Law enforcement officers sometimes are accused of ignoring, even covering up, misbehavior in their ranks. Our experience has been just the opposite: When police officers and sheriff's deputies suspect there is a bad apple in their midst, they work hard to throw it out of the barrel.
More confirmation of that came when it was revealed two East Ohio law enforcement officers were being investigated for allegedly participating, while off duty, in beating a man. Both were suspended from duty in the departments where they had worked.
The investigation might have gone nowhere had two on-duty Tiltonsville officers, given details by the beating victim, not quickly decided he was assaulted by off-duty officers in a car they had encountered previously.
From that point on, law enforcement officials in both Belmont and Jefferson counties moved quickly and decisively. The state Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation was brought in to help.
The situation is more proof area law enforcement personnel take their "serve and protect" motto seriously - even when the threat is from fellow officers.
