State of Indiana v. David Bisard

A very good suggestion was made recently for me to write about the events and criminal charges surrounding Indianapolis Metro Police Officer David Bisard.

For those outside of central Indiana who may not be aware of recent happenings allegedly involving Officer Bisard, he was responding to a call on August 6, 2010, at 11:20am, when, with lights and siren on, he drove into a group of three motorcycles, killing one rider and critically injuring two others. A blood draw taken about two hours later allegedly indicated a blood-alcohol concentration of .19%, roughly two-and-a-half times the legal limit of .08%, but because the blood draw was conducted by someone who was not certified under Indiana law to do blood work for criminal cases, the blood draw results would likely be inadmissible in Court.

Community outrage ensued when all of the DUI-related charges against Officer Bisard were dropped, as many people came to the conclusion that IMPD intentionally botched the blood draw to protect one of their own officers. This is right on the heels of some other police actions that have resulted in racial tensions in the community (although in the fatal collision, both the deceased and the police officer are white). So IMPD is taking a beating in the local media, deservedly or not.

An article in today's Indianapolis Star sums things up pretty well.

Yesterday, it was revealed that Officer Bisard was the first on the scene of a 2008 mass killing that gained wide publicity around here because the victims were two 24-year-old mothers and their babies: 23 MONTHS old and 5 MONTHS old. They were all hiding behind a bed when they were murdered. Now the attorney for one of the accused murderers is claiming that Bisard and another officer were negligent in the way they responded to those killings, after the 911 caller provided an address that doesn't exist. The question is that since Bisard is accused of a major alcohol-related crime now, did alcohol lead to negligent actions on a case two years ago?

So that got me thinking. I wonder which came first: the alcohol abuse, or being the first on the scene of two young women and their infants being slaughtered?

I also wondered why there is so much outrage against David Bisard. I'm well aware that what he's accused of doing is terrible, but I wonder why so many members of the community are so vehemently spitting out the "murderer" label in reference to him. I haven't seen a shred of speculation that what he did was intentional. It's not like he did what this guy did. Or what this guy did. Or this guy. Or this kid. Those guys were murderers, and I'm especially sensitive to people who murder police officers. Sure, Officer Bisard was accused of drinking before the crash, but that doesn't make the collision intentional. So I don't view him as a murderer, and thus I don't feel the rage toward Officer Bisard that I feel toward cop killers or people who intentionally run over pedestrians.

So why is there so much outrage? Is it because he's a police officer, and "should have known better"? Is it because IMPD's name was already mud, and this incident was the flashpoint? Why is this incident so different from the countless other DUI fatalities that barely make a blip on the social radar? Is it because a legal loophole is allowing him to escape several felony charges and keep his drivers license, just like so many legal loopholes in the past have allowed so many other accused felons to escape charges and keep their drivers licenses?

What, exactly, do people want done with Officer Bisard? What do they deem to be a fair punishment, assuming, of course, that the charges against him can be proven in Court? And would they want that same punishment to be handed out to their father, their son, their brother, their friend, if the situation was different?

I'm curious as to what was going on in Officer Bisard's life that led him to allegedly have that high of a BAC in the late morning. When did he start drinking that day? He ran a couple of other errands that morning, before the collision. Was he drunk at that time? How highly functional of an alcoholic is he that none of his coworkers, who were in close proximity of him for quite some time after the crash, had any idea that he was impaired? I know many people are screaming conspiracy, claiming the thin blue line is leading these other officers to cover for Officer Bisard, but I've had experience with high-functioning alcoholics that leads me to believe this could have happened as the other officers said it did. I remember catching the faintest of whiffs of alcohol on a probationer in my office one time, and almost as an afterthought (because I had no other indications that he was intoxicated), I gave him a portable breath test. He blew a .28% BAC. Three-and-a-half times the legal limit. So I know it's possible to miss the signs, even when you're trained to recognize them.

Then I started wondering why so many IMPD officers are getting in trouble lately. Is it a result of former mayor Bart Peterson and current mayor Greg Ballard's campaign promises to add hundreds more police officers to the streets? Hundreds of previously unacceptable candidates to become police officers, but now they're allowed to wear a badge? Or is it the stress of the job? Low pay? Long hours? Something else entirely?

That got me wondering, how do police officers deal with the stressors they encounter on the job? How do they deal with people resisting them, whether it's verbally, physically, with a vehicle, or with a firearm? How do they deal with being the first on the scene of a grizzly mass murder involving infants? How do they deal with investigating people who have sex with children? How do they deal with high-speed pursuits, and any of the multitude of other events that send an officer from a relaxed state to an adrenaline dump in a heartbeat? How do they deal with political pressure? Community pressure? Social pressure among each other? Do they have more marital or relationship problems than the average person? How do they cope? Is this the kind of stuff that might lead a police officer to become a highly functioning alcoholic? Or a drug abuser? Or a domestic batterer? Or an adulterer?

Then I started working on my Master's Degree in Criminal Justice at IUPUI. And I started taking a Criminal Justice Systems class. And I have to write a 10-12 page paper in that class on a current issue or problem in the field of criminal justice. I have to have 10-15 sources, half of which must be from scholarly journals, and the other half of which may come from government documents, personal interviews, newspapers, and periodicals.

I think I have my topic for my paper already. I want to delve into the police system a little more and find answers to at least some of my questions. I know a lot of police officers (who, I'm sure, are all cringing as they read this) to subject to personal interviews, and I'm sure there have been plenty of scholarly journal articles written about the trials and tribulations of being a police officer.

I truly look forward to discovering whatever I discover as I work on this paper all semester. When I'm done, I'll let you know how it turns out.