Law enFARCEment

Park cops protect, serve and screw up

POLICE | Bruce Rushton

The Springfield Park District police department doesn’t sound like a tight ship or a fun place to work. Consider a memo titled “Rumors” that former Capt. Jonathan Davis wrote to his officers in January 2014.

“Recently, it has been brought to my attention that there are many rumors floating around the department about me,” Davis, the department’s de facto chief, began.

The captain went on to say that he wasn’t mad at anyone. Sure, I keep my office door closed, but I’m a busy guy – just knock and I’m happy to talk. Don’t read anything into the fact that I ripped my name tag off my door, and don’t jump to conclusions just because I’ve been cleaning out my office. And stop gossiping and spreading rumors.

“I have not hidden the fact that like most of…you I’m seeking other employment,” the captain wrote. “I have not ‘checked out.’ I’m still here and completing the tasks assigned to me and completing my duties which include making sure you are carrying out your duties and tasks assigned to you.”

Hardly what one expects to hear from the commander of a police department that is, at least in theory, supposed to be run like a paramilitary organization, with the man at the top giving orders and underlings carrying them out. But that isn’t what has happened at the Springfield Park District police department, according to documents released under a state Freedom of Information Act request. And dysfunction could prove expensive for taxpayers as Davis, who says that he was forced to resign last month after being placed on paid leave, has signaled that he may sue the district.

Records show a series of disciplinary issues in the park police department, with Davis’ superiors not accepting his recommendations for punishing officers who violated department regulations and perhaps even laws. Ultimately, conflicts between Davis and his troops became so great that Jeff Wilday, the managing partner of the law firm that serves as the district’s counsel, recommended that the department’s three officers and Davis receive counseling so that they could learn to get along with each other.

Tension heightened and morale plummeted in the department as the number of officers was reduced in 2013 and 2014, records show. Officers griped about Davis, and park administrators often didn’t back the captain on disciplinary matters. And some officers who complained about Davis were hardly model cops themselves.

A “mediocre” officer

Prior to being hired in 2012, Officer Lawrence Bomke, the son of former state Sen. Larry Bomke, failed a written test designed to weed out unsuitable candidates, according to Davis, who declined an interview request but provided information via emails. Davis writes that he sent a letter to Bomke, informing him that he would not be hired. But the former captain says that when he returned from a vacation, he found that Bomke had been hired in his absence.

District files show that Bomke repeatedly screwed up as a probationary officer, prompting Davis to recommend that he be fired before probation expired, which would bring Bomke union protection that could make discipline difficult in the future.

During his first few months on the job, Bomke in a Facebook comment complained about working 13 days in a row and wrote that anyone who wasn’t behaving themselves would receive a citation unless they were “cute.”

In May of 2013, Bomke discharged his AR- 15, a military-style assault rifle, inside police headquarters in the early morning hours. His text message notifying Davis was the essence of understatement: “Call me whenever you get a chance.” He later told the captain that he believed that Davis was asleep at the time and he didn’t want to alarm or confuse him.

Bomke said that it was an accident, and there was no evidence to the contrary. But Davis, noting the prior Facebook incident, said that it was one mistake too many.

“Bomke’s overall performance has been mediocre at best,” Davis wrote in his report on the incident. “At this point, I believe that… Bomke has not demonstrated that he has the drive or discipline to continue on with his probationary status as demonstrated by his two issues of discipline which both show severe lapses in judgment.”

But Derek Harms, executive director of the park district, rejected Davis’ recommendation and suspended the officer for three days after Bruce Stratton, an attorney for the district who has contributed to former Sen. Bomke’s campaigns and other Republican political causes, recommended a lesser sanction.

“We believe that you have what it takes to become a credit to the department and yourself,” Harms wrote in a letter to Bomke notifying the officer of his suspension. “This suspension is not meant to punish, but is intended to refocus your attention on certain aspects of your job that we consider to be of the greatest importance.”

Twice more before his probationary period expired, Bomke violated department rules, once for putting a camera in a lost-and-found box instead of logging it as evidence to be held for safekeeping and a month later for doing the same thing with a wallet that contained currency and a debit card. He received a verbal warning for the second incident but wasn’t otherwise disciplined, files show.

In the fall of 2014, after his probationary period ended, Bomke refused the captain’s order to drive a fellow officer to an automobile repair shop at the end of his shift to pick up a patrol car. Bomke said that he was scheduled to close on a house purchase after work and didn’t want to be late.

“Officer Bomke appears to have taken on an attitude that he can choose what orders he wishes to comply with and what orders he does not,” Davis wrote in a report on the incident.

Davis gave Bomke a verbal reprimand, but it was removed from the officer’s personnel file after he filed a grievance.

Davis’ superiors didn’t back him, even while acknowledging that Bomke had disobeyed an order from the captain.

“We questioned a bit if it (picking up the patrol car) really had to be done at that exact time and why it couldn’t wait until the following day,” Justin Reichert, an attorney for the district, wrote in an email to Harms memorializing their conversation about the incident with Davis.

