There is something to be said for fairness and equal treatment in a legal justice system. There is even more to be said, however, for reason and common decency in a legal justice system. Evidently, these more basic values haven't caught on with all of Florida's law enforcement officials yet.

The story is barely believable. A 21-year-old female college student reported a rape to Tampa police Saturday, Jan. 26. She was taken to a rape-crisis center and given the first dose of a two-dose morning-after contraceptive, then departed with police to relocate the crime scene.

En route, police discovered that the victim was wanted on an outstanding warrant from 2003 for unpaid restitution on a grand theft and burglary conviction. According to the Associated Press, the officers halted the rape investigation at this point, turned the car around, and took the victim to jail.

It got worse. While in jail, the victim was denied the second dose of contraceptive by a jail worker, allegedly because of the worker's "religious convictions." The victim did receive the second dose eventually, but it was a full day after medically recommended, and only after the local media hounded jail officials.

The victim was released Monday. Tampa Police Chief Steve Hogue apologized Tuesday. The rape investigation continued Wednesday.

Problem solved?

Hardly.

Some troubling questions about the case and the way law enforcement is done in this country remain, such as: What interpretation of the term "law enforcement" convinced the police in this case that handcuffing a traumatized rape victim would be the best course of action?

Maybe that's the wrong question. A better question, then: What part of these officers' training told them that handcuffing a traumatized rape victim was all right, or rather, failed to tell them that it wasn't all right?

Hogue issued a new policy Tuesday which "told officers not to arrest a crime victim who has suffered injury or mental trauma whenever 'reasonably possible,'" according to the AP.

No kidding, Hogue.

That such a glaringly obvious standard requires the instatement of an official policy speaks volumes about the state of law enforcement in at least parts of our nation.

It's easy to write off these horrific stories as isolated incidents, but how many incidents can truly exist in isolation? Many of the allegations against New Orleans police officers surrounding the Hurricane Katrina disaster, including murder, seem to defy reason as much as the current case. Allegations of racial profiling by the Seattle Police Department have also been appalling.

It's true that police face higher public scrutiny because of their position of power, but they can hardly be considered the victims. At the end of the day, they decide who goes to jail and who goes free, while judges get the leftovers.

While police officers certainly deserve respect for the job they do, they are not infallible, and a critical examination of many police forces will reveal that there is significant room for improvements to be made.

Improvement is easier said than done, but an attainable starting point might be higher training standards. As public schoolteachers have been encouraged to pursue advanced degrees, so too could police officers be encouraged to pursue higher certification. Tuition waivers and pay incentives are worth furnishing for better law enforcement standards.

It's true that crime is crime, but we must have officers who know how to act appropriately under all circumstances, whether they are commonplace or one-of-a-kind situations. Until this need is recognized and met, injustices like the one in Florida will become no less common, and the apologies that follow will be just as empty.

Reach columnist Andrew Brown at opinion@thedaily.washington.edu.