Serpico II

A longtime Los Angeles police SWAT sergeant is suing the LAPD, alleging the unit is run by a “SWAT Mafia” of veteran cops who encourage the use of deadly force and ostracized him for revealing its behavior.

Sgt. Tim Colomey, who spent 11 years as a SWAT supervisor until last November, filed a whistleblower lawsuit alleging retaliation for revealing that a group of veteran officers controlled the tactical unit’s operations and membership and punished him and others for speaking out.

Colomey said in the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court that those leaders, who dubbed themselves the “SWAT Mafia,” “glamorize the use of lethal force, and direct the promotions of officers who share the same values while maligning the reputations of officers who do not.”

[...]

Colomey alleges that commanders “are aware of the serious and systemic problems that are linked to the SWAT Mafia’s power, but they have all turned a blind eye to these problems,” and that it has poisoned the entire unit.

  LA Times

He should expect to find another career.

The SWAT accusations from Colomey come just a year after he was featured in a department podcast, “Born in Boston: A SWAT Story,” in which he told of surviving a near-fatal injury to rise to be a SWAT leader. He was riding with a partner, now Deputy Chief Dominic Choi, pursuing an armed suspect when he was hit by a car during a foot chase.

Frank Serpico empathizes. Who was driving that car?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.