Unsafe driving, putting innocent Albany residents in danger. Admitted illegal drug use. An admitted criminal past. Numerous internal affairs complaints. Does that sound like an honorable police officer? Well, what if those things and more were true? What’s worse, what if it were a police officer in your town? Would you want that sort of police officer on your city’s streets, ostensibly protecting you and your fellow citizens?
Well, for over twenty years, Albany’s public had just that sort of person wearing the uniform. I speak of one Jan Mika, who was a police officer with the Albany New York Police Department from 2003 until Christmas Eve, the day that he blew his own brains 0ut in an act of suicidal cowardice.
But before we get into all of that, just who was Jan Mika, besides a scumbag and an incompetent cop? Mika was such an honorable man that he lied to a judge in 2017 to obtain a dirty warrant that targeted an author who he didn’t like.
After brutalizing that author as he hauled him into the police station, he then encouraged and even paid county deputies to assault said author, both physically and sexually. He faced no consequences as fellow officers destroyed a complaint filed against him pertaining to the false warrant and his conduct surrounding the incident with the author.
In this article, you will read all about the, shall we say, traits that Mika carried with him throughout his time with the department. The information within this article was lawfully obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request filed last month. One of his traits was, of course, cowardice, and he did not die in a state of grace.
Based on the documents that I’ve read as a result of that request, I have to wonder why the department hired him to begin with. Another mystery is why he was allowed to continue working there, even as mounds of negative information about him piled up. His whole time with the department was not an asset, but a liability.
While Mika’s suicide was cowardly and a mortal sin that kept from dying in a state of grace, he did the best thing possible: he took himself off the streets of Albany. The moment that his brains splattered onto a wall, Albany actually became a little bit safer.
There are a lot of things that were wrong with this guy. One of the most important things about an officer is how he or she deals with the public. Some may say otherwise, but documents don’t lie: Mika treated the public like absolute garbage.
Numerous citizens took issue with Mika’s conduct. There were more than a few complaints that he was “rude” in his dealings with the public. A police officer is supposed to be professional at all times. Clearly, Mika was never a professional. More concerning is an allegation that he refused to take a report from the victim of an assault.
What if the person who assaulted her came back and killed her? Mika would have caused a major lawsuit that would have misused taxpayer monies. Mike definitely did not care about the safety of others. If he did, he would have taken that report.
There are more than a few reports of officer injuries caused by Mika. Conveniently, those reports are redacted, showing that the department protects its own, not the public. Actually, more than half the complaints against Mika in the documents that I received are redacted, which makes me wonder just how much of a scumbag this guy truly was.
Supporting my scumbag theory is the fact that, over the span of decades, numerous citizens filed complaints alleging intimidation. I can personally attest to the fact that Mika used intimidation to achieve his desired results. It probably made him feel good about himself to make others feel less than human because of him. Intimidation is not something that a professional does. Therefore, there is more than ample evidence to prove that Mika was unprofessional.
Keeping with the theme of intimidation, one victim who was intimidated by Mika, alleged that he loudly and abusively threatened to arrest a teenage girl in front of her mother and for no good reason. The girl’s only crime was to give him the finger, something that each and every Albany officer deserves anyway.
Case law has long shown that giving a cop the finger, although rude, is protected under that pesky thing called…it’s on the tip of my fingers…oh, right…the First Amendment, something that Mika blatantly ignored on more than a few occasions.
On another occasion, Mika intimidated and abused a homeless person and threatened to arrest a woman who was merely trying to help the man by giving him food. Mike’s conduct left both the woman and the homeless man in tears.
That, people, is the kind of man Mika truly was. Forget what his scumbag friends and family would tell you; Mika was not the hero and nice guy that people claimed that he was. It’s all right there in black in white in the documents that I requested: he was pond scum.
Citizen complaints were not Mika’s only problem. His supervisors, several of them, took issue with Mika’s ways. On one occasion, he failed to properly search a suspect, potentially putting himself and his fellow officers at risk. Another evaluation pointed out that Mika “needs to do a better job of recognizing what is going on around him.”
An officer who is ignorant of his surroundings could be a dead officer and his fellow officers could have also paid the ultimate price for Mika’s arrogance.
There are numerous instances of Mika’s supervisors stating that he spoke too softly on the radio, something that could waste valuable seconds that could have been used relaying information that could have affected the safety of those around him. Yes, it sounds petty, but communicating clearly and audibly saves life. Soft speech could end lives.
