Omaha World-Herald. July 7, 2017
Nebraska State Patrol must police itself
Gov. Pete Ricketts had little choice but to fire Nebraska State Patrol Col. Bradley Rice and ask the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office to review how the patrol investigated some troopers’ actions.
Ricketts said his human resources director, in a preliminary review of the agency, found “interferences in internal investigations and violations of internal policy at the highest levels.”
The governor placed six patrol staffers - including the agency’s second in command - on paid administrative leave, pending completion of the state’s review. Ricketts is right that the state should not tolerate such a “breach of integrity.”
Regardless of which patrol leaders acted inappropriately, Rice was ultimately responsible for permitting a culture that appeared to seek to avoid public accountability.
Integrity starts at the top.
World-Herald reporting focused on the patrol’s questionable handling and internal investigations of two incidents in western Nebraska, captured on cruiser video, involving troopers who used force.
One involved a road pursuit near Gordon in October 2016 that ended in a collision between a cruiser and a moving car that killed the driver of the fleeing vehicle, identified as Antoine LaDeaux, 32.
The trooper had received management approval to ram a suspect’s vehicle to disable it but later contended, after speaking with a supervisor, that the suspect’s vehicle had struck his cruiser. Video indicated the trooper initiated the contact.
The other incident, in Sioux County in March 2016, involved a trooper who used the stock of his rifle to subdue a suspect who had his arms up. Patrol accounts of the incident described a different scene than the video showed.
Lt. Dennis Leonard, who led the patrol’s internal affairs division during the Gordon probe, wrote to a co-worker, “I must say that I no longer believe we are capable of objectively investigating our own.”
These aren’t small things. Each incident damages the public trust. These actions seem out of character for the patrol, a statewide law enforcement agency with a strong reputation.
The governor should keep that reputation in mind as he selects the patrol’s next leader. The State Patrol requires leadership with strong character and a record to match.
The next colonel needs to reassert the expectation that the employees of the Nebraska State Patrol not only enforce state law but enforce it ethically and with the highest integrity.
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Kearney Hub. July 4, 2017
Nebraska scores ’D’ for road safety
A recent study by the National Safety Council ranked states on road, home, community and workplace safety. Nebraska scored a “D’’ in Road Safety, but we could have scored even lower, said Mark Segerstrom, Road Safety Project coordinator for the Nebraska Safety Council.
The study noted poor compliance among Nebraskans for seat-belt use. Our toothless law penalizes motorists for not buckling up only if they’re violating another traffic law. As a result, only 83 percent of Nebraskans use seat belts, even though buckling up is the single most effective way to protect yourself in a crash.
In May, Nebraska recorded 12 traffic fatalities: one ATV rider, four motorcyclists and seven vehicle occupants. All seven of the vehicle occupants were not using seat belts.
“This absence of a primary seat belt law for all occupants of a vehicle is unfortunate when you consider that an unbuckled passenger increases the chance of hurting or killing others in the vehicle by 40 percent,” Segerstrom said.
He cited Nebraska fatality statistics to support his point. Of the 191 passenger vehicle fatalities in 2015, 74 percent of victims were unbuckled. More than a third of those unbuckled were ejected from their vehicles. Of the teen fatalities on Nebraska roads in 2016, 100 percent were unbuckled.
There appears to be little interest among Nebraska lawmakers in instituting a seat-belt law that makes noncompliance a primary offense. Legislators in their 2017 session retained the state’s motorcycle helmet mandate, but there was no attempt to introduce a primary seat-belt law.
State-by-state statistics show that making non-use of seat belts a primary offense may increase compliance. Among the 33 states where non-use is a primary offense, Washington, Oregon, California and Georgia post the best usage rates, ranging from 94.7 percent to 97.2 percent.
Nebraska would be a safer place - and maybe earn better than a “D’’ in the next National Safety Council study - if lawmakers took the initiative and put some teeth in our seat-belt law.
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Lincoln Journal Star. July 7, 2017
Gale wise to be cautious with voter data
Despite a complete lack of evidence of purported voter fraud in November’s general election, a committee appointed by President Donald Trump chases the ghost nonetheless.
As believable as Trump’s claims that he won by a landslide, which he didn’t, is his debunked statement that millions of illegal votes cost him the popular vote. Erroneous logic that every supposedly fraudulent vote went against Trump aside, his commission is seeking far too much information on voters without clearly setting forth a purpose - besides combating a nearly nonexistent problem.
