My book, Why Law Enforcement Organizations Fail, delves into why even the best crime labs can “fail.” This piece is a nice update. http://www.npr.org/2012/11/20/165579898/forensic-crime-lab-scandals-may-be-due-to-oversight
Tag Archives: Structural failure
Ticket Fixing in Philly
Two-track system: The ordinary Joe or Jane was dressed down by stern judges whose hearts then bled for the connected. Check out the related links alongside the main story. Nine current and former Traffic Court judges charged.
So We Lied
A big problem with the mortgage mess, which when revealed caused credit markets to seize up, was that so much information was unreliable. This is just one case. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/business/citigroup-to-pay-158-million-in-mortgage-fraud-settlement.html
Olympus Downfall
Here’s the formula Olympus execs relied on: Hide huge losses for years with bookkeeping tricks + fire new foreign CEO who figures it out + be contrite when caught but stay in charge. They’ve been arrested! Who’da’thunk?http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/17/business/global/7-arrested-in-olympus-accounting-cover-up.html
Big Harm, No Foul
“Nobody admits to anything” settlements accompanied by hundreds of millions in corporate payouts to “non-victims” have long stuck in my craw. Now judges are choking. About time. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/25/business/neither-admit-nor-deny-settlements-draw-judges-scrutiny.html
Pension Armageddon Near
Warning signs of an impending critical plague of bankruptcies and near-bankruptcies that will infect political jurisdications countrywide. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/nyregion/to-pay-new-york-pension-fund-cities-borrow-from-it-first.html
NY + NJ = Double-Dysfunctional
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey–a ninety year old agency with two governmental parents who’ve never let go–is up to a four billion and counting cost overrun for the Freedom Tower complex rising on the World Trade Center site. The two first-term governors–New Jersey’s Christie and New York’s Coumo–want better management, but somehow overlook how political tentacles winding through the Port Authority from each state do much to gum up the works. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/nyregion/port-authority-called-dysfunctional-by-auditors.html
Fannie, Where’s My Mortgage?
Vast quantities of mortgage documentation flying every which way, from Fannie Mae to banks to successive mortgage servicers to foreclosure firms, often defying the ability of any participant to keep track, or even keep the paperwork legal. Didn’t matter. Homeowners got double-whammied by different holders of their home loan notes. Or collection and foreclosures moved forward with missing documentation and forged affidavits. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/business/mortgage-tornado-warning-unheeded.html
Paterno–Boss of Bosses
Powerful individuals can invert organizational hierarchy. They boss their bosses or win immunity from supervision. Joe Paterno’s “fuggedaboudit” to 2004 retirement urgings by Penn State’s President and Athletic Director was characteristic. Or, as he made clear twenty years earlier to an old friend who was then General Manager of the Cleveland Browns feeling Joe out about becoming head coach, ‘If I take that job, you’re working for me. I’m not working for you.’ Philly Inquirer, 1/30/12.