As captain and the department’s de facto chief, Davis didn’t have authority to discipline his officers for even minor issues. For instance, when an off-duty officer used a department vehicle and wore his department uniform while providing security at a store, contrary to instructions, and Davis issued a verbal warning, Harms chided the captain in an email, telling him to check with administrators before taking such disciplinary measures.

In January of 2014, Bomke succeeded in getting out of a shift after a fellow officer called in sick. Bomke, who had been ordered by Davis to work the shift, was the only officer available. But after calling Reichert, Bomke went home after working just 90 minutes of the extra shift.

Bomke told Reichert that there was no activity in the parks due to snowy weather. After checking with Harms, who gave his blessing, Reichert told Bomke that he would not have to work the overtime shift. Only then did Reichert notify the captain that Bomke wouldn’t be working the extra shift. Davis brought up public safety – what if a sledding accident occurred in a park? He also said that if the department’s staffing was going to be further reduced, the district might just as well leave policing in the parks to the Springfield Police Department. And he complained about meddling.

“If we’re going to make these kinds of decisions and respond to officers calling us directly perhaps we should just run the department,” Reichert wrote in an email to Harms and Davis memorializing what the captain had said.

Two days later, Bomke sent an email to Davis notifying him that a patrol car had an exhaust leak that could be smelled inside and outside the car.

“Contact Justin Reichert and see what he advises,” the captain answered back. “Let me know.”

Repeated misbehavior

Bomke wasn’t the only park police officer who ran afoul of Davis.

Sgt. Brian Crolly landed in trouble in August of 2013, when he stopped a couple in Chatham, well outside his jurisdiction. He was driving his personal vehicle at the time. The sergeant, who was wearing a vest emblazoned with the word “police,” pulled alongside the couple after tailgating them with his headlights on bright and yelled, “I’m a cop, pull over!” The driver’s boyfriend said it appeared as if the sergeant was having “a bad day,” according to district files.

Crolly told the driver that he thought that she was intoxicated and summoned Chatham officers, who released the couple after the sergeant left and a portable breath test showed the woman had a blood-alcohol content of .07-percent, below the legal limit.

It wasn’t the first time that Crolly had misbehaved.

Less than two months before the Chatham traffic stop, Crolly admitted that he had engraved a depiction of a penis on a cabinet at police offices with “Bomke Loves” next to the picture. Crolly had also engraved obscene images on a water bottle used by Bomke as well as equipment the officer used to hold citations.

Crolly, who sanded the engraving off the cabinet, told Davis that on a scale of one to 10, the engravings were a five in terms of seriousness. Davis thought otherwise. Intentional damage of government property can be prosecuted as a felony, he noted in his report, and Crolly’s actions violated the district’s policy on sexual harassment.

It wasn’t the first time that Crolly had been involved in an incident that could be construed as sexual harassment, Davis wrote in his report. There had been a 2010 case, but Davis gave no details in his report and the park district provided no detailed records pursuant to a request from Illinois Times, which asked for documents pertaining to any incidents of alleged misconduct by department employees dating back to 2008. The district, however, did turn over a handwritten note indicating that Crolly in 2010 had told an employee “don’t be gay” when the employee questioned the wisdom of locking up park bathrooms in the midst of a lightning storm.

Davis wrote that Crolly wasn’t fit to be a supervisor after the sergeant admitted to defacing park property with vulgar images.

“Sgt. Crolly’s actions in this incident range from criminal to immature,” wrote Davis, who recommended that Crolly be demoted to patrol officer. “Based upon his actions, I do not feel that Sgt. Crolly is any longer capable of leading a young group of officers. I would also recommend that the entire department undergo sexual harassment awareness training as well as an ethical refresher course.”

But Crolly wasn’t demoted, district files show, and Davis says that employees didn’t undergo sexual harassment awareness or ethics training, as the captain had recommended. Instead, Mark Bartolozzi, then director of human resources, issued a 10-day suspension, with five of those days held in abeyance and the district warning Crolly that he would be suspended for those additional five days if he got in trouble again. Two months later, the Chatham police chief was on the phone, complaining about Crolly pulling over a vehicle outside his jurisdiction.

District files released to Illinois Times contain no record of discipline for the Chatham incident; Davis says that Crolly was counseled, the least-severe discipline possible, and did not have to serve the five days of suspension that had been held in abeyance for defacing park property two months earlier. Crolly’s rank was eventually reduced to patrol officer, but not for disciplinary reasons. Rather, it didn’t make sense to have a sergeant in a department with just three officers and a captain, according to district files.

Problems with Crolly continued in 2014, when he submitted three inaccurate time cards within a span of less than two months indicating that he had worked when he had actually taken sick or vacation days. He received counseling, a verbal warning and a written warning.

Davis under fire

Davis became the department’s de facto chief after Chief George Judd was forced to resign in 2007 after forwarding an email to officers titled “Proud To Be White.” Judd had also used the terms “nigger” and “sand nigger” in conversation, according to Davis, who filed complaints.

Mike Stratton, then the district’s executive director, gave no hint of trouble in an email to employees announcing Judd’s departure. The chief, Stratton wrote, wanted to spend more time with his son and grandchildren.

