Have Your Local Police Been Properly Trained Not to Have Sex While on the Clock?

KREM

Well, on the bright side, the time Spokane County Deputy Scott Kenoyer spent having sex with an ex-girlfriend was time not being spent harassing citizens for jaywalking or having marijuana or what-have-you. Nevertheless, some may be appalled that the Spokane, Washington, county sheriff has been forced to hire Kenoyer back after terminating him for literally fucking around rather than working his beat. After Kenoyer's union pushed the matter into arbitration, Kenoyer is again on duty having successfully argued that his punishment was too harsh.

Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich has responded by sending out a memo to all his deputies explaining that having sex is not part of the job duties and will get you fired. Via KREM in Spokane:

"I never dreamt I'd ever even see such a memo," Knezovich said. "I'm shocked I had to make this statement. Sex on duty is not tolerated, nor is lying."

Sheriff Knezovich said he was worried that giving deputy Kenoyer his job back would make it seem like it was alright to have sex on duty. In the memo, Sheriff Knezovich said that sex on duty was a breach of the public trust and a breach of the Sheriff's Office code of ethics; core values and officer safety.

"My legal adviser advised that in order to keep this from being a precedent, it had to be very clear," said Sheriff Knezovich.  "This agency has established a very firm policy that if you have sex on duty or falsify an official document intentionally, you will be terminated."

KREM has the memo posted on their site for all to read. The falsification comments come from Knezovich's claim that Kenoyer lied and said that he was on a break at the time of the interaction.

Probably the most serious accusation against Kenoyer inadvertently came from his own union representation, who essentially called him a lousy lay. He is quoted by KREM saying the deputy shouldn't be punished for "90 seconds of indiscretion." Harsh! Work on your game, Kenoyer! No wonder she's his ex now.

The kicker: The sheriff's department found out that Kenoyer lied about what he was up to during an investigation of a Spokane police officer who was accused of stalking this same woman.

Comments

[Andrew S.]

I was going to say something snarky about police or whatever, but I just can't get past the 90 seconds part.

Not something one would want to admit. Though it is 6x what Rick Pitino can do.

[110 Lean]

I don't know. What if it's during lunch or a break?

[pan fried wylie]

The falsification comments come from Knezovich's claim that Kenoyer lied and said that he was on a break at the time of the interaction.

What I'm curious about though, is how do you prove someone is lying about taking a break? How does one even lie about that?

"I was on break."

"Footage from your dashcam indicates you were issuing a traffic citation at the time."

"Oops."

[110 Lean]

And that's my point. he clearly took a break from the job in order to have sex. I didn't see anything indicating it happened in his cruiser or in the station house.

[Scott S.]

The second link explains a little more. At the time, he claimed he was in "citizen contact," which I guess is true but not what the police mean when they use that phrase. Then I guess during this investigation on the stalking, he told them he was on a break. So he lied and said he was doing police-work of some sort.

[Agammamon]

If you're in uniform, you're in uniform.

But that's just me - If I was running this show I'd have made it explicitly clear that cops in uniform don't go shopping, drive while on the phone, flirt, fuck, sleep, put their hands in their pockets, etc. on the clock or off.

[110 Lean]

If you're in uniform, you're in uniform =/= If you're in uniform, you're on duty.

And FTR, most everyone here knows I hate the fucking cops.

[Agammamon]

If you're in uniform then you're the face of the organization and had best act like it, on duty or not. Don't like it, then get out of uniform.

[Fist of Etiquette]

... the deputy shouldn't be punished for "90 seconds of indiscretion."

When minutes count, Spokane County Deputy Scott Kenoyer is only seconds away.

[Trouser-Pod]

+69!

[Ted S.]

90 seconds, of course, being how much time of constant shooting it takes to actually hit an innocent human or dog.

[Agammamon]

When minutes count, Spokane County Sheriff's Department will come in seconds.

[Fist of Etiquette]

THAT UNSUBTLE TAKE ON MY JOKE DOESN'T IMPROVE IT.

[Agammamon]

Oh, you were making a joke? Excessive subtlety *did* ruin it.

[Vulgar Madman]

By "trained not to have sex" you mean "trained not to rape prostitutes" right?

[AlmightyJB]

Raping prostitutes and then arresting them is a paid position in vice.

[Episiarch]

The sheriff's department found out that Kenoyer lied about what he was up to during an investigation of a Spokane police officer who was accused of stalking this same woman

She seems very popular within the sheriff's department. I'm just going to assume she looks like Jessica Alba. No one say any different!

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

I'm hoping she gives them all syphilis. Her or their second favorite cop groupie, your mom.

[Episiarch]

Oh, absolutely. Historically, syphilis is right up there with Germans. It wiped out the Romanovs, it decimated our fleet at Pearl Harbor, and of course, Fidel Castro impersonated Marilyn Monroe and gave President Kennedy a case of syphilis so severe that eventually it blew the back of his head off.

[Agammamon]

To be fair, if she looked like Jessica Alba I (as the sheriff) would have given him a pass.

[Hugh Akston]

Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich has responded by sending out a memo to all his deputies explaining that having sex is not part of the job duties and will get you fired.

That statement seems to be contradicted by the Sheriff's actions.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

He *wanted* the guy fired, apparently, but an arbitraitor overruled him.

