In a classic Godfreyesque style, Boss Godfrey and his loyal underlings will be meting out "discipline" just in time for Christmas, says Assistant Police Chief Tarwater, who has been handling the investigation. Whereas we had all been hoping for the expression of an act of charity or contrition on the part of the Emerald City administration during this holiday season, Boss Godfrey and his underlings, the penultimate holiday "grinches," intend instead to recommend punishment for Officer Jones within the next few days, "ranging from suspension without pay to [outright] "termination."
This is all happening within a context wherein Weber County Attorney Attorney Decaria has essentially exonerated everyone involved in the matter, of course, including officer Jones, as Ace Reporter Schwebke accurately reports:
"Decaria concluded in a report released last month there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Jones for any crime."The continuing disciplinary action turns on allegations that officer Jones, in the company of other OPD officers, lifted a couple of wallets during traffic stops, reporter Schwebke adds. These were of course among the allegations we thought had been resolved by Mr. Decaria investigation. In that connection we have obtained a hard-copy version of the investigative report of Mr. Decaria's own investigators, which will convert to electronic form, upload and post here as an update later today, time permitting, so that our gentle readers can draw their own conclusions as to the nature of the "charges" still pending against Officer Jones.
As an aside, we'll also make note of a misreporting of facts in this morning's story, whereby Mr. Schwebke refers to a "...sliding evaluation scale that included the number of tickets issued among 18 factors in awarding merit raises to police." For some odd reason the Standard-Examiner is reluctant to label it for what it is -- a ticket quota.
Our intrepid Ace Reporter then continues with this outright mis-statement: "The sliding evaluation scale has since been rescinded by the City Council."
As regular Weber County Forum readers are well aware, the above statement is untrue. While the council DID alter the pay plan for public safety officers, (to put them on par with other city employees,) a traffic citation quota still exists in Emerald City. Emerald City police officers' pay still depends, at least in part, on the number of traffic citations they write. Emerald City's Finest are still being mis-used as Emerald City revenue agents, to feed Boss Godfrey's Justice Court cash cow. This is not a minor point, we believe. Nor is it a point we'll have forgotten in November 2007, when Boss Godfrey stands for re-election to a third mayoral term.
Okay, gentle readers -- many of you have been clamoring for a Matt Jones update.
Now that you have it, what will you do with it?
Don't let the cat get your tongues.
