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Today let me tell you about some police chiefs & sheriffs with pasts that might disqualify other cops, but somehow they keep getting hired as the boss in US cities and counties. We know about them because of our wide sweep for police misconduct records. usatoday.com/in-depth/news/…
Chiefs hold a position of public trust that makes them the face of law enforcement and puts them in command of other officers. If they can outrun misconduct, experts say, imagine what can happen among the lower-ranking officers they employ.
The @USATODAY Network identified 32 people who became police chiefs or sheriffs despite a finding of serious misconduct, usually at another department. At least 8 were found guilty of a crime. And the records we are checking them against, while vast, is still wildly incomplete.
In North Dakota, officials picked as their sheriff a man who’d led his co-workers on a 100 mph chase after drinking. A dispatcher summoned him to assist in his own pursuit.
In Georgia, an officer fired from the state police after investigators found he’d carried out numerous on-duty affairs and lied about it landed a job as a small-town chief.
A Washington trooper who was convicted of rendering criminal assistance in a case involving his son found work leading a small department in that state.
And in Ohio, among many other episodes of misconduct, a chief acquired police radios for a still mysterious purpose.
David Cimperman wanted to make untraceable calls using the city’s radio network, though officials never figured out why.
The head of the company that reprogrammed the radios for the chief says Cimperman told him the devices were for the department, but he paid for it by sending a package of cash by UPS, which Brinkley says was “unique.”
Whatever the reason, it came at a bigger cost for residents of the community. Records from the county prosecutor show that every time Cimperman used the radios to make calls, they tied up the communication network and blocked New Philadelphia residents’ 911 emergency calls.
Cimperman was sentenced to a year of probation, but the case got hidden from the public and future employers because prosecutors agreed to have the records of its existence sealed — a step they said they routinely take for people who don’t have a criminal record.
We found out about it anyway. A judge unsealed the records last year after the @USATODAY Network sued. (We do that when the public needs to know about something their government is doing).
The state of Ohio briefly revoked Cimperman's license to be a police officer over the episode, but reinstated it a few months later. Ordinarily, a felony record would be career-ending because the state would automatically revoke his license.
Cimperman's plea let him avoid a felony record and avoid the automatic loss of his certification. The court’s decision to keep the case sealed made it harder for future employers to find out about his past.
The story of his journey goes on, but he landed a job with an important title and powers: police chief.
He’s not alone. And we know because we’ve been gathering records about tens of thousands of officers and plan to publish them so the public knows more about its police forces.
He’s not alone. And we know because we’ve been gathering records about tens of thousands of officers and plan to publish them so the public knows more about its police forces.
For more about that, check here.
