Posted: Wednesday, August 30, 2006 7:00 pm
The Nebraska State Patrol needs to fashion better rules, procedures and union agreements to allow it to summarily dismiss troopers who do such things as joining white supremacist groups.
It shouldn’t take months of legal folderol to get rid of troopers who do things that cause legitimate concern about whether they can uphold the public trust.
Trooper Robert E. Henderson dishonored the patrol when he joined the Knights Party, which has ties to the Ku Klux Klan, and when he posted messages on its Web site.
It’s hard to imagine that an 18-year veteran on the force would fail to recognize that membership in the group would call into question his ability to enforce the law fairly, especially after questions have been raised during his career over whether other troopers had practiced racial profiling.
The patrol fired Henderson last spring after learning of his membership in the group from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, which monitors the group’s Web site.
Henderson fought his termination under terms of the troopers’ union contract, which allows employees to ask for binding arbitration. The arbitrator ruled that the termination violated Henderson’s First Amendment rights.
Attorney General Jon Bruning last week went to court seeking to overturn the ruling. Meanwhile, state Sen. Ernie Chambers has asked the State Crime Commission to revoke Henderson’s law enforcement certification.
Although the arbitrator in the case said the patrol was unable to point to a “single instance on the job” where Henderson’s actions showed discrimination against a minority group, Henderson had been the subject of a complaint filed by a black news anchor at an Omaha television station after Henderson stopped him for not having a Nebraska license plate.
In a posting on the Knight’s Web site, Henderson complained that a recently hired black anchor “has been trying to get real friendly” with his fiancee.
The complaint, however, was ruled unfounded by the patrol after an internal investigation and a review of the videotape of the traffic stop.
In a statement, the State Troopers Association of Nebraska said it “shared the disgust” of those offended by Henderson’s membership in the Knights Party but was contractually obligated to represent him in the arbitration process.
The union, patrol administrators and other state leaders should combine efforts to reconcile the terms of employment for troopers with the protections of the First Amendment in a way that will clear the way for termination when a trooper’s actions undermine public trust in their ability to enforce the law without bias.