Cop Fired For Helping Fellow Officers

MA-Caver

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A lot of people are upset about this firing. Many feel (myself included) that it's unwarranted.
http://beta.news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/cop-fired-helping-fellow-officers-distress-150454649.html
It was a Saturday on campus when David Sedmak, a Rice University police officer, heard "Officer down, officer down!" on his scanner: Two members of the Houston Police Department had been shot downtown. Sedmak rushed to the scene to help his fellow officers.
Good for him!
But Rice didn't see Sedmak as a hero. Instead, the university fired him, citing "dereliction of duty."
The university said in a statement that its officers often assist other law enforcement agencies when the need arises. But Sedmak erred, it said, by not informing the university police dispatcher about where he was.
"Sedmak left his post when only two other officers were on duty and failed to notify his supervisor of his whereabouts for nearly an hour, which could have endangered the safety of our students and campus," according to the university.
Point for Rice because he could've taken a moment to do that but given the urgency of the situation it should've been over-looked. He isn't the only security on the campus is he?



Sedmak was stunned by the dismissal. "My only concern on that day was to render aid to these two officers," he said. "Quite frankly, I couldn't believe that after being in law enforcement for nearly 17 years that I was being relieved of my duty for running an assist to an officer."
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."
Yep... it's ridiculous on how easy it is for folks to get fired.
 

OKenpo942

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Wow! Way to go Rice... morons! What a joke!

Their justification for the dismissal is feeble at best. I fully agree with Mr. Lawrence in your quote. Address the failure to notify a supervisor in a timely manner and let it go.

Seems to me they let go the only good officer they had. The others on duty should have done the same thing and if the supervisor was doing his/her job and listening to the radio as well, would have known of the shooting and could have sent or kept whomever he/she saw fit. Instead, they apparently did nothing (speaking of dereliction of duty) and now the only officer that had the balls to respond to a dangerous situation without backup has no job.

I'll say it again, way to go Rice! Owls symblize wisdom???

James
 

jks9199

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In general -- I support the officer responding to an officer in distress call.

But there's a lot I haven't seen here. He failed to let his superiors know what he was doing. The "leaving only two officers on campus" is crap; he'd have left only two there if he locked someone up.

But how far did he go? Across the street -- or a couple of miles. What's his record? Did he spend a lot of his time trying to chase stuff outside their jurisdiction, so that this was a tool to solve a problem?

Like I said -- I want to support the guy. Very much. But there's times you have to do YOUR job as bad as you want to go help someone in trouble.
 

Archangel M

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Alright let me state this delicately. First off, situations like this are rarely as straightforward as the media story suggests. i.e. "Leave post to help officers in trouble=fired. period." Who knows what "else" is going on here. All respects to officer Sedmak for running to the sound of the guns, but something I saw when this story first came out was this:

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/david-sedmak/22/895/443

Police Officer

Rice University
Educational Institution; Higher Education industry
August 2008 – May 2011 (2 years 10 months)

Certified ALERRT Instructor
Police Officer / Special Operations Division
Galveston Police
Law Enforcement industry
January 2004 – August 2008 (4 years 8 months)

Police Officer / Patrol Division
Missouri City Police Department
Government Agency; Government Administration industry
June 1995 – July 1999 (4 years 2 months)

3 different jobs over the space of 16 years isn't in and of itself proof of anything. What with layoffs, cutbacks, budgets etc. there is probably an excellent chance that this history is sterling.

However..

Having been involved in hiring/training/background investigations/retention, that sort of career movement is something that I would have taken a CLOSE look at. 4 years at any one agency is pretty much the amount of time it takes to become an experienced officer coming into his/her prime. LE has an ugly history of passing problem children around. Trouble officers are allowed to resign (vs. face termination) with the deal that any future employers won't be told the ugly details.

Again..no PROOF of that HERE. But I wouldn't jump to the "evil administration" conclusion quite yet either.
 

jks9199

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Alright let me state this delicately. First off, situations like this are rarely as straightforward as the media story suggests. i.e. "Leave post to help officers in trouble=fired. period." Who knows what "else" is going on here. All respects to officer Sedmak for running to the sound of the guns, but something I saw when this story first came out was this:

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/david-sedmak/22/895/443



3 different jobs over the space of 16 years isn't in and of itself proof of anything. What with layoffs, cutbacks, budgets etc. there is probably an excellent chance that this history is sterling.

However..

Having been involved in hiring/training/background investigations/retention, that sort of career movement is something that I would have taken a CLOSE look at. 4 years at any one agency is pretty much the amount of time it takes to become an experienced officer coming into his/her prime. LE has an ugly history of passing problem children around. Trouble officers are allowed to resign (vs. face termination) with the deal that any future employers won't be told the ugly details.

Again..no PROOF of that HERE. But I wouldn't jump to the "evil administration" conclusion quite yet either.
I agree; my heart is with him for going to help. But I doubt that any agency is going to fire someone so quickly for responding to help an officer in trouble unless there's more to the story. No matter how out of touch the brass is with the street. It wouldn't take much thought to see the bad press and irate responses that would follow...
 

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