They fire a University cop FOR THIS:

[Brandon237]

Okay, WTF? He went to go help someone who had been shot and got fired for it? Who runs this university and what pot were they smoking? At most they should have just given a warning for abandoning his post, and maybe a medal for being honourable as consolation for said warning. But firing the dude because he was being a good cop? Question mark?

EDIT: This statement in the article says it very well: *Kevin Lawrence of the Texas Municipal Police Association agreed. "You don't fire a guy for this unless he's a chronic disciplinary problem," Lawrence said. "You call him in, you counsel him and you put him back out there. If he's a good cop, he's a good employee. You use this as a training opportunity."*

 

[artanis_neravar]

It was bull, but thats what happens when a corperation is in charge

Wow corperate control sucks out there doesn;t it. Also your avatar is freaking me the hell out. Its really distracting xD

You do realize that colleges are not corporations right? They are "non-profit" private organizations

stop being pedantic

bad you!

Stop using words that I have to look up

 

[artanis_neravar]

HE put the students in danger by abandoning his post, all he had to do is what any cop has to do and that is tell dispatch where you are going, he failed to do that and lost his job because of it. He messed up big and suffered for it

If a fellow human is in trouble and you can help, your first instinct isn't to tell people where your going. He did what anyone would do, he reacted on his instincts and tried to help

And Cops are trained to think before rushing into things, which is what he should have done and didn't do. He abandoned his post and left the students at the school in potential danger

 

[SuperNova221]

Why would he think clearly when he's racing to save the lives of his comrades?

He is trained to think clearly in stressful situations. If he can't do that he is in the wrong profession.

While I might not support his firing, he still didn't do part of his job which implicates him to some sort of punishment.

I'd rather see a temporary suspension and a class on proper procedure than firing though.

Was going to write pretty much exactly this. will just quote it instead. Agree with all of it.

 

[SilentCom]

He should not have been fired for this mistake. It was a mistake but clearly the consequences of it was not severe seeing as no students were harmed. He left his post for a good reason therefore it wasn't entirely negligence. He should have called it in so as far as I'm concerned, the worse thing the police officer should get is a warning or probation. An officer for 17 years who is doing his duty should not be fired for one small mistake.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

HE put the students in danger by abandoning his post, all he had to do is what any cop has to do and that is tell dispatch where you are going, he failed to do that and lost his job because of it. He messed up big and suffered for it

Nothing like microscoping in.

When the call "officer down" goes out everyone with a radio instantly heads in on the area. The book is pretty but when people are in imminent danger it goes out the window. The students were only in potential danger, which sucks but I don't think they begrudge him for it.

 

[artanis_neravar]

HE put the students in danger by abandoning his post, all he had to do is what any cop has to do and that is tell dispatch where you are going, he failed to do that and lost his job because of it. He messed up big and suffered for it

Nothing like microscoping in.

When the call "officer down" goes out everyone with a radio instantly heads in on the area. The book is pretty but when people are in imminent danger it goes out the window. The students were only in potential danger, which sucks but I don't think they begrudge him for it.

And everyone with a radio Calls it in the book is there for a reason, and cops who don't follow it get in trouble, and he wasn't even a cop, he was under the employ of a private organization and is expected to do his job. If the only guard at a bank left his post without telling anyone, leaving the bank open to be robbed, to respond to an officer down call, he would be fired as well

 

[danintexas]

As a cop - 2 minutes away - you hear this


What would you do?

Clearly you have 2 whole minutes to tell dispatch where you are going. There is no question at all that some action should have been taken against him. Im as surprised as you about him being fired, I would have expected a written warning and mabey a couple day suspension without pay at most.

The guy definatly screwed up by not calling in where he was going. What do you think would have happened if there was an emergency and he was needed at the university and they couldnt find him anywhere?

What surprises me the most about this is that there is no labour dispute about it. If there was no previous history of problem with this guy that would not have gone down here in Canada. Sure they may have fired him but the labour boards would have gotten him his job back, missed pay, plus a little bonus for all the stress.

