L.A. County deputies thwarted bar code system to avoid checking cells, report says

Two deputies have been fired and another eight sworn officers disciplined by the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department after a suicide in the Men’s Central Jail revealed a scheme to defeat a bar code system that verifies that guards have checked cells regularly.

The scandal, internally dubbed Scannergate, was uncovered after a “high security” inmate hanged himself in a discipline module of the downtown jail, according to the report Wednesday to the Board of Supervisors from the county Office of Independent Review.

The Sheriff’s Department requires its deputies acting as guards to check the cells of “high security inmates” every half hour to ensure their health and safety.

To make sure regular checks occur the department installed electronic checkpoints that deputies must scan with a bar code reader as they walk from location to location in the cell rows. A check of records by investigators revealed that the deputy in the March 2009 suicide case had scanned every point within 35 seconds, a physical impossibility given their spacing.

After determining that the deputy falsified the log, the investigators uncovered a copy of the bar codes in a deputy’s desk.

“The scanner-cheating cases demonstrate a disappointing lapse in integrity on the part of involved deputies. Their actions were overt and premeditated,” wrote Michael Gennaco, head of the Office of Independent Review, which acts as a watchdog over the Sheriff's Department. He added that “wholesale abdication of their responsibilities” and the suicide demonstrate "the real consequences” of such actions.

Gennaco said that in the case of the suicide, the deputy failed to check on the inmate and instead simply  scanned the bar code like a supermarket checker. Last year alone eight inmates committed suicide. A search of computers showed that the “cheat sheet” scheme had been disseminated around the jail.

Internal affairs investigators eventually confronted the deputy behind the scheme, who admitted he brought “widely available bar code replication software” into the jail and created the “perfect replicas,” according to the report

-- Richard Winton

Comments

[cleo77]

Our tax dollars at work...

[Still_Walking_Point]

Amazing. You do not trust them enough to perform their jobs without a system to check on them but you are not smart enough to secure the system that performs the check. Negligence defined.

[IvanG]

This is severe dishonesty and all involved should be severely punished and disqualified from law enforcement. I doubt that a deputy who did this could testify credibly as a witness.

[Cooler heads]

Two issues;where was the sergeant? Second, of course OIR seems to always report on deputy misconduct, which is appropriate. However, when it somes to illegal releases by department brass and Mr. Baca himself, OIR gives Baca a pass. Sounds like a double standard. Mr. Genaco needs to search his own integrity!

[JPF]

Is the suicide of an Inmate really worth firing workers over?
It sounds more like natural selection working.

[sam]

Why is this not manslaughter?

[Mom in America]

Unreal. These guys are paid well and all they have to do is babysit and instead they find a way to cheat. They should be in a cell for stealing from the tax payers. What a waste of our tax money! I hope the guards don't whine for more money any time soon, they obviously don't deserve it.

[Tirau]

Another reason why you absolutely cannot trust the police.

[Robert NO longer in LA]

Happens ALL THE TIME with both deputies and LAPD....always looking for max pay for NO work.

[My opinon means nothing]

Just fired? Two guards forged signitures on a form designed to stop suicides and their just fired? That's it? More should be done. Most people who threaten to kill themselves when in jail are ashamed of themselves and can't think straight. That's why these forms are in place is to help these people.

[August]

Why are they not in jail? They were suppose to protect SERIOUSLY MENTALLY ILL prisoners; now I can see the prisoners needed protection from the crooked guards!

BILLIONS IN LAWSUITS!

[paul fullen]

just shows you what I said all along the sherriff deputies that are there to serve and protect are lazy and worthless,they dont know what real work is and they are like this in every county jail.

[Alvarenga]

It's unfortunate for all parties involved.

[ron]

lawsuit

[TAM]

Law enforcement has hired the best, but they have hired bad apples.

[Ruby Jackson]

Charge him with negligent homicide.