Police officers arrested in car impound scheme in King City, Calif.

[Newsjock]

Source: KTVU

Police officers in a Central California town took part in a scheme in which cars belonging to poor Hispanic people were impounded, towed and later sold or given away for free to some officers when the car owners couldn't pay the fees, authorities said Tuesday.

Four officers — including the recently retired police chief and the acting chief in King City — have been arrested, and two others were also arrested Tuesday on unrelated charges, Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo said.

"There has been a significant breakdown in the internal leadership of the King City Police Department," Flippo said. "It also appears to me that some officers have dishonored their badge."

The six officers account for more than a third of the 17-member force in the agricultural town of 13,000 people about 150 miles southeast of San Francisco.

Read more: http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/crime-law/police-officers-arrested-car-impound-scheme/ndcWL/

[Warren DeMontague]

1. That whole damn town is one notorious, well-known speed trap.

They just pull people over off the 101 all day long. It's how they get their revenue. It's been that way for decades, as long as I can remember.

[REP]

2. Beat me to it

Exactly what I was going to say. Ticketing and impounding cars.

[Warren DeMontague]

3. Yeah, they got me at least once.

[hunter]

7. That's the California Highway Patrol doing that.

Not the police.

[Warren DeMontague]

8. Then I stand corrected.

Someone gave me a ticket down there at some point, I know that.

[hunter]

10. Of course sometimes it seems to be more about revenue than public safety with them too...

[frylock]

5. fuck tha police..

and I'm sure that the other 11 "good apples" in that dept that weren't indicted had no idea this was happening. nope.

[hunter]

6. They are shutting down the entire department.

The county sheriff is taking over.

I'm hoping this is a career ender for the un-indicted but there's no shortage of crooked little towns in the U.S.A..

[Egalitarian Thug]

9. And only twenty years later...

I wonder if "the news" is going to uncover the fact that the mayors, chiefs of police, most of the cops, judges, and the owners of the tow-truck operation are all the same families. King City has had no income other than road-side bandits with a badge for at least twenty years.

It a small town southern speed trap town, but on the west coast.



You're in a heap 'o trouble, boy.

[hunter]

11. Acting Chief Bruce Miller's brother owns the tow company.

Imagine that!