K-9 Officer Back On Duty After Mayor, Union Strike Deal
By Andy Nelesen, The Green Bay Press-Gazette
Green Bay police K-9 cop Shannon Mulrine is back on duty, and the police officers union and Mayor Jim Schmitt have agreed to an investigation of the climate inside the police department.
“He (Mulrine) has been reinstated, and the city is going to conduct an investigation of the department,” said Tom Parins, the lawyer representing the Green Bay Police Protective Association.
Mulrine was placed on paid administrative leave Dec. 5 while the department investigated meal receipts submitted from when Mulrine was in Albuquerque, N.M., training with his new canine partner, Lobo. Police Department spokesman Bill Galvin said at the time that an internal investigation determined that some laws might have been broken and turned the inquest over to the state Justice Department’s Division of Criminal Investigation.
Mulrine is a 22-year veteran of the department and a leader of the agency’s SWAT team.
Parins said Mulrine never submitted the receipts for reimbursement and maintained that someone within the department generated the travel form and put Mulrine’s name on it.
Mayor Jim Schmitt ordered that Mulrine be returned to duty Christmas Eve and expanded the Division of Criminal Investigation probe to include the actions of every level of the department concerning Mulrine’s case.
“The information that I have at this time warrants an investigation Š but it doesn’t appear to be real serious with what I am hearing,” Schmitt said. “There are two sides to this story, and I think we need an independent investigation.”
"(The union is) making some claims that (Mulrine) was singled out, and yet management is making some claims that he had possibly done something inappropriate.”
Parins said the agreement with the city does not clear Mulrine of wrongdoing but said the fact that he is back on duty speaks volumes.
“I would like to suggest that his being off duty was most inappropriate,” Parins said.
Schmitt said his agreement with the union does not usurp Police Chief Craig Van Schyndle’s authority.
“Placing an officer on administrative leave is Craig’s decision,” Schmitt said. “Š to suspend an officer is my decision.
“This is the business side of me showing through. What he is being investigated for is nothing dangerous. If we’re paying this guy to sit at home on administrative leave, I think it would be more productive to have him out on the streets.”
Galvin, speaking on behalf of Van Schyndle, said the department administration supported the mayor’s decision.
“The mayor is our boss Š he’s even the chief’s boss,” Galvin said. “We support (his decision).”
Galvin said moving the investigation to an outside agency removes any implication of bias.
“We have a chief that is above reproach in honesty and integrity,” Galvin said. “The union feels something was done wrong, and the chief immediately turned it over to DCI so that there was no impression of impropriety.”
The Division of Criminal Investigation probe is expected to take several weeks. Division officials, as a matter of policy, will not confirm the existence of an ongoing investigation.
Union President Bill Resch said that inquiry is welcomed.
“We have an agreement with the mayor,” Resch said. “We told him our complaints, and our complaints would be looked into. We want to clear the air on everything.”
Mulrine, through Resch, declined comment for this report.
“We feel there has been an anti-union mentality within the administration Š which we feel has been present for some time,” Resch said. “This is an investigation of the entire situation.
“We want this investigation done. We want someone to look at how this was handled.”