Notice of complaint related to 2022-0705

OF
STATE
CUSTEM
OFFICE OF
POLICE OVERSIGHT
FOUNDED
NOTICE OF COMPLAINT
August 26, 2022
ICMS #: 2022-0705
On August 23, 2022, the OPO received an online complaint.
The complainant alleges: To the Office of the Police Monitor, The following is based on
first hand knowledge of the inner workings of the Austin Police Department
For the past
Years or more Sgt
has been grossly misusing
the cities resources and money, She has funneled city money to her friends by bypassing
the contract bidding process, She bypassed the process when she hired her friend as the
The
, does not live in the City of Austin and stays at
house when she comes into town to do
work for Austin Police Department.
did
not allow the bidding process to happen when looking for a new city
instead she
hired her friend on the sly. Not allowing local
the opportunity to profit from the
city.
altered the bidding process when the Austin Police Department put a bid out to
purchase new saddles. The officers assigned to the unit at the time had been testing saddles
from different manufacturers due to the fact that the current brand of saddles
) were falling apart due to poor construction and materials.
at the time was not yet the Sergeant over the
, and she
intervened when she saw that a new saddle manufacturer was being considered. She is
personal friends with
and the
stayed at
house during the bidding process,
is also privately employed with her personal
business and accredited through
canceled the
first saddle contract after
were not chosen and rewrote the
contract stating that the winning bidder had to purchase the old broken saddles for Austin
Police Department as part of the contract. No saddle manufacturer was going to purchase
broken saddles as part of a buyback program unless they were the original manufacturer.
So
won the new bid on the promise that the old saddles
would be "bought". However, the owner, and personal friend of
built this
"Buyback" into the saddle price. The saddles were not ever picked up by the manufacturer,
instead they were donated or sold to a group that was at the time paying
for her
horsemanship training program that she runs on the side and gets paid for.
also uses
the City resources to Promote her own business,
using pictures of APD horses to promote her business.
also sells
OF
CITY
SUBTOT
OFFICE OF
POLICE OVERSIGHT
FOUNDED
NOTICE OF COMPLAINT
Saddles on her website.
stopped buying certain items from the vet hospital and instead
purchased vet supplies through her friend the
thus further bolstering her profits from
APD. This took money away from a contracted vet and reallocating it to a personal friend.
has only allowed the purchase of
products when available, depriving other
manufactures/merchants a fair chance of earning the City's business.
has in the
past changed Officer's schedules, without notice, to support her friend
the
due to
being unable to make it to Austin in a timely manner to trim horses feet
citing the fact that
business is losing money.
lives in
area. She told
officers to stay late without overtime pay and to flex the time when
was not available.
This is in a city Email to the
from
sent on
titled
Mismanagement:
came to the
and told the
current members that she was going to bring on a Senior Officer to
on
special assignment to train horses, This was in acknowlegement to a failure in horse
training by the trainer in that position,
who had not produced a trained
horse for more than a year. Also,
had participated in pushing a seemingly
dangerous horse onto the streets, to be ridden by a Junior
Officer, despite that
horses training and performance short comings.
acknowlged this issues with
and expressed that once accepted as the Sergeant, that she would handle these
clear problems. Operational Officers were told that the Senior Officer
did
not want to be on the
Unit on a permanent basis and that it would not take away
an operational position.
expressed to the unit, that she did not believe that she
would be able to separate her friendship from work relationship with
thus she was
only being placed temporarily on Special Assignment, to catch back up on horse training.
When
joined the unit as the Sergeant, she never made good on the expressed
intention of revamping the training program to become more transparant, effective, and
safe, thus sowing more distrust in the unit.
remained in the full time trainer
position, without evaluation of fitness for the position.
and
are best friends and
when a permanent position opened up
brought on
as permanent second trainer,
costing the unit an operational position. This placed a strain on officers that are operational.
gives
preferential treatment allowing her to make her own schedule and
harass other officers without repercussion.
and
treat other Officers with
constant disrespect even yelling at Officers in the presence of
and yet she is
not reprimanded due to their close personal relationship.
is trying to get
enrolled in an out of state horse training school paid by Austin Police Department
even though
has mentioned that she is retiring in
has expressed intent
to retire around this time as well, and desire to hire
for her personal business. This
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NOTICE OF COMPLAINT
school could be attended instead by an experienced officer not intending on leaving
anytime soon. The previous trainer
was able to train a horse every six
months. The current trainer, still
has trained a single horse in the past
years and
has trained one horse in about
years. Officers make around $80,000
per year. The Austin Police Department has spent around $560,000 paying
and
to train two horses. Instead of managing these poorly performing trainers
continues to let them come to work not training horses, creating their own schedule,
working from home writing lesson plans that aren't used, and not participating on an
operational level. They also get to enjoy the privilege of pseudo supervisor positions
fabricated by the Sergeant. This all places operational strain on the officers that Patrol
This has created an exodus from the historically coveted position of
Patrol.
has pushed many decorated and even ranking Officers off of
Patrol to make room to bring on officers with no experience. In the past
had decades of combined experience, however
pushed these Officers away creating a
unit with little experience. Given the situation of newer trained horses, inexperienced
officers can create a dangerous combination.
has mismanaged the
into a position where they desperately need trained horses to replace the current
aging horses. If unchecked,
conflicts of interest, which have stepped into her
decision making at every level will continue, casting the Department, which portrays itself
to not condone ethics violations, in a bad light. Investigation of
, and her
funneling of City Funds into her friend's, and her own businesses, could help prevent the
demise of the
.
Previous attempts to have theses issues investigated
within the department have failed due to
vast network of allies within the ranks.
Please forward these allegations to IA and the chief of police.
This notice of complaint is a request for Internal Affairs to initiate an investigation to
determine if the employee conduct is within compliance of APD policy, Civil Service
Rules, and Municipal Civil Service Rules.