Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Guns and badges have been taken from a Columbus police sergeant and five officers while the division’s internal affairs bureau investigates allegations that they drank alcohol after a training session Wednesday and that one of them fired a gun during the gathering.
Another police officer eventually reported the incident, which is said to have occurred on the grounds of National Trail Raceway in Licking County.
Sgt. Rich Weiner said division command learned of the incident on Sunday, and the delay in reporting is among the list of problems that commanders have with the allegations.
“The division is very concerned and, because of that, they took swift action,” Weiner said. “We are held to a higher standard.”
Columbus police use the racetrack’s property for driver-training exercises, including tactics to end pursuits. All the officers under investigation are instructors, he said.
Weiner stressed that National Trail has been a gracious host of the training and was in no way connected to the incident.
He said the track is cooperating with the internal investigation, which, so far, is administrative in nature. Should internal-affairs investigators determine that a crime might have occurred, a criminal investigation would take precedence, he said.
Weiner would not give any of the officers’ names, saying the investigation was still in its early stages.
Sgt. Jim Gilbert, president of Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge No. 9, said the FOP also learned of the incident and the inquiry on Sunday night.
“My understanding is that they were off-duty, and this occurred when they were off the clock,” Gilbert said.
He said the officers are being represented by the union and are cooperating with the investigation.
Copyright 2010 Columbus Dispatch