“Chief will be missed as he set forth a great vision for the police department,” Stratton wrote.

Davis’ last year with the department was a rocky one. After Reichert and Harms overruled the captain and told Bomke that he didn’t have to work an extra shift as ordered in January 2014, tension between district administrators and Davis mushroomed.

In an email, Reichert told Davis that he was “clearly being difficult and defiant” the day after the lawyer overruled the captain and told Bomke that he didn’t have to work the extra shift. In a second email, Reichert warned the captain to “discontinue difficult behaviors.”

“We do not want to see you go down a negative path,” Reichert wrote. “You’ve made it clear you don’t like our direction or our interference with giving instructions to your officers. We will attempt to limit that but believe better communication on your part with your officers and management will help that.”

Strapped for cash, the district had decided to reduce police staffing through attrition, which didn’t sit well with Davis. Staffing was so thin that when Davis went on vacation at the end of 2013, either Harms or Bartolozzi, then the human resources director who has since left district employment, filled in as head of the police department, even though neither man has law enforcement experience.

By the spring of 2014, the district had decided to remove the captain from the department’s collective bargaining unit, a move that wasn’t opposed by the union, according to district files. Reichert and Harms told Davis it was a question of divided loyalty – he could not effectively supervise officers while also being in their union. Davis saw it as the first step toward termination.

“OK, you’re trying to fire me,” the captain later told Wilday, the lawyer who investigated alleged misconduct by Davis. “You don’t want me here, you want me gone.”

Reichert in the spring of 2014 told the captain to spend no more than 20 percent of his time on patrol and the balance of his time on administrative tasks, even though the department had just three officers. When he was removed from the union last fall, Davis began wearing polo shirts instead of his uniform and stopped logging in to the dispatch center when he arrived at work. Officers complained that Davis always closed his office door and locked it when he went to the bathroom. They also complained that the captain rarely communicated with them except via email and text messages.

Last fall, as Davis’ separation from the union neared, Crolly in an email to Harms accused the captain of not being available for calls and said that Davis had signed time cards for a part-time ranger who wasn’t working hours for which he was being paid.

“Captain Davis has routinely let down his department and needs to be held accountable for his actions,” wrote Crolly, who at the time was being counseled and warned himself for submitting inaccurate timecards.

In January, Davis was suspended for 10 days for signing the ranger’s inaccurate timecards. The district figured it had paid the ranger $2,000 for hours that were never worked. Davis never returned to his job.

On Jan. 9, shortly before Davis’ suspension began, Officer Nick Capranica accused the captain of improper disposal of evidence by burning crack pipes, clothing, marijuana and myriad other items without a court order. That prompted the district to put Davis on paid leave pending an investigation at the end of his 10-day suspension. While the captain was off the job, officers on orders from Harms entered Davis’ office and found four assault rifles, several pistols and thousands of rounds of ammunition that were not secured in a gun safe.

Destruction of evidence without a court order was the most serious matter, Wilday concluded, but the park district had no policy on evidence disposal and an Illinois State Police agent had told the lawyer that Davis hadn’t committed a crime. Similarly, the park district had no policy on securing weapons, Wilday found, but keeping weapons outside gun safes didn’t seem prudent. In his report, Wilday wrote that the district’s three officers thought that the captain should wear a uniform, but Davis pointed out that park administrators frequently saw him in polo shirts and never complained.

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“Clearly, there are two sets of rules within the park district”

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After Davis was placed on leave, Bomke complained that the captain often arrived for work late and left early, but Wilday couldn’t determine whether the accusation was true. Harms and Reichert told Wilday that Davis had been uncooperative and resisted their questions about the department; the captain countered by complaining that administrators had undermined his authority by allowing officers with concerns to go to Harms instead of through the chain of command. Wilday also spoke with two representatives of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, who shared the captain’s criticism that his authority had been usurped.

Davis, Wilday concluded, had fallen short of expectations. He should have worn a uniform, logged in to the dispatch center when he reported for duty and logged off when he left, and he should have been more accessible to officers, the lawyer found. Harms should evaluate Davis’ performance in writing every two months, Wilday recommended, and the captain should draft performance evaluation forms for officers. The captain should also write policies to govern the destruction of evidence and securing of firearms. The district should attempt to expand Davis’ hours spent on patrol. And both the captain and his officers should go to counseling through the district’s employee assistance program to improve working relationships.

“Assuming that Capt. Davis accepts the fact that changes in his leadership style and his communication skills are needed, he should be able to rebuild his working relationship with his patrol officers in the short term,” Wilday wrote in his May 5 report.

That never happened. The day after Wilday issued his report, Davis resigned, saying that he had been forced to quit. In an email to Illinois Times declining an interview request, Davis wrote that Crolly and Bomke got wrist slaps for their misdeeds, while he was placed on leave for more than three months for baseless charges.

“Clearly, there are two sets of rules within the park district,” Davis wrote. “I will remain optimistic that these issues can be resolved through the proper channels and if need be the legal system.”

Contact Bruce Rushton at [email protected].