Public needs answers on State Police chief inquiry

Mooning employees.

Describing two staff members as “dumb (expletive) bitches.”

Sending an image of a man’s testicles blocking out the sun to a female deputy Cabinet secretary.

Blatant, ongoing and systematic discrimination against officers based on gender and sexual orientation.

The allegations made against State Police Chief Pete Kassetas in a recent lawsuit are troubling. And they demand nothing less than a thorough, impartial, transparent and speedy investigation that determines whether any of this actually happened.

Because if these explosive allegations are true, then Kassetas isn’t fit to serve as a State Police officer, let alone lead the agency.

We stress IF, because at this point they’re merely allegations.

Still, they’re serious enough that Gov. Susana Martinez and her administration owe it to the people of this state to take them seriously and ensure someone is getting to the bottom of it.

After blasting the plaintiffs in the case, a Martinez spokesman confirmed there already was an investigation underway into “allegations brought forward at DPS.” But he wouldn’t say who is conducting the investigation or what they are investigating.

That’s completely unacceptable, particularly given the fact the plaintiffs are also alleging Kassetas’s behavior has gone unchecked by DPS because the Governor’s Office has protected him from adverse employment action, making him untouchable and above the law.

The Martinez administration needs to come clean about who is conducting this investigation — it should be an independent authority, like Attorney General Hector Balderas’ office, so that the public can trust the results, as well as what it’s focused on.

And it needs to release those findings to the public ASAP.