But top police officials deny the existence of a code of silence
By HARVEY RICE
Houston Chronicle
HOUSTON, Tex. — Officer Troy Burnett didn’t receive a reward or special recognition from the Houston Police Department after he gave an anonymous tip accusing a supervisor of falsely reporting overtime.
Instead, the 22-year veteran was labeled a “rat and a snitch” by his supervisors in the traffic enforcement division. HPD documents show that ostracism and harassment drove him to request a transfer to a less-desirable job.
Although it was disclosed recently that a retaliation complaint from Burnett led to the temporary suspensions of two supervisors, officers report that retaliation continues against those suspected of assisting Burnett. He also remains the target of an internal affairs investigation aimed at learning how the Houston Chronicle received a copy of his complaint.
A supervisor Burnett accused of retaliation was one of the department’s top recipients of overtime pay in 2005, taking in $58,000 in the extra pay. Those involved in the allegations were members of the traffic division, where several of the top overtime earners in the department are employed, including an officer who received more than $100,000 in overtime last year for working drunken-driving cases.
Police and experts who study the issue say Burnett’s case shows the continuation of a culture in which officers fear retaliation if they report wrongdoing — a “code of silence” cited by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1999 in a Houston case. Yet, top police officials here continue to deny the existence of a code of silence.
Accusations of such a code are at the core of a pending federal lawsuit against the city and HPD, alleging retaliation, and another that ended in a $600,000 jury award last year for retaliation and sexual discrimination.
Burnett’s retaliation complaint stemmed from anonymous phone calls he and several other officers made to the Internal Affairs Division, alleging criminal wrongdoing by Sgt. C.J. Klausner, who was relieved of duty last year and retired before disciplinary action could be taken.
OT said to be issue
HPD officials, citing department rules, refuse to discuss Klausner’s alleged misconduct, but officers with knowledge of the investigation say that falsely reporting overtime was one of several accusations. City records show that Klausner received $36,000 in overtime pay in 2005, although he worked less than six months that year.
According to disciplinary letters and recordings of conversations between Burnett and his supervisors, Lt. Laurence Lakind sought to discover which officers made the anonymous calls about Klausner, and Sgt. Teresa Curry helped him identify Burnett. Once Burnett was identified, Sgt. Gerald Campbell told other officers that Burnett was a “snitch” and that Lakind was “not happy” with him, according to police documents.
In a recorded conversation with Burnett, a copy of which was obtained by the Chronicle, Curry also calls Burnett a “snitch” and appears to threaten him with demotion.
Suspended by chief
Chief Harold Hurtt suspended Lakind, 47, for 21 days and he will be transferred to a less-desirable job at the jail, department General Counsel Craig Ferrell said. Campbell, 51, was suspended for 15 days and has retired, Ferrell said.
Police spokesman John Cannon said the department has nearly finished an investigation into allegations against Curry, whose $58,318 in overtime pay for 2005 made her one of HPD’s top overtime earners. Cannon said the Internal Affairs Division has not disclosed whether the investigation concerned the retaliation complaint or other allegations.
Campbell, Curry and Lakind could not be reached for comment . Officials with the police union, which provided attorneys for them, did not respond to requests for comment.
The outing of Burnett can only discourage other officers from coming forward, said Mark Stephens, who received 40 commendations while serving as an investigator for HPD’s now-disbanded public integrity unit before resigning in 1999.
“Once they identify the person who makes the complaint, then you’ve defeated the whole system,” said Stephens, now a private investigator.
The investigation absolved Lakind’s supervisor, Capt. Michael H. Luiz, of wrongdoing, Ferrell said, although the disciplinary letter indicates that Luiz knew that Lakind had improperly discovered Burnett’s name.
Luiz, who declined to comment for this report, also was the supervisor of a motorcycle unit in which Officer Beth Kreuzer and an entire shift of officers suffered retaliation after telling investigators that a supervisor was sexually harassing Kreuzer, according to trial testimony.
Kreuzer, who retired last year after winning a $600,000 jury verdict that the city is appealing, said a retaliatory shift change to penalize the officers for backing her continues even now.
Court opinion
In each case, officers say they were punished for breaking the code of silence. In its 1999 opinion, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said officers all the way up the Houston Police Department’s chain of command knew that officer Patrice Sharp was suffering retaliation for a sexual harassment complaint, supporting a jury’s conclusion that the department “had a policy, custom or practice of enforcing the code of silence.”
“She presented evidence that any officer who complained about another officer inevitably suffered for it, socially and professionally,” the court said.
Such retaliation persists in the department, according to a ranking officer who asked not to be named because he fears reprisal. He said other officers suspected of making anonymous allegations about wrongdoing by Klausner are suffering retaliation as well.
Chief Hurtt’s concern about supervisors interfering in internal affairs investigations caused him to issue an order last year restricting access to investigative information. Although intended to protect victims of retaliation, that order is being used as a reason for the leak investigation targeting Burnett, according to Assistant Chief Michael Dirden, head of internal affairs.
Hurtt says he is concerned about retaliation, but agrees with Dirden and Ferrell, the general counsel, about the code of silence.
“Contrary to the myth, there is no code of silence in the Houston Police Department,” Ferrell said, noting nearly 50 percent of complaints are internal.
But such denials put HPD officials at odds with several experts on police ethics.
“The Houston Police Department is the only one that has advertised that they think there is no code of silence,” said Michael W. Quinn, a former Minneapolis police officer and author of a book on the subject, Walking with the Devil. “Most believe it’s there and are trying to fight it”
Neal Trautman, a former Winter Park, Fla., police officer and head of the National Institute of Ethics, said it is “virtually unheard of” for any police agency not to have a code of silence.
Copyright 2006 The Houston Chronicle