Danville Police’s dog shooting case back in the news…

And in his letter, former chief Neal Morris takes some shots of his own at Danville Police Chief Philip Broadfoot. Hoo boy.

Police chief owes officer an apology; Retired chief takes Broadfoot to task

We need a Big Board to look at all of the issues that this letter raises…

• The supervisor picked up a four-day suspension for his actions in the investigation, which he filed a grievance on.
• According to Morris, the grievance hearing was held a long time after the incident and the suspension was reduced to one day (with that notification apparently coming an amount of time after the hearing).
• The supervisor took that decision up to the next level to the City Manager’s office. After that hearing, the supervisor was cleared of all wrongdoing, but the charges were pulled by Broadfoot because of things learned in that hearing.
• Nothing has been said to the public about what’s going on, unlike the two press conferences that were held during the initial phase of the incident.

With that recap of the “facts” (with that word used loosely because I haven’t been able to verify any of Morris’ letter as of now), here are some questions I’ve got about the whole thing.

• Since this incident was worthy enough of two press conferences and public statements, why hasn’t a subsequent statement been issued regarding an update on this incident?
• Since the police chief issued a statement saying that disciplinary action would be taken against the supervisors, is the police chief morally obligated to issue a statement regarding the dismissal of charges against one supervisor? Does the fact that this supervisor’s name has never been released make things different?
• Did Murrill McLean (the officer that killed the dog) file a grievance regarding his firing? If so, what’s the status on that?
• With Neal Morris being a constant critic of Broadfoot’s command, is this letter an accurate description of what’s happened so far? (Note: At this time, it seems that Morris has an inside source on what’s happening, so I’m giving him credibility on this.)

I’m not sure how to take this new information. Broadfoot seems like a great guy and he really has the desire to keep the city safe. It’s a shame that an incident like this has to come up and bring office politics and internal squabbles into the public’s eye. I have to balance that by wondering that if someone is cleared of charges that were alluded to in a public statement, don’t they deserve another public statement acknowledging the dismissal of said charges?

More to come as I try & learn more of what’s going on…