Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Gahanna police officer on disability leave is caught rocketing along an interstate on his motorcycle at 149 mph.
A day before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, an on-duty state trooper puts on a crude, impromptu Ku Klux Klan outfit, and a colleague snaps a photo.
A dozen troopers are accused of cheating on a test to ensure that they can operate the equipment that measures the intoxication of drunken-driving suspects.
The public -- and the officers’ bosses -- were understandably outraged. All of the officers were fired.
And they all ultimately got their jobs back.
Most police union contracts allow officers to appeal their firings to independent arbitrators whose decisions must be accepted by both sides.
Sometimes, fired officers are reinstated because the evidence is weak. Other times, dismissals are out of line with disciplinary language in the contracts or are excessive when compared with punishment imposed on other officers.
A federal arbitrator’s decision to return Gahanna Police Officer Christopher Thomas to his job -- after an unpaid 90-day suspension -- was not well-received by some, including the officer’s superiors.
Even the arbitrator scolded Thomas for “reckless misconduct which endangered public safety.” But the arbitrator found that the city couldn’t prove two of four charges it cited in firing Thomas, ruling that his speeding was not immoral and that he had not used his position to temporarily duck a speeding ticket that he later was issued.
The arbitrator agreed that Thomas was not a model officer, based on his history of being “overbearing and arrogant,” the arbitrator wrote; because he had lost his police rifle, which was later found lying in a city street; and because of other actions that prompted discipline.
However, the arbitrator said, it was inconsistent to fire Thomas for off-duty speeding when another Gahanna officer received a 20-day suspension in 1999 for what the arbitrator described as the “more serious” offense of drunken driving.
Contracts typically call for impartial arbitrators, agreed upon by both the unions and the employers, to hear disputes over discipline. The arbitrators, who generally are specialized lawyers, effectively act as judges in hearing witnesses, evidence and arguments from both sides.
Capital City Lodge No. 9 of the Fraternal Order of Police, which represents employees of 17 of the 28 police agencies in Franklin County, had fought Thomas’ firing.
“A speeding ticket is going to cost him his career? For what normally would be somebody paying a hefty fine and walking out of court?” asked Columbus Police Officer Jim Gilbert, union president.
Gilbert pointed out that Trooper Jason Highsmith, who was clocked on his motorcycle at 147 mph while accompanying Thomas on I-70 near Buckeye Lake on June 28, received a five-day unpaid suspension.
Gilbert agrees that police officers should be held to high standards, even when off duty, but added: “We’re human beings. We make mistakes. ... It’s going to happen.”
Herschel Sigall, attorney for the Ohio State Troopers Association, said some fired troopers have been ordered reinstated because of overzealous investigations or violations of contracts that require progressive punishment before someone can be fired.
“More often than not, the double standard present for the cops is a negative. ... Our cops get fired for off-duty conduct, whereas the guy working in an office downtown does not get fired for off-duty conduct.
“We’re not paid $50 an hour to be perfect. We’re paid $20 an hour to walk up to cars with tinted windows, not knowing who is inside or what weapons they may have,” Sigall said.
“The public gets a whole lot better than they pay for, and the idea they don’t get perfection is sometimes troubling.”
Bob Cornwell, executive director of the Buckeye State Sheriffs’ Association, estimates that eight to 10 fired deputies are ordered rehired every year by arbitrators.
“It’s a fact of life of collective bargaining, but it also unfortunately puts a sheriff or mayor in the precarious position of putting someone back in a job he may not be able to perform at his best,” Cornwell said.
For example, a reinstated officer originally fired for dishonesty could face questioning over his truthfulness from criminal defense attorneys, he said.
“It can be awkward ... and very distasteful,” Cornwell said, to return an officer to working the streets for an agency that deemed him unworthy of a badge.
Copyright 2010 Columbus Dispatch