Cop Fought Police Corruption

He shares his struggle to keep his badge untarnished while resisting the status quo and callousness others succumb to. He also shares his experiences of helping others. “While exposing the culture of corruption within the police department,� explains LaChapelle, “I began to mentor young people out of gangs. I’ve helped many people turn their lives around and become successful adults.�

When faced with workplace corruption many people look the other way for fear of retribution, especially when the problems are in the police department.  Now readers can learn first hand the exciting story of how one police officer stood up to corruption and inspired others.

“Since I was a young child I had a dream of being a police officer,� says Kevin LaChapelle, author of “Please God, Don’t Let My Badge Tarnish� (iUniverse, 2006). “When I took the oath to be a police officer I was serious about protecting and serving the citizens.�

LaChapelle goes from loving his job to finding shocking discoveries of corruption at the El Cajon Police Department, in El Cajon, Calif., where he worked. He shares his struggle to keep his badge untarnished while resisting the status quo and callousness others succumb to. He also shares his experiences of helping others. “While exposing the culture of corruption within the police department,� explains LaChapelle, “I began to mentor young people out of gangs. I’ve helped many people turn their lives around and become successful adults.�

In addition, he ran for a board member position for one of the largest local school districts, which had a reputation of financial corruption. He not only won the election in a landslide victory, he was also instrumental in exposing the financial corruption, which led to a total overhaul of the top level district management. 

Standing up to these problems gave LaChapelle the idea to focus on empowering communities to expose fraud and corruption. In 1999 he started the Special Investigations Agency (SIA) (http://us-sia.org), which is made up of volunteer law enforcement officers, attorneys, and other professionals. The agency has a proven track record of successfully exposing corruption across the country.

“I believe that God has a plan for each of us,� adds LaChapelle.
“The next step in my plan is to inspire others to do the right thing. That’s why I wrote this book, to give people the strength to stand up for what they believe in.�

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