Police Intimidation - 2006 - Google+ Won't Post This

*In a free country, this 2006 video should be widely distributed*

_My G+ posts of this story appear to be raising "policy violation" flags, and are being removed from both others' *and my own* Stream and Profile views.  I have *not* deleted the original item.  That is a Google / G+ action, which I've reported._

An undercover investigation requesting complaint forms from 38 South Florida South Florida police departments failed to produce the forms at all but three of the departments.

The investigator was interrogated, intimidated, threatened, and in at least one case, arrested.

Similar experiences are reported in Missouri, Texas, California, New York, and Massachusetts.


*There's a considerable update to this story which I'm planning on adding.*

(I'd been in the process of updating the original when the post itself, _and a follow-up post_ were both disappeared from Google+.)



*I've researched this story and turned up additional information corroborating and contextualising the video.*

The original series was placed online at "cbs4.com", now http://miami.cbslocal.com WFOR-TV Miami / Fort Lauderdale.

Much of the original coverage is not online at _either_ the original site(s) _or_ at The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, though a few traces survive.  Included amongst sources are the _Miami Herald_, CBS4/WFOR-TV, The Consumerist, The Agitator, Boing Boing, and others.

PoliceAbuse Dot Org who conducted much of the investigation seem to be offline, though there's an archive of the site from October, 2017.
2006: https://web.archive.org/web/20060217022324/http://policeabuse.org/
2017: https://web.archive.org/web/20171002180659/http://policeabuse.org/


A bit of a link-dump follows as my _initial_ attempt to provide corroboration seems to have drawn a Google+ Content Warning for unknown reasons.


Amongst the better contemporaneous collections is this blog posting:
http://www.peeniewallie.com/2006/02/police-station.html


*Police Station Intimidation-Parts 1 and 2* (CBS4/WFOR-TV)
https://web.archive.org/web/20061005090453/http://cbs4.com:80/topstories/local_story_033170755.html

..._CBS4 News found that, in police departments across Miami-Dade and Broward Counties, large and small, it was virtually impossible to walk in the door, and walk out with a complaint form...._


*Florida Police Retaliate Against Investigative Journalist* (Consumerist)
https://consumerist.com/2006/04/05/florida-police-retaliate-against-investigative-journalist/

_...Mike Kirsch, a CBS4 journalist, has been following a story about how police stations not only don’t have standardized forms for filing complaints against the police, they exercise intimidation tactics against those who request them, as we previously wrote._

_The BOLO, posted to a Broward County Policeman’s Benevolent Association website, claims the Channel 4 reporters are conducting a sting where the reporter will speed down the road. Later, the same car appears with a black male driving. If pulled over, the BOLO claims the occupants become hostile and try to pick a fight. If there’s a negative police reaction, then a complaint is filed with their department...._

Archived:  https://web.archive.org/web/20171106035800/https://consumerist.com/2006/04/05/florida-police-retaliate-against-investigative-journalist/


*February 24, 2006 Got a Complaint Form?*
https://web.archive.org/web/20060910203822/http://www.theagitator.com/archives/026308.php

_...A watchdog group (run by a former police officer, incidentally) took a tour of nearly 40 South Florida police stations in search of a complaint form and videotaped the results...._


*Police Strike Back at Television Reporter* (Miami Herald)
https://web.archive.org/web/20060614215451/http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/broward_county/14218941.htm

_The personal information of an investigative reporter was posted prominently on a South Florida police union's website after a local television station aired a report about how police in Broward and Miami-Dade counties deal with the public._

_The address, date of birth and driver's license number of WFOR CBS-4 reporter Mike Kirsch was posted as a BOLO -- or ''be on the lookout'' -- on the website of the Broward County Police Benevolent Association...._


BCPBA's side of the story:

*"Watchdog" Group Attacks the BPA*
http://www.bcpba.org/pdf/Centurion/2006/May%202006.pdf

_Call it a tale of two Web sites.  What began as a simple traffic stop has become a standoff between the Broward County PBA and the Police Compliant Center, a so-called police watchdog group...._

Unbiased, I'm sure...


One of the officers profiled by WFOR-TV attempted to suppress the report through a lawsuit.  This was thrown out:

*Officer Takes Action Against CBS4 After Story Airs* (CBS4/WFOR-TV)
https://web.archive.org/web/20060302065843/http://cbs4.com/local/local_story_053001510.html


(NB: I'm intentially breaking links above to sort out why G+ won't allow this to post.)

https://youtu.be/rFFiZzsf7Xg


And:  I'm now posting this to Pastebin as *every attempt to submit this to G+ fails for unspecified reasons.*

*This is the post Google does not want you to see.*