KHOU-11’s Jeff McShan reports on HPD’s arbitration process, which seems to have made both officers and the brass unhappy.
HPD officials contend that officers suspended or fired for good cause are being reinstated:
“It’s very troubling for this Chief and any chief to then have an arbitrator say, ‘Well, you’ve proven this violation but take the person back’, ” says HPD Director Of Legal Services Craig Ferrell.
He says officers have a right to appeal the decision by going to arbitration.
Ferrell says it’s a system that looks good on paper, but often give officers their jobs back. That includes officers like Butler, who, he says, doesn’t belong.
“It ought to concern the citizens. I think it concerns the officers as well. I know it concerns our management here and I’m not sure the union would agree or tell you they agree,” Ferrell says.
The union’s spokesman does not agree, and takes a shot at Chief Hurtt:
The union’s president, Hans Marticiuc, says officers are getting their jobs back because Police Chief Harold Hurtt should not have fired them in the first place.
“I don’t know if he is making bad decisions or if he is just reading summaries and getting advice, or just getting bad advice on some of the decisions that he has made. I think we are seeing some sort of pattern that he also had in Phoenix, where many of his cases were overturned. Maybe he is just a bad decision maker,” says Marticiuc.
[snip]
“And it concerns me. I think officers tend to lose confidence in a Chief when they hear the wining and complaining. We lose cases and the city doesn’t hear us wining and complaining,” says Marticiuc.
Actually, if there were more wining, everybody at HPD would probably be happier.