Accordingly, we share the concerns of Nebraska Secretary of State John Gale regarding the Presidential Advisory Commission of Election Integrity’s needlessly intrusive request. By requiring the group to follow state law in obtaining only information that is already public record, disclose the intended use and mandate security for the data before granting the request, Gale’s cautious approach is the right one.
The editorial board of a newspaper, particularly one that advocates as strongly for transparency as this one, asking to withhold public records would be hypocritical. Requiring even a presidentially appointed commission to follow state law to ensure Nebraskans’ privacy is protected and needs are met is the proper approach.
But the wide scope of the commission’s request - including for information such as the last four digits of Social Security numbers that is not publicly available and raises concerns about identity theft - is just too broad. A lack of clarity on its exact purpose and security of obtained data give us further pause.
Plus, voting irregularities are incredibly rare.
The Kansas City Star reported in May that Kris Kobach, the committee’s vice-chairman and spokesman, landed just his ninth voter fraud conviction in his six-plus years as Kansas’ secretary of state. For as much sound and fury as he’s generated, the only secretary of state in the nation with the powers to prosecute voting irregularities himself should have turned up more such evidence if this truly was the scourge he’s claimed.
Nebraska has had similarly low numbers of reported voter fraud. The only known cases of ineligible voters in November were two Dawson County men turned away at the polls - meaning the system in place worked exactly as it should have by preventing them from voting.
To be clear, we don’t support the commission’s effort. It’s not needed and could promote voter suppression. But public records must be released if requisite conditions are met.
Fourteen states and the District of Columbia have outright refused to comply with the committee’s request. If we thought Nebraska law allowed it, we’d encourage Gale to join them. Given the vague, dubious nature of this voter data fishing expedition, though, the state’s desire for privacy and safety of its voters is wise.
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McCook Daily Gazette. July 6, 2017
Highway safety measures worthy of future debate
If a tree falls in the forest and no one’s around to hear it, does it really make a sound?
If a policeman doesn’t issue you a ticket for driving while texting or not wearing a seatbelt, does your state really prohibit those activities?
No, at least not effectively, says Mark Segerstrom, Road Safety Project Coordinator for the Nebraska Safety Council.
He points out a National Safety Council study that gives Nebraska a “D’’ rating in road safety.
“This absence of a primary seat belt law for all occupants of a vehicle is unfortunate when you consider that an unbuckled passenger increases the chance of hurting or killing others in the vehicle by 40 percent,” he said.
The statistics seem to back him up. Of 191 passenger vehicle fatalities in Nebraska in 2015, 74 percent were unbuckled. More than a third of those were thrown from their vehicle, and 100 percent of the teen fatalities on Nebraska roads were unbuckled.
Segerstrom points to other states which have taken steps to improve safety, such as Tennessee, which now requires mandatory seat belts for all occupants of a vehicle, Iowa, which enacted a new primary texting law July 1 which makes it illegal to text or manipulate any social media on your phone while behind the wheel, and New York, which will require 55 mph speed limits in urban areas, lower school zone speed limits and install red light cameras.
Speed was a major factor is an average of 21 fatal crashes each year in Nebraska since 2008, an improvement from the previous three years, he noted. Segerstrom called for other measures, however, such as requiring bike helmets for all young riders, laws protecting “Good Samaritans” for helping unattended children in hot cars, one year of passenger restrictions for teens with Provisional Operator’s Permits, a 10 p.m. curfew for such teens and a requirement for supervised driving minimums of 50 hours plus 10 nighttime hours for non-drivers education applicants.
He decried the lack of action on such issues in the recent session of the Legislature.
To be fair, the Legislature had plenty of business on its plate this session, not the least of which was passing a budget to keep the state running.
Plus, Nebraskans are far from a consensus on how much “freedom” are we willing to sacrifice in the name of safety - a move to remove the requirement for motorcycle helmets failed on the other end of the spectrum as well.
Then, there’s the matter of enforcement. The Nebraska State Patrol, in the midst of a shakeup in the wake of the firing of its superintendent and suspension of a number of administrators, is in no position to take on extra duties.
Local law enforcement agencies and prosecutors across the state are likely to have their own opinion on additional responsibilities as well.
But the number of lives that could be saved and the cost to society will certainly be worthy topics of debate on the state and local level in the near future.
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