Investigation of Rainbow Lounge police raid is taking too long

Let’s hope that every person who undergoes a police investigation in Fort Worth gets a fair chance at the extensive effort and careful handling that the city’s finest are devoting to some of their fellow officers.

Oh, wait. That wouldn’t work. There’s not that much time for your average criminal case.

The Tarrant County district attorney’s office filed 45,000 felony and misdemeanor cases last year, according to its Web site. If Fort Worth’s share of those cases matches that of its population, that’s about 18,000 cases coming from within the city limits.

Police Chief Jeff Halstead has set Nov. 5 as the latest deadline for his department’s investigation into the June 28 police raid at the Rainbow Lounge south of downtown. Several patrons of the gay bar say officers bullied them and used unnecessary force during the raid. Seven people were arrested; one was hospitalized with a head injury.

Halstead’s previous deadlines for the internal affairs review have come and gone, but if he meets this one the case will have received 93 days (not counting weekends or holidays) of investigation and review.

Giving every case that much attention would have required more than 1.6 million days of Police Department time last year. In effect, there would be no criminal justice system.

No, that won’t work.

Halstead’s excuse is that the Rainbow Lounge case is complicated. Certainly, it is.

In an Aug. 7 news release, he said the investigation involves "obtaining accounts from each individual involved, over 35 witnesses, 10 police officers, and the time-consuming process of reconciling any differences in the statements involving so many people." Review by department supervisors also takes time.

Halstead’s estimated completion date had been mid-August. He gave a preliminary report to the City Council on Aug. 18, with no conclusions as to whether his officers had done anything wrong. He set a new deadline of mid-October to deliver a full report. That has now been moved to Nov. 5.

Under state law, the department has until Dec. 29 to take disciplinary action against any of the officers who participated in the raid.

That’s the root of the delays in completing the report, isn’t it? Disciplinary action against police officers is possible, even criminal assault charges if the accounts of people who were at the bar that night are shown to be credible.

There could be enhanced punishment if even one of the officers made derogatory comments about gay people that could be used as evidence of bias or prejudice.

And there’s the very real possibility of a lawsuit being filed against the city based on police actions that night.

Halstead already has said that his department’s policy on actions such as the Rainbow Lounge raid was flawed. The purpose is to stop bars from serving alcohol to intoxicated people and to prevent drunks from driving after they’ve had too much.

The chief has ordered that a new policy be developed under which such raids would happen only after a bar established a history of continuing to serve alcohol to intoxicated patrons. The Rainbow Lounge had no negative track record, other than police contact with one drunk outside the bar June 26.

Halstead is taking all of this very seriously, and that’s to his credit. But excuses for continued delays are wearing thin. It’s beginning to look as if either the officers did something wrong and Halstead wants to nail them to the wall, or that they didn’t and he wants to make double-sure he can prove it.

Either way, this is taking a whole lot longer than the average police investigation.

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