Only thing is during an officer down call - all radio traffic is to stop. Only emergency traffic. Then add to the fact that this college was issuing bad equipment as well.

I posted the interview with the guy above. Worth a listen.

 

[Miles Moody]

Ok, so you guys who are all ready to throw the book at this guy, you should really listen to the dispatch recording that that one guy posted. After the first call of "officer shot", and again 2 minutes in when the next shoot out occured, the dispatcher called multiple times to "stay off the air." this is so that a)any officers engaging the shooter had radio priority and b)officers who had been shot could be heard. all non critical radio comunications were supposed to stop. Now, maybe there was a back up or secondary channel, but either way, it wasnt as simple as pressing the button on his radio and saying "im leaving." so yes, it is absolute bull shit.

 

[the7ofswords]

He reacted quickly to what could very well have been a life-or-death situation. OK - so he left his post where something "might" have happened, but it was in order to help out where something was definitely going down.

The most this guy should have received was an official reprimand for not alerting someone that he was leaving his post. He certainly shouldn't have been fired.

I can't help but wonder if this guy didn't have some kind of "danger pay" clause in his contract that stated they would have to pay him more in a shooting situation, and they just looked for an excuse to get rid of him rather than pay it. (Of course, I'm not a policeman or a security officer, or someone who hires them, so I'm just theorizing here.)

 

[artanis_neravar]

Ok, so you guys who are all ready to throw the book at this guy, you should really listen to the dispatch recording that that one guy posted. After the first call of "officer shot", and again 2 minutes in when the next shoot out occured, the dispatcher called multiple times to "stay off the air." this is so that a)any officers engaging the shooter had radio priority and b)officers who had been shot could be heard. all non critical radio comunications were supposed to stop. Now, maybe there was a back up or secondary channel, but either way, it wasnt as simple as pressing the button on his radio and saying "im leaving." so yes, it is absolute bull shit.

Campus police operate on a different radio setup then the cops do, so yes he could have easily pressed the button to say I'm leaving

 

[Katana314]

Ok, so you guys who are all ready to throw the book at this guy, you should really listen to the dispatch recording that that one guy posted. After the first call of "officer shot", and again 2 minutes in when the next shoot out occured, the dispatcher called multiple times to "stay off the air." this is so that a)any officers engaging the shooter had radio priority and b)officers who had been shot could be heard. all non critical radio comunications were supposed to stop. Now, maybe there was a back up or secondary channel, but either way, it wasnt as simple as pressing the button on his radio and saying "im leaving." so yes, it is absolute bull shit.

I'm pretty sure that the college campus's safety network had its radios on a different frequency from the local police entirely.

I don't think the university would have been angry at him for helping a downed officer at all; they may have encouraged it. His mistakes were otherwise. I kind of wonder if taking down the shooter, or bringing the situation to some level of calm, took a full hour, because that's a long time to be away from your post if you're on safety duty. If the situation were resolved, first expectation is to notify anyone who needs to know just what happened. Think about it; without a single word from him, the campus had to slowly figure out that one of their officers just..."wasn't there". "Hey, has anyone seen Larry?" "No, he's supposed to be here." "Everyone radio around to see where Larry is."

Communication is the number one rule in dangerous jobs like these. Every time you see a cop in a TV show find danger, and then fail to immediately report it in (Dispatch, I'm seeing suspicious activity on the corner of X and Y, request backup) is a retard. Who knows? Maybe the bad guy will shoot you, you'll fall unconscious, and then you'll take two hours to die from blood loss but be unable to radio for help at that point.

 

[Kiefer13]

Absolutely ridiculous. Certainly he made a mistake by not informing his dispatcher, but not one that he deserved to be fired for. An official reprimand or possibly temperory probation yes, but not outright firing. He may have left his post, but it was for a justifiable reason. It's a sad day when helping someone in need is valued less than sticking rigidly to procedure.