OFFENSE

EMPLOYER’S PENALTY

RESULT ON APPEAL

DESCRIPTION

CASE NAME

Conduct Unbecoming Off Duty

Indefinite Suspension

15-Day Suspension

Off-duty altercation with the employer’s Purchasing Director over whether a police officer’s dogs defecated in a neighbor’s yard. Employer rushed its investigation because the officer was scheduled for military service and the Purchasing Director received no discipline in the fracas.

City of Conroe, Texas, LAIG 6207 (Greer, 2005).

Job Performance

3-Day Suspension

No Discipline

Officer issued three-day suspension when an assault rifle he had confiscated from a suspect discharged through the ceiling and roof of the police dispatch center. Suspension overturned because it was not issued by the “Department head,” as specifically required by state law.

City of Terrell, Texas, LAIG 6239 (Fox, 2005).

Racial Discrimination

Termination

Reinstatement With Back Pay

Corrections officer discharged for describing fellow officer with a German background as “kraut lips,” and for sleeping on the job. Arbitrator concluded that “kraut lips” is not an ethnic slur, but simply was “boorish, stupid, and childish,” reciting the dictionary definition of “kraut” as referring to “a thinly sliced, compressed and fermented cabbage.” The sleeping charge not sustained where testimony of witnesses was vague and based on brief observations, and one instance was not credible where witness claimed to see grievant sleeping every day on hundreds of occasions, which no one else saw.

Macoupin County, Illinois, 120 LA 1308 (Klauss, 2005).