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Local News
An officer had planted a phallic sex toy in a patrol car as a joke on another officer last week, Riedel said, and one of the department's sergeants learned about the incident involving the device. Riedel said the department launched an investigation into the incident, which led to disciplinary action. She said she was briefed on the incident by the city's police chief, Heriberto Bejarano. "Boys are going to be boys," Riedel said. But she said police officers are supposed to set examples for the community and that the incident was in "bad taste." "They didn't stop and think. ... You got to be careful about the things you do because it reflects on you," Riedel said. Police spokesman Ernesto Lugo would not comment on the details of the incident, but said that such cases are treated as sexual harassment cases by the department. "We have a policy against sexual harassment, against playing with stuff like that in the workplace," Lugo said, before handing The Sun a copy of the department's sexual harassment policy. Riedel said one of the officers is complaining that the five-day suspension is too harsh a punishment. Bob Horry, a compliance manager at the Arizona Peace Officer Standard and Training Board in Phoenix, said he has never heard of officers being suspended for an incident involving sex toys in his two years with the Arizona POST.  |
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