate with the limited staffing they have at their disposal. The interview closed with this final statement from the Officer.
“Perhaps this Mayor could review the HPD as he said in his interview, adequately fund and resource independent units, etc. At the end of the day I could continue, and rant for hours about the risk an officer has to bear. I guess you could close with a question to the public,
“How does a member of the public expect an officer of the law to protect and serve the public, when the public continually attacks the officers with extreme and unjustified violence”
J.F. Steel
04/24/2022
