Posted on 12/21/2010 8:47:10 AM PST by Last Dakotan
A Fargo police officer is facing an internal-affairs investigation after leaving her department-issued gun in the bathroom of a sporting goods store on Friday, police said Monday.
Jessica Homan, a nine-year veteran of the Fargo Police Department, left the handgun in the bathroom of Scheels in Moorhead, said Lt. Tory Jacobson.
Store officials contacted Moorhead police when the gun was found, Jacobson said.
Homan, who was not on duty, had already realized she had misplaced the weapon, and Moorhead police returned it to her on Friday, he said.
Jacobson said Moorhead police contacted Fargo officers about the incident, which he described as “an oversight on her part.”
Sgt. Mike Mitchell of the Fargo Police Department, head of the Office of Professional Standards, said Monday he was asked to investigate the incident by Chief Keith Ternes to see if any disciplinary action is warranted.
Mitchell said because of the holidays, the probe is unlikely to be completed until January. Homan is not on administrative leave as the incident is investigated.
Jacobson said officers are typically encouraged to carry their weapons when they are off duty.
“Obviously, she has the right to carry her gun,” he said.
A phone message left for Homan wasn’t returned on Monday.
Homan’s personnel file includes commendations for her handling of several cases, including two sexual assaults – one in 2004 and another in 2007 – and a 2002 death investigation. She was also credited in 2005 for testimony she gave in trials in Municipal Court.
In November 2002, Homan was given an award for enforcing violations of child-restraint laws.
Other than an incident in 2002 in which she struck a vehicle with her squad car, the sole issues raised by her superiors in the personnel file were the timeliness of her reports.
After reprimands in 2006 and 2007 for filing reports too slowly, she successfully met improvement goals in January 2008 and has not been reprimanded since, according to documents in the personnel file.
What would the punishment be if she was a white guy?
yah
What would have happened if someone had found that gun and used it to murder someone?
If I found a pistol in a restroom, no one would hear about it
She should have been filed on for reckless endangerment, then turned over to CPS, my goodness, what if a CHILD had found it?!! Treat her like anyone else, firearm not secured out of reach of CHILDREN. It’s for the CHILDREN after all.
About ten years ago, some guy with a carry permit got sick at a Chuck E Cheese in our area and went to the restroom. He left his loaded pistol in there. Some six year old found it there and carried it back to the ball pit, where it was found later by a three year old. Needless to say, that generated a lot of press.
sodpoodle:
I would hate to see all my work-related boo-boos published and exposed on TV.
Balding_Eagle:
When you do something equivalant to leaving a (presumably) loaded gun in a public rest room you will.
I was a sysadmin at a good-sized N.E. university. If I screwed up, thousands of people noticed. Yow.
Never mislaid a firearm, though.
Firearms issued to LEO’s are registered by serial number. The FBI would search for the weapon once it was reported to them as lost or stolen. Not a good idea to play finders keepers with a misplaced firearm registered to a police department.
In her attention to detail in completing the paper work, she forgot her firearm. Reprimands and corresponding goals can have that effect.
If this was a regular citizen, they would have the book thrown at them.
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