First, there are more details about the officers in the cases in which they pleaded guilty:

In court documents, prosecutors said Atlanta police officers regularly lied to obtain search warrants and fabricated documentation of drug purchases, as they had when they raided the home of the woman, Kathryn Johnston, in November, killing her in a hail of bullets.

Narcotics officers have admitted to planting marijuana in Ms. Johnston’s home after her death and submitting as evidence cocaine they falsely claimed had been bought at her house, according to the court filings.

But, as to the larger picture:

Paul Howard, the Fulton County district attorney, said his office was reviewing at least 100 cases involving the three officers, including 10 in which defendants were in jail.

This culture of corruption is not for personal financial gain. It's to circumvent the constitution -- they made up their own rules as they went along, under the machiavellian theory that the ends justifies the means.

Their goal was to arrest drug dealers and seize illegal drugs, and that’s what we want our police officers to do for our community.

“But these officers pursued that goal by corrupting the justice system, because when it was hard to do their job the way the Constitution requires, they let the ends justify their means.”

I doubt this is confined to Atlanta. In this case, because someone was killed, there was an investigation followed by criminal charges.

Most criminal defense lawyers know searches, particularly so-called consent searches, such as during a traffic stop or a "knock and talk" don't go down the way the cops said. It never ceases to amaze me how many judges take the word of cops over the defendant at a suppression hearing.

During jury selection, prospective jurors are always asked whether they will give more credibility to the testimony of a law enforcement officer because of his or her position. Jurors who want to be on the jury are smart enough to say "no." It's difficult to challenge them, particularly in federal court where you don't get individual voir dire -- the judge, not the lawyers, ask the questions, except in unusual cases.

Hopefully, the media will stay on top of this Atlanta story and do some digging into other jurisdictions.

Fourth Amendment safeguards and the exclusionary rule have been watered down by the courts for years. When you add lying cops to the mix, particularly with "good faith exceptions" to the warrant requirement, you get a totally unfair result. It's sad that it takes a killing of a 92 year old woman to expose it.