At one point, Mika almost got himself and fellow officers killed. That’s because he did not know how to do a felony stop. Because of that ignorance, one report indicates that there was a gun on the passenger side of a vehicle that Mika stopped and he failed to notice that. Fortunately, a fellow officer stepped in in the nick of time and likely saved lives whereas Mika almost cost lives. Why the mainstream media ignored that is beyond me. I, a simple blogger, found that report in a matter of minutes.
Furthermore, Mika stepped away from cover in another incident before ensuring the safety of himself and his fellow officers, another act that could have ended in tragedy.
On another occasion, Mika entered a bodega at 335 Clinton Avenue. The clerk was trying to quietly gesture towards a suspicious person. Mika failed to recognize a very basic thing and that seemingly small incident could have ended up with people in body bags. Face it, folks. Albany was never really safe when Mika was on duty.
Battered women were never really safe with Mika around either. A supervisor described in another document Mika as “disoriented” and “confused” at a domestic violence call. Clearly, a confused and disoriented officer on a DV call could spell disaster on many levels. It’s alarming that the department would continue to employ an officer who can’t conduct himself properly at such an important call.
Several other evaluations describe Mika as “confused” about where he was. That could have been dangerous in cases where every second counts. Who wants a confused officer rolling up? Such an officer is useless. Mika was also painted as being unable to effect a single warrantless arrest, something that could result in a suspect fleeing, putting innocent citizens in immediate peril.
Mika was not someone who you’d want behind the wheel. According to one complaint, Mika was operating a department vehicle when he crashed that vehicle due to recklessness and carelessness.
All he got as a result of that crash was a write up when he could have killed innocent people. Again, the department always protects its own. The wreck was so bad that the Crash Review Board was involved. They should have fired him, but they put him back behind the wheel, free to kill others free of consequence.
On another occasion, Mika attempted to use his vehicle to block a suspect vehicle from fleeing. Problem is, he forgot to put the thing in park and it rolled right onto State Street, nearly killing or injuring at least three innocent persons. Still, the department allowed him to roam free, potentially putting lives in immediate jeopardy.
On yet another occasion, a traffic ticket shows that Mika was carelessly operating his department-issued vehicle to the point of colliding with another vehicle. Here again, Mika could have killed people because of a department that knew about his shady past but hired him anyway.
I am certain that if I dug deeper through the documents, I’d find much worse things than I’ve already discovered. I think I’ve proven that Mika was a lousy and dangerous police officer.
Clearly, Mika was a bad cop. A dirty cop who falsely swore out at least one warrant that had the potential to ruin an author’s life over one small article that Mika didn’t like. But Mika was also a horrible person with a criminal history, starting with at least two arrests. The reasons for those arrests has been redacted, so what he did was clearly evil.
If what caused him to be arrested was minor, they would not have redacted that information. Therefore, I can only come to the conclusion that it was a felony-level crime. The department can prove me wrong by sending the unredacted documents.
As part of his application process, he admitted to driving drunk on more than one occasion. One time is one too many, but the fact that he had several such arrests makes me wonder if he drove drunk while on duty. I wouldn’t put it past him.
Mika then admitted using marijuana and further admitted to driving in a manner that could have hurt or killed others. That pattern of behavior stayed with him throughout his employment with the department.
Prior to becoming an officer, Mika had at least five traffic tickets and he was the driver of vehicles involved in at least two collisions. His traffic offenses included speeding and running red lights, both things that could have cost someone their life. Mika didn’t care. It was always about him. He never once in his life cared about anyone else, as his driving and criminal records prove.
As for those arrests, I wish I could report to you the details of the incident. Unfortunately, I am unable to do so as the details are redacted from the background check that was done prior to his hiring. It had to be real bad for them to redact that information. But it’s all there in his own handwriting: he had a criminal past yet was allowed to enforce the same laws that he broke.
Since the time I started writing about Mika after his suicide, a mortal sin but a favor to society, I have received anonymous email messages that make serious accusations against Mika. One email alleged, and it is just an allegation, that Mika molested a teenage girl while on duty. Reportedly, the girl was fifteen years old and Mika forcibly touched her vagina through her shorts. He proceeded to tell her that no one would believe her if she told anyone.
Another message breathlessly alleged that he shoved a citizen against a wall for simply asking for his supervisor after Mika threatened the person’s life. Mika apparently gestured towards his gun and said that he could kill that person and no one would do anything.
Yes, those messages are mere accusations, but based on that documents that I was given, it would fit his pattern of behavior. It’s quite apparent that Mika was a scumbag both as a cop and a person.
The police department, his children, his family and the entire world for that matter is better off without him. I only wish he’d done it sooner.