Thread by @CourtneyLTanner

THREAD: For months, I’ve been reporting for this article —requesting records, interviewing former staff + talking to students kind enough to trust me w/ their stories.

What came from that is this dive into @UUtah’s police dept. showing a sexist culture.

sltrib.com/news/education…

@UUtah Officer Jennifer Smalley recalls watching as 2 male detectives questioned a possible rape victim.

They wanted to know what underwear she had been wearing. What brand of vodka she was drinking. Whether she was in love w/ the guy.

If she had been a virgin before that night.

@UUtah “They didn’t believe that the assault actually happened,” said Smalley, recalling the case from about five years ago that haunts her, even after she’s left law enforcement. “They were hostile. It was disgusting.”

@UUtah This reporting comes a year after the killing of student-athlete Lauren McCluskey on campus revealed flawed police work by the department.

Here's our story that came out of an independent review of that case: sltrib.com/news/2018/12/1…

But it didn't end there.

Similar shortcomings echo through students’ accounts and records of cases handled by U. police from years before and some since.

During Police Chief Dale Brophy’s tenure, officers were failing to contact victims promptly w/ 1 officer taking 16 days to call a woman.

Former staffers also say they were instructed to downplay the number of domestic violence cases by not creating a record for some calls.

When Katie Stokes told officers that her former boyfriend had stalked her for months, twice rigging a tire to fall off her Jeep while she was driving, they closed the case w/o an arrest.

Still scared, she got a no-contact order only after getting help from U. administrators.

Celene Beth Calderon, who was a student living on campus in 2006, told officers she had been raped in her dorm room by a man she had just met.

She said the officers seemed disinterested in taking down details and didn’t seem to believe her.

Stephanie Orgill called U. police first in Oct. 2017, reporting that a student in one of her classes had threatened to kill her and told her he was planning to stab her over fall break.

A campus officer said since the threat was sent over text, “that wasn’t their jurisdiction.”

Despite that, Brophy, who retired last month, said he doesn’t believe many of the stories are true.

“We took a report and did investigations. So what [they] are saying is probably not factual," he told @sltrib.

Several former female officers + dispatchers also spoke w/ The Tribune about the culture of the campus agency.

Their depiction of a dept. that struggles to effectively handle offenses against women is buttressed by discipline reports obtained under public record requests.

In Nov. 2015, a male officer was written up for ignoring a DV case and never contacting the victim.

Another male officer received a warning in Sept. 2016 for not calling victims for weeks.

A 3rd officer — written up at least 4 times before — got a similar warning in Sept. 2018.

The issues existed before Brophy took over as chief, too.

Former University of Utah officer Jenn Cooper she saw officers “adjust” reports of rape and domestic violence calls, leaving out details about the severity of allegations.

When Cooper went out on domestic violence calls where a husband or male partner was present and said everything was OK, she said, she was instructed to leave and make no note of the call.

“Even if we could see the woman cowering behind the door,” she said.

She also talked to female employees being mistreated in the dept.

She said male officers urinated in her bag & cut her zip ties so she couldn’t use them.

The leaders there, she added, called the group of female officers the “p---- posse” & asked: “Who’s on their period?”

Cooper + others say they went to HR but, as far as they know, nothing was done.

Officer Smalley added, too, she didn’t realize how serious her encounters were until her new employer asked her to watch a training video on sexual harassment. She started crying as it played.

Smalley joined the dept. in 2007. When she felt ready to move up, she asked a sgt. for advice. He told her: “Grow your hair out. You’d look prettier that way.”

Several also made comments about her chest, she said, & after breast reduction surgery, a leader said, “What a waste.”

Two former dispatchers and one of the male officers that @sltrib talked to said that male leadership would ask female employees to sit on their laps. Smalley & the dispatchers also said some of the men in the dept. would openly rank whom they wanted to sleep w/ in the office.

@sltrib One dispatcher said, "It’s a pretty terrible place to the point where I was hospitalized for six days” for the effects of stress.

Former staffers also told the The Tribune that Brophy and Rick McLenon, now the acting chief, frequently yelled at women.

McLenon, several recounted, once screamed at a female employee while she cried. She ran out of his office, and he shouted: “Get the f--- back in here.”

McLenon acknowledged that exchange occurred and said he is now asking the woman to return to the department after she quit.

“We are passionate here," he said.

Meanwhile, though, he said he doesn’t believe women have been put at risk by the dept.'s work or policies.

Students and staff, though, say the issues continue.

When McCluskey filed her 1st written report w/ campus police, her friend Alex went along to the station. From the beginning, she said, the officers didn’t seem concerned and suggested Rowland “seemed like a nice guy.”

Melvin S. Rowland, a 37-year-old registered sex offender, was on parole and had lied to McCluskey about his name, age and criminal history.

Police had looked up the wrong person, and Alex had to show them on her phone the criminal record for Rowland, she said.

2 nights after McCluskey was killed, Alex said, a detective stopped her in a parking lot as she was walking into her dorm. He asked Alex to get into his squad car, she said, so officers could talk to her about what happened.

When she said, "No," he followed her into the building

McLenon, though, said the dept. is changing. They're hiring a sgt. who to conduct training &, for the past 2 months, they've been tracking all domestic violence cases.

“It doesn’t sit well with me that we have victims calling to say they didn’t get the service they deserve."

The school will also move forward w/ hiring a police chief to replace Brophy & a chief security officer to look over safety on campus.

It will be up to those new hires to decide whether to investigate continuing concerns brought up by students who say they haven’t been believed.

This is a long thread, so thanks for hanging w/ me. I want to say thanks to all of the women who came forward to talk to me.

Please read the full story here: sltrib.com/news/education…

Thanks, too, to @SheilaRMcCann for her exceptional editing. This wouldn't have happened w/o her.

If you feel so inclined, support further work like this by subscribing to @sltrib: sltrib.com/subscribe/

Journalism likes this matters. But investigation takes time + money.

@SheilaRMcCann @sltrib Last thing: Check out the sidebar that accompanies this story.

It's about how the University of Utah police department built by former Chief Dale Brophy included leaders disciplined in previous jobs — including for sexual harassment and driving drunk.

Here's the link to that: sltrib.com/news/education…

And one quick detail: The man that Brophy chose as leader for his patrol division had once been suspended at South Jordan for kissing a subordinate officer while he was her sergeant.

And the person whom Brophy selected to head the campus dispatch department, was fired from Salt Lake City police in 2007.

A 911 call had dropped and, instead of trying to redial the person, she took two personal calls, records said.

I'd like to end on this note: If you need help — as these stories bring up a lot about assault + domestic violence — please look at these resources.

I appreciate readers for taking the time to engage w/ this piece. But I understand the topic can be triggering.