[Hugh Akston]

Right, so the memo should have said "having sex is not part of the job duties and doing it will be tolerated because I won't stand up to the union."

[John Thacker]

Or possibly it's already in a explicit union contract that's out of his hands at the moment? Dunno.

[MP]

because I won't stand up to the union
That's not fair at all. Binding arbitration is neutral and binding.

The Union absolutely should have put up a stink. That's their job. And the Sheriff did his job by firing this dude's ass. The issue is that a neutral arbitrator found in favor of the employee, likely (I did not RTFA) due to the contract not being specific enough regarding non-allowable duties.

Which is why a public statement was necessary. That sets a precedent for future arbitration.

[Agammamon]

Though you wonder why a contract *has* to specify this as a non-allowable activity.

[John Thacker]

Well, I'm sure that the union told him that he couldn't possibly fire a deputy for doing this if he hadn't explicitly warned them beforehand. Hence the memo now.

[Trouser-Pod]

I wonder if he's already getting the "lousy lay' nickname from the others...

Probably not. That would mean they read Reason, and that's unpossible.

[Episiarch]

Oh, I would bet a million dollars that every single cop in Spokane County knows about the 90 seconds. And that they are ripping the shit out of him for it.

[Trouser-Pod]

Hey, it's the Dave Chappelle angle:

"If I cum, it's RIGHT ON TIME!!"

[JW]

It's the Costanza stratagem!

[Mr. Soul]

thanks. I was looking for a comment this-wise.

[PRX]

what's the big deal? he was only stealing tax money. that's only illegal for civilians.

[Drake]

It must be really awesome to be a cop. Loaded guns, sex on the job, able to do whatever the fuck you want. It's the opposite of being in the military or having a civilian job.

[Max Power]

Have Your Local Police Been Properly Trained Not to Have Sex While on the Clock?

In Philadelphia, they have not.

From the article:

All it (the police union) has to do is come to the negotiating table ready to re-implement the rules that were just struck down ? rules that for the first time (!!!!!) "prohibited sexual and racial harassment as well as engaging in sexual relations while on duty."

[R C Dean]

For fuck's sake:

the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board last week struck down a substantial portion of the internal disciplinary code implemented by Commissioner Charles Ramsey in 2010.

Oh, fer fuck's sake. A PD can't adopt a rule against breaking the frikkin' law (sexual and racial harassment being illegal) unless the union says its OK?

If I was running the PD, I'd take the code to the City Council and have them pass it as a municipal ordinance. I doubt the labor relations board has the authority to strike duly adopted ordinances.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

I doubt the labor relations board has the authority to strike duly adopted ordinances

You say that, but...

[mr lizard]

Slight OT. I live in a downtown area, and the local community college has a "county sherif cadet program". The students are almost exclusively tall humorless-looking crew cut white dudes. Imagine ROTC students, except they all had this imposing prowlley arrogance look to them. I might be wrong about the comparison, maybe all military cadets look that way, but these guys aren't headed off to be future army officers. Anyways it's quite off-putting.

[R C Dean]

How is it not already policy that lying gets you fired. Forget the lack of a formal written policy against sex on the job. The lying alone should be a long-established, crystal-clear grounds for termination.

[Agammamon]

Hell man, some months ago we had an article about a prison guard whose dereliction of duty and lieing (and the lies of others to cover the dereliction) got him reinstated.

Apparently policy and training didn't cover 'don't falsify your logs' in sufficient detail.

Our resident (at the time) pig *defended* the decision. Saying it wasn't fair to fire the guy because he didn't know better.

[Cdr Lytton]

^this^

If you're a liar, you can't be a credible witness and the DA must disclose that (Brady rule).

[Mickey Rat]

The Bill Clinton Prece3dent.

[Trouser-Pod]

Well the whole problem is that they agreed to be bound by arbitration, and arbiters seem to have a nasty habit of siding with officers based on things like "you didn't have to go straight to firing!".

They are, apparently, the fore-bearers of Hermes Conrad.

[Hyperion]

We can only hope that they're having sex or something else while they're on duty, so that they're not shooting puppies and people.

[AlmightyJB]

I don't really want them passing on their genes either though. How about their allowed to have sex on the job (consensual) all they want if they get irreversably fixed when they're hired.

[Hyperion]

From what I have seen, we could definitely use far less of them. It seems like I cannot even leave the house and drive to the nearest grocery store, about a mile, without passing 3 or 4 of them on the way there and back.

Yesterday when I was coming home from work, I rounded a curve and saw lots of flashing lights. I had to stop at a traffic light and so observing the scene, I see 5 police cars surrounding an old beaten up sedan. On the sidewalk was one old black guy, probably in his 70s. There were about a dozen cops standing around him and seemingly inspecting different parts of the old car. The old guy didn't look like some dangerous terrorist or anything to me.

I routinely see 3 cops cars pulled up to routine traffic stops.

[db]

The first time I.ever saw anything.g like that was in Texas in '99 or so. Now, everywhere you go, cops seem to be in.packs whenever they are "interacting" with "civilians."

[ChrisO]

HOW DARE ANYONE QUESTION THE RIGHT OF OUR HERO COPS TO GET SERVICED ON THE CLOCK.

[db]

What's most important is that they get home safe sometime during a shift.

[Mickey Rat]

Bill Clinton already established that disciplining someone for sex on the job is a violation of privacy and no one should be expected to tell the truth about such matters.