The old double standard
Stealing something of value — whether you do it by planning a stick-‘em-up bank heist or by cooking the books at your job — should land you in hot water with the law.
Look carefully: Do you see an asterisk after that statement? One that leads you to fine print at the bottom of the page — “Exceptions may apply; not relevant to all suspects; your results may vary ”?
No, neither do we. But the Colonie Police Department, apparently, sees it differently.
An internal investigation last year followed an anonymous complaint alleging that two police officers stole from the town by clocking in when they weren’t working. If that were the case, it would mean they were padding their paychecks with funds they hadn’t earned.
The matter was handled internally, with Daniel P. Grebert and Derek M. Breslin, then sergeants, demoted and agreeing to give up vacation hours and other accrued time. The officers received no formal disciplinary charges, and the matter was not referred to the
Albany County district attorney ’s office for potential prosecution.
The fact that the two officers are the sons of former prominent town police officials does nothing to improve the smell of this arrangement.
Colonie’s Deputy Chief Robert H. Winn said the department didn’t even consider prosecution. He noted that the officers, who both joined the force in 2006, had clean records until last year’s complaint was logged — that is, up to the point where they didn’t.
The deputy chief pointed to the officers’ demotion as a suitable punishment: “In our world, that is an extremely serious penalty.”
That may be. But in the world the rest of us live in, allegations of fraud place more than your job title at risk.
When will law enforcement understand? Any action suggesting that there’s one set of consequences for police officers and another for the rest of us drives a wedge between the police and the public. It erodes trust because it demonstrates that far too often, the community cannot be sure the police will be held accountable for misdeeds. And it puts the lie to the ideals of justice our country says it ascribes to.
The fact that these officers received no formal discipline frees them to continue to work with no effect on their certification, but it could affect their future work in other ways: If the officers are called to testify in a criminal case, the incident may be disclosed to defense attorneys, who might use it to call their testimony into question.
Officer Breslin resigned from the Colonie Police Department two months after the settlement was struck; he is now a patrolman in Niskayuna. “My values and career aspirations are something that I do not feel can be achieved at this police department,” he wrote in his resignation letter. “... (T)he path of this department is no longer lining up with my beliefs of how law enforcement agencies should operate.”
Only Mr. Breslin knows what he meant by that. But in terms of how the department handles alleged officer misconduct, we can agree with him on the last part: Papering over alleged wrongdoing is not how law enforcement agencies should operate.