Posted on 06/08/2011 11:14:19 AM PDT by massmike
It was a Saturday on campus when David Sedmak, a Rice University police officer, heard "Officer down, officer down!" on his scanner: Two members of the Houston Police Department had been shot downtown. Sedmak rushed to the scene to help his fellow officers.
But Rice didn't see Sedmak as a hero. Instead, the university fired him, citing "dereliction of duty."
The university said in a statement that its officers often assist other law enforcement agencies when the need arises. But Sedmak erred, it said, by not informing the university police dispatcher about where he was.
"Sedmak left his post when only two other officers were on duty and failed to notify his supervisor of his whereabouts for nearly an hour, which could have endangered the safety of our students and campus," according to the university.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I understand his emotions and desire to help, but the university is right in this case. Work through the chain of command. (Even a university does something right once in a while.)
ditto.
You should have seen the earlier thread on this, many were saying the Universtity was wrong.
Rice University is nothing but a liberal, rat hole.
Left his post when only two other officers were on duty?
Three is such a big difference than two?
Failed to notify his supervisor of his whereabouts for nearly an hour?
Nearly an hour?
How do people expect university students to survive with only two guards for nearly a whole hour?
According to his interview this morning he did attempt to contact dispatch, but the limited Rice University Radio system (which has been a problem in past events) did not connect to dispatch.
http://www.ktrh.com/cc-common/podcast/single_page.html?podcast=newscasts_c
HOUSTON, Texas - Officers from nearly a dozen law enforcement organizations gathered this morning at the headquarters of the Houston Police Officers Union where they expressed whole-hearted support for Officer David Sedmak following his abrupt firing from the Rice University police force.
At its monthly board meeting June 3, the HPOU unanimously approved a $2,500 support check for Sedmak and his family. The Union has a solid and steadfast reputation for taking care of its own in times of great need.
Led by HPOU President Gary Blankinship, the HPOU board and membership was offended for the way Rice Police Chief Bill Taylor fired Sedmak for supposedly leaving his campus assignment to answer a distress call from his Houston policing brothers and sisters on May 7.
This morning officers of the Texas Municipal Police Association, and police associations from Pasadena, Pearland, Baytown, Galveston and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office held a joint press conference and stopping short of calling for Taylor’s banishment from law enforcement, denounced him in the strongest terms.
That day in May a Greyhound bus passenger got off a bus at Main and West Gray, shot two HPD officers and turned the gun on himself. The shooter was identified as Jesse Brown, a 20-year-old fugitive with a Georgia driver’s license who was wanted in San Francisco.
The shootout began when a quick-acting screener at the Greyhound bus terminal spotted the butt of a semiautomatic pistol in Brown’s duffel bag as he waited for a bus to Georgia. The screener alerted HPD Officer Fernando Meza, working an extra job as security, who Tasered Brown.
The Taser failed to subdue the armed bus rider, who began shooting at Meza, with the two exchanging a number of rounds. Meza suffered a superficial gunshot wound to his hand.
Brown fled to the McDonalds under the Pierce Elevated, pulled another semiautomatic pistol and exchanged gunfire with responding Officers C.C. Thompson and Timothy Moore. Moore suffered a bullet wound to his leg.
Both Meza and Moore were treated at Memorial Hermann Hospital and released.
With backup officers in the chase, Brown ran to a bank parking garage at Fannin and Pierce.
Sedmak answered the officer-assistance call from his post at Rice University about two miles away. HPD officers credit him with supplying cover in the form of his patrol car as they converged on the parking garage.
SWAT arrived with its armored vehicle, using it to canvass each floor of the garage, when they heard a single gunshot from a fourth-floor stairwell. Officers found Brown dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head.
Houston officers were elaborate in their praise of Sedmak and praised him for leaving his duty station. They recall Sedmak saying that he would probably be fired for what police officers describe as “doing his duty to help his fellow police officers from another policing agency.”
Blankinship expressed deep appreciation for Sedmak answering the urgent Dispatcher’s plea to help the wounded officers during an active shooter situation. He quoted information that the Rice University police administrators had very little if any experience “on the street” and obviously didn’t understand the importance of ‘assist the officer’ calls.
The Union president also pointed out that Sedmak had an unblemished record with the Galveston Police Department as well as in his brief tenure at Rice.
“In this case, Officer Sedmak’s reward was he was fired by a (Rice University Police Department) major that was off-duty that day and came in to relieve him of duty,” said Ray Hunt, vice president of the Houston Police Officers Union. “She (major) came in to relieve him of duty, take his gun and badge, stating that what he did was not with the mission of Rice University.
http://www.lineofduty.com/the-blotter/112099-did-rice-university-screw-officer-david-sedmak
Thanks for finding and posting that.
So he still deserted his post, if you can not connect do not leave. The supervisor could have been going to the site or he could have sent the other officer. He broke the rules he is paying the price.
We will continue to disagree on the more important issue in this case and if there was a more appropriate way to handle the event.
Many living in the area agree with me. Rice U. Is getting reports from local media of taking donations planned for the University and directing them for police funds.
Yep! He deserted his post. He heard something on a scanner, that some might hold could have been a distraction from doing his job in the first place, and made the decision that there was some place else he would rather be, than at his post.
Read it this way. I am so bored! Oh, What is this, shots fired! that sounds a whole lot more exciting that the boring job I have right now.
I'll go lights and siren to the scene and get in the way.
Not sure what his assignment was at the time, probably routine patrol, but if he was out of touch, then he caused his own department their own level of grief.
What if he had had his own altercation, thus was out of communication. They had no way of knowing what happened to him. And I don't suppose his presence at the scene was any help anyway. How was he supposed to coordinate with another dept? Using his scanner?
I am not suggesting anything, but sometimes the 'Boys in Blue' take their perception of responsibility to each other a little too far.
I should only hope that all Officers would respond to a brother in need of assistance. The number one priority is that every Officer working goes home to his family at the end of the tour, the Cop in the article did the right thing.
HPD officers on the scene described it far differently.
Two HPD officers were wounded by the gunman outside the Greyhound station. Other officers took cover behind the Rice officer’s car, so they wouldn’t get shot, too.
But while those officers said Sedmak was a hero, Rice University fired him for dereliction of duty.
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