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A city police officer starts a five- day suspension without pay today as punishment for placing a choke hold on a teenager he says he suspected of carrying drugs.
The officer, a veteran of the department for 7 1/2 years, was found guilty of officious behavior by the police department's internal trial review board last month.
The same board cleared him of a second charge of conduct unbecoming an officer. He could not be reached for comment Monday. He will be eligible to return to work at midnight Saturday, Deputy Police Chief Ronald E. Lee said.
Department regulations define officious behavior as engaging in "any cruel or unjust use of authority" or exhibiting "harshness or severity in the discharge of duty."
The officer's punishment was decided by police Chief George R. Aylward, who reviewed similar cases in the department's history, Lee said.
The maximum punishment could have been a suspension of up to 10 days.
Lee said the punished officer is a dedicated officer. He believed the punishment was just.
"This discipline in no way says he is not a capable police officer," Lee said. "But we will do whatever we can to bring him back in line and hopefully this will accomplish that."
The mother, whose 16-year-old son was involved in the incident, was less then [sic] pleased with the chief's decision.
By clearing the officer on the charge of conduct unbecoming an officer, the mother said the department is sending a bad message to the people of Middletown."I think this reinforces the attitude many young people have toward the police," she said. "Is this the kind of conduct you can expect from an officer?"
The incident that led to the suspension took place June 5.
The officer said he put 16-year-old teenager in a choke hold because he suspected he was trying to conceal cocaine by swallowing it, according to the officer's report.
No drugs were found and the teenager was not charged. The mother believes the officer started choking her son because the officer was frustrated.
4 comments:
I'm sure this historical posting is a mere coincidence during the current taser controversy.
Nice of you to stoke the flames.
Excellent timing of this review article. Yes , the Police Dept needs to understand the brute force is unacceptable for minor infraction when a teenager is involved. With two officers and one teenager how can that be considered a striggle, and one of the officers hurts his shoulder? He he in shapre or what?
have you seen some of the high schoolers lately? age does not determine how large or small someon is--in my school there is a FIFTH grader who is 5'4" and weighs approx 150 lbs--FIFTH grade--how big you think he'll be by high school? you obviously haven't seen the students lately.
You're right, kids are big these days. That's why the adults in charge of the school environment need to be smarter and wiser and learn to walk away from a situation that could spiral out of control negatively, making an even incident worse. You don't ignore the behavior of the youth involved, you just choose to deal with it in another way than brute force with a weapon and at another time.
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