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CITY OF
PEORIA POLICE DEPARTMENT

PEORIA
September 8, 2011 Officer Jeffrey Wilson 1108 Sleepy Hollow Court Peoria, IL 61615

RE: Letter of Discipline - PS # 11-02 Officer Jeffrey Wilson: On August 12,2011, at approximately 9:00 a..m., I held a pre-disciplinary meeting in my conference room relative to this investigation. You were present as were Captain ~vfichael Scally and Benevolent President Troy Skaggs. At this meeting I informed you that I was prepared to issue discipline in this case and that I was prepared to terminate you for multiple rule violations. I read to you a letter of termination that outlined the specific violations and offered you the opportunity to provide evidence in your defense. During this meeting it became evident that you had not had an opportunity to review the GPS and other related electronic data in detail and I granted your request to have such an opportunity in the near future, prior to the service of discipline. That original termination letter, dated July 29,2011, will be contained in this investigative file and will be attached to this letter, setting the stage for the findings in this subsequent letter of discipline. Please note that the July 29 letter is unsigned as it was not served due to the mitigating factors that you raised. During our meeting on August 12, you offered responses to several allegations that in my opinion, mitigated your culpability in some cases. You subsequently reviewed the GPS and other electronic data and at a followup meeting with me on August 25th at 1:30 p.m., you pointed out what you thought were discrepancies in our findings. The following represents my actual findings as a result of the new evidence you presented. The charges below are reprinted from the July 29 termination letter and I will speak to each charge individually, Video Allegations The July 29 termination letter did not substantiate rule violations relative to the use of video cameras. However, during our meetings, you challenged some of the details as to what video you were responsible for and whether or not you had received instructions by supervisors not to capture video of Officer Nicholson's desk area .. I will not detail your responses here as they are a moot point as it relates to discipline in this case since I found no wrongdoing on your part in this regard. I offer you the opportunity to submit a written response to the references to the use of video contained in the termination letter and your written response will also be maintained in this investigative file. GPS Tracking Allegations The termination letter sustained a rule violation relative to allegations that you placed a GPS tracking device on Officer Nicholson's vehicle. That finding was heavily dependent upon my belief that there Cllhct!:1nti,;d activated fh.c C!o"Y'l+~T"Iol nUQ "'l'T"''''~ a~ well a~ substantial
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Officer Jeffrey Wilson Letter of Discipline - PS # 11-02 September 8, 2011

Page 2

circumstantial evidence that you were reasonably the only individual who had the access, ability, and availability to have placed the unit on her car. You have since demonstrated that the Sentinel unit frequently "skips" parts of its track and frequently does not record its own location or movement. You demonstrated that the Nicholson tracks had occasions where the system started up at a time and place that might have indicated the operator of the car was manipulating it, the same way it did while it was on your vehicle. This realization refuted a good portion of the evidence making it impossible to rule out other officers as potential suspects. You also convinced me that the laptop in question was fully accessible and utilized by other members of the unit, again diminishing the amount of evidence that you were the one who placed the Sentinel on Nicholson's car and manipulated the data on the laptop. You also demonstrated to me that the operation of the Sentinel is not as difficult as we believed, making it much more likely that someone else in S.LD. may have acquired the necessary skill. In summary, I am certain that the Sentinel unit was tracking your movements on your car and I am certain that it was tracking Officer Nicholson's movements on her car. I can no longer say with any degree of certainty who was responsible. Since I cannot prove who is responsible, I cannot say that you were untruthful in your denial that you were responsible. General Order 100.06, VI. Rules of Conduct, G. Maintenance of city/private property; 1. "No officer shall use or provide any city equipment or service other than for official city business without the consent of the police chief or his designee." Not Sustained General Order 100.06, VI. Rules of Conduct, C. Accountability, responsibility, and discipline; 2. "Officers shall cooperate fully in any internal administrative investigation conducted by this or another authorized agency and shall provide complete and accurate information in regard to any issue under investigation. "4. "Officers shall be accurate, complete, and truthful in all matters. " 5. "Officer shall accept responsibility for their actions without attempting to conceal, diver, or mitigate their true culpability. No officer shall engage in efforts to thwart, influence, or interfere with an internal or criminal investigation. Not Sustained Offensive Comments During our meetings you have reported to me that you do not recall making the alleged offensive comments and you don't believe that you said them. You said "If I said it, I have no recollection of saying it." I still find that there is sufficient evidence that you made the alleged comments and that charge remains sustained. I however no longer believe you were intentionally being untruthful in your denial, but rather than your denial is based upon you inability to recall. Therefore I am no longer sustaining the charge that you were untruthful or inaccurate.

General Order 100.06"Rules and Regulations, VI. D. Conduct toward fellow employees; 1. "Officers shall conduct themselves in a manner that will foster cooperation among members of this department, fellow city employees, and other outside agencies, showing respect, courtesy, and professionalism in their dealings with one another. 2. No officer shall use language or engage in acts that demean, harass, or intimidate another person (refer to sexual harassment general order 200.14). No officer shall ridicule another officer by displaying obvious disrespect." Sustained
JJ

Officer Jeffrey Wilson Letter of Discipline - PS # 11-02 September 8, 2011

Page 3

General Order 100.06, Rules and Regulations, VI. Rules of Conduct, C. Accountability, responsibility , and rt;"";,,,];np - 2 "Otticers shall cootierate fully in any internal administrative ..-'uy"' .... ....., ..., ......... ..... ... __ .. ......... ..., y~...... :iJL 1:'...... III I"" II Iinvestigation conducted by this or another authorized agency and shall provide complete and accurate information in regard to any issue under investigation ". 4. "Officers shall be accurate, complete, and truthful in all matters. "5. "Officer shall accept responsibility for their actions without attempting to conceal, diver, or mitigate their true culpability. No officer shall engage in efforts to thwart, influence, or interfere with an internal or criminal investigation. Not Sustained
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Failure to Obey Order You have explained to me that you do not believe that you intentionally violated an order when you entered SID on the two separate occasions as alleged