Cops Apologize? Say What??

ATTN: Oakland police Chief Batts, read this and take a lesson from it:

Good news: It happened. Bad news: It didn’t happen in the USA.

British police responded to a citizen’s call reporting a handgun in the possession of a member of a band who had completed a gig at a bar and was loading equipment into their van. Police responded with the full complement of hardware, vehicles, (including a helicopter), and manpower. Arrests followed. But there was no weapon of any kind. It was just a piece of band equipment.

From the UK Daily Mail,

Staffordshire Police Assistant Chief Constable Jane Sawyers conceded that the force had 'clearly got this wrong' and also accepted that the sighting of a handgun had been a mistake.

She is reviewing the circumstances of their arrests, which took place outside The Oak pub in Chase Town, Burntwood, on November 21. The men have also been promised that their DNA and fingerprint samples will be destroyed.

“We have made an unreserved apology to the men for their arrest and detention. Their fingerprints and DNA, taken following their arrest, will be destroyed.” said Sawyers.

Read the article

Is this to say there is a police department that can admit they are wrong? I am shocked. I especially liked the promise from the police that they would destroy the DNA and fingerprints taken from the innocent arrestees. What do they know that American cops don’t? Would it have something to do with honest equality? Fairness between all citizens? Simple human decency? Maybe we should import Asst Chief Sawyers to get some of that thinking started here in our cities, including Oakland.