Posted on 11/06/2003 5:18:43 AM PST by Arrowhead1952
One lieutenant, two sergeants among those suspended
By Jeffrey Gilbert
and Tony Plohetski
Thursday, November 6, 2003
While they were supposed to be protecting a power plant against possible terrorism, five Austin police officers went fishing.
The officers, including a lieutenant and a sergeant, were suspended last month for fishing at the Decker Creek Power Plant at Lake Walter E. Long while on duty, according to disciplinary memos obtained Wednesday. A second sergeant was suspended for not reporting the others.
The men, in uniform, were seen at least once cleaning the fish they had just caught, according to the reports. The fishing had gone on for a year without action.
"Quite frankly, we are very disappointed," Assistant Police Chief Rick Coy said. "We believe our job is to protect the community, and that's what we expect our officers to do."
Five of the officers were suspended from one to 30 days for violating civil service commission rules; the sixth officer also was disciplined, but a memo detailing his suspension was not available because he is appealing the case.
The officers, most of whom were assigned to the plant as part of the department's Homeland Defense Unit, were disciplined for a variety of department violations, including not reporting the activity to supervisors, for continuing to fish after being ordered to stop and for instructing plant security guards to allow fellow officers onto the facility to fish.
According to the memos, internal affairs investigators got a complaint in June that the officers were fishing while they were supposed to be patrolling at the plant.
Coy would not discuss the nature of the complaint but said most of the information used in the internal investigations came from the officers involved.
"Their own admissions and statements implicated themselves," Coy said.
The highest-ranking officer involved, Lt. Michael Kimbrough, is appealing his punishment.
The reports say that Sgts. Dana Brockington and Paul Rhodes were aware that on-duty officers were fishing, yet did not take any action. Brockington also fished while on duty at least once during the first half of 2002, the memo said. Brockington was suspended for 30 days.
Neither Brockington nor Rhodes could be reached for comment.
Rhodes, according to the documents, did not act because the officers did not work for him. Still, he had a duty to turn in the officers, his disciplinary memo said. He was suspended for 15 days.
Officers Joseph Lorett, Steven Shedd and Christopher Moore were suspended for fishing multiple times at the plant over the past 16 months, according to the memos.
Lorett, suspended for five days, acknowledged that he fished at various times while on duty since 2002 and that he last fished April 25. In February 2002, his supervisor had ordered him to stop, the documents said.
"Officer Lorett disobeyed his supervisor's direct order, which constitutes insubordination," his disciplinary memo said.
The report also said that Lorett and Moore used their positions as police officers to "allow or instruct" the security guard at the plant to allow police friends onto the facility for "fishing or fishing-type activities."
Moore admitted to fishing on duty at least 10 times since February 2002, the memos said. The last time he he did so was in March, he said. In February 2002, Moore's supervisor ordered him to stop. He was suspended for two days.
Shedd, the documents showed, said he fished at the plant during the first half of this year. Shedd continued to fish at the power plant, despite having received a verbal directive in early 2002 from the Homeland Defense supervisor to stop doing so. He was suspended for one day for failing to report other officers' misconduct.
Coy said officers and their supervisors patrolling locations for homeland security will rotate regularly to prevent similar incidents in the future.
"We are taking steps to make sure it doesn't happen again," Coy said.
Mike Sheffield, president of the Austin Police Association, said only: "Officers make mistakes."
They should also be fined for not practicing Catch & Release! C'mon, men! Preserve the sport! Power plants usually mean dams. Dams often times mean catfish. Eating catfish is pretty nasty if you ask me, but some folks like it. If it's a big reservoir, there could be large or smallmouth bass in there. Wonder what they were catching. I kinda wonder if they are African American too.
Yeah, but do ya keep em? Clean em? Bass? I'm sorry, but I thought all self respecting bass anglers threw em back.
Check my profile page for some of my NJ jersey bassin' pics.
2. Some lakes here in Georgia are so full of 12-14" bass, that the dnr is asking anglers to keep a few, so that the ones left have more to eat and grow faster. The catch and release everything theory does need some adjustment.
3. These guys may have been catching hybrids, which hang out near the dam end of reservoirs in large schools, and provide some of the best freswater fishing you'll ever do.
Hybrids are striped bass/white bass cross breeds. They eat a variety of live or artificial baits. Pound for pound, much harder fighters than largemouth.
Just cut the reddish-brown looking gland out each fillet. Stretches from front to the tail. That is their sensing gland that alerts (all) fish to motion. Get rid of that, and most fishy taste is gone.
Eating catfish...Everyone has different taste. I do consider the snapper, grouper, and tuna I have stocked in the freezer to be more palatable than catfish.
Fishing-type activities = drinking the beer without actually dropping a line in the water
This is a City of Austin power plant. As far as I know, the additional ploice were hired to protect "soft targets" within the city limits.
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