mseebs Posted June 7, 2011 Report Share Posted June 7, 2011 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. 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. The May 7 episode that led to Sedmak's controversial dismissal began when Jesse Brown, 20, was seen with a pistol as he tried to buy a ticket at the Greyhound bus station in downtown Houston. When HPD officer Fernando Meza, working an off-duty job at the station, confronted Brown about the weapon, Brown shot him in the hand. Soon after, Brown shot another officer, Timothy Moore, in the leg. Sedmak said he arrived on the scene and prepared for a confrontation with the armed suspect. Several HPD officers came in after him and took cover behind his patrol car. Brown, who had been accused of shooting a 3-year-old girl, her grandfather and another man on Halloween in San Francisco, then shot and killed himself as Sedmak and the other cops closed in. Both Meza and Moore were at a news conference Monday to show their support for Sedmak, a former Galveston police officer. The Houston Police Officer's Union presented him with a $2,500 check to help as he looks for new work. 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." Uh...what the fuck? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2pointslow Posted June 7, 2011 Report Share Posted June 7, 2011 http://beta.news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/cop-fired-helping-fellow-officers-distress-150454649.html Uh...what the fuck? lol at law enforcement... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Not Brian Posted June 7, 2011 Report Share Posted June 7, 2011 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." /thread Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TurboNova Posted June 7, 2011 Report Share Posted June 7, 2011 hmm wonder if the university police is not part of the FOP down there? If those are the facts, and it is union... I would grieve that and get my job back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spidey2721 Posted June 7, 2011 Report Share Posted June 7, 2011 I understand the mistake he made, and its seriousness. they may have "bylaws" that they have to go by if a person does certain things. like leave post unattended. which is both for his safety and like said the safety of the students. i guess its kind of a catch 22. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ziggy1647545504 Posted June 10, 2011 Report Share Posted June 10, 2011 Good on Houston Police Officers Union for helping the guy out while he looks for new work... Bad on Rice University for letting the guy go under those circumstances. I suspect Rice doesn't get much help from HPD for a long time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mseebs Posted June 10, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2011 I understand the mistake he made, and its seriousness. they may have "bylaws" that they have to go by if a person does certain things. like leave post unattended. which is both for his safety and like said the safety of the students. i guess its kind of a catch 22. I can agree with this. But what should have happened is he just gets made aware of this problem by his supervisors, giving a warning or whatever. This was something I liked about going to University of Toledo, their campus cops were all over the place doing regular patrols, responding to calls, and checking out the 'party zones'. You felt relatively safe regardless of the high crime rate. Now that I live on OSU's campus, I can easily say I rarely see OSU PD do anything, it's all CPD. If an OSU PD officer did the same thing as this Rice Officer, I would have a much higher respect for them. Regardless, hope he doesn't find any problems finding a new job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigOxley Posted June 10, 2011 Report Share Posted June 10, 2011 /thread agreed this is probably not the first time he fucked up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TTQ B4U Posted June 10, 2011 Report Share Posted June 10, 2011 Me thinks there's more to it and this was just something they are using to pull the trigger on getting rid of him. Pun intended. If not, then it's just plain wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Versluis Posted June 20, 2011 Report Share Posted June 20, 2011 Now that I live on OSU's campus, I can easily say I rarely see OSU PD do anything, it's all CPD. If an OSU PD officer did the same thing as this Rice Officer, I would have a much higher respect for them. I agree with you on OSU PD but with their K9 units I believe they help CPD with runs in the off campus areas that are off of high street. Off campus (summit, 14th, 15th, 16th etc) are all covered by CPD by the 2nd and 5th sub stations. They do runs with OSU when parties are involved and students of OSU are involved in the situation. I recently heard that OSU has jurisdiction of any road because they are run by the state of Ohio and are under state pay, not city. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xlr8tn Posted June 21, 2011 Report Share Posted June 21, 2011 I'd like to hear all sides of the story. The article fails to mention any past issues he may have had nor did they say he didn't have any. For all I know he could be a POS that they've been looking for a reason to get rid of for a while now. 17 years and doing 1 good thing doesn't mean he's an outstanding officer on a day to day basis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veritas Posted June 21, 2011 Report Share Posted June 21, 2011 Or... people just fail. I'm more inclined to believe the fail part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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