About a month after I quit the police department, my Sargent came to see me at work and told me that the three dispatchers had filed a sexual harassment complaint against the training officer. I said-well good! He said the chief was not going to consider it since there were no witnesses to any of the alleged incidents and since they were ...well..dispatchers. He had said he thought they may have been concocting the story just to get back at the training officer for some reason.
" SERIOUSLY! "
"Seriouly"
" How can three women telling the same story not be enough to take that creep down?""
" Well, it's not April. You could help."
" How can I help? I didn't say anything at the time."
" You are a former police officer, your word will carry more weight. Plus you know at least one other cadet saw what he was doing to you."
" He won't back me up!"
" Yes he will, I asked him."
" OK then!"
At 1 pm on a Friday afternoon I walked back into the chief's office with my Sargent. The chief stood up looked at my Sargent and said, " SHE no longer works here. I don't need to hear a damn thing she has to say!"
My Sargent gave him a blistering look and in a deadly calm voice said, " But you will hear what she has to say."
He sat down and I sat down and I told that asshole my story. When I got ready to leave he did not rise, or thank me or shake my hand.
Over wine that very same night, my Sargent told me that the training officer's resignation was on the chief's desk within an hour after I left. I was happy but it seemed unfair that the only punishment for that kind of intimidation and abuse of power was to be able to resign and just go to another department and do the same thing. My Sargent let me rail against the fates for about 10 minutes and then he said, "And that naivety about the way the world works, Officer Cupcake, is why you were not cut out to be a cop. But I hope you keep it!"
No comments:
Post a Comment