|
|
|
| NEWS > 24 August 2006 |
Other related articles:
Sallee resigns from police dep
Recently reinstated Wickenburg police officer Chris Sallee resigned from the Town of Wickenburg Police Department last week and is taking issue with his former superiors.
Sallee, who was terminated last year, was recently reinstated as a town employee when a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled in favor of a special action brought by Sallee against the town.
Sallee was immediately reinstated and put on paid administrative leave.
In a lengthy resignation letter addressed to Police Chi... Read more
|
 Article sourced from
|
|
Nashua Telegraph (subscription
24 August 2006
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
|
|
Court says police employee can
A Pelham police dispatcher who lied about how often she’d taken “police discounts” at McDonald’s can get her job back, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. Upholding a 2005 decision by the state’s Public Employees Labor Relations Board, the court concluded that civilian police department employees can’t be sacked for lying.
Debra Desmarais worked as a Pelham police dispatcher from 1998 until 2002, the court’s ruling states.
In 2001, the department investigated complaints that Desmarais had demanded and accepted a “police discount” at McDonald’s, in violation of department policy against soliciting such favors or gratuities, the ruling states.
Desmarais admitted to having received discounted meals “three or four times,” and said she had asked for the discount once, the ruling states. Various McDonald’s employees told police she had requested discounts at least 10 times, and up to 30 times, the ruling states.
The department suspended Desmarais for a week for violating department rules on discounts or gratuities, and later, after further investigation, fired her for lying about it.
The police employees’ union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3657, appealed the decision to an arbitrator. The arbitrator, the PELRB and finally the court ruled that Desmarais should be reinstated, though without back pay.
The town had appealed, arguing that honesty and integrity are paramount for even civilian police employees. Police officers can be forced to disclose any allegation of dishonesty when called upon to testify in court, in accord with a 1995 state Supreme Court decision.
The court noted, in its ruling on Desmarais’ case, that the 1995 decision might influence police department hiring and disciplinary policies, but concluded that it didn’t amount to a rule that police employees should be fired for lying.
“We do not mean to suggest that the town’s assertion of a ‘public policy’ against the reinstatement of police department employees who, as a result of certain misconduct, are deemed to be untrustworthy is, on an intuitive level, incorrect,” but there is no law or public policy to support such a rule, Justice Linda Dalianis wrote.
Justices James Duggan, Richard Galway and Gary Hicks concurred with the decision.
|
| |
 EiP Comments:
|
|---|
|
| |
* We have no wish to infringe the copyright of any newspaper or periodical. If you feel that we have done so then please contact us with the details and we will remove the article. The articles republished on this site are provided for the purposes of research , private study, criticism , review, and the reporting of current events' We have no wish to infringe the copyright of any newspaper , periodical or other works. If you feel that we have done so then please contact us with the details and where necessary we will remove the work concerned.
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
 |
Ethics in Policing, based in the UK, provide information and advice about the following:
Policing Research | Police News articles | Police Corruption | International Policing | Police Web Sites | Police Forum | Policing Ethics | Police Journals | Police Publications |
|
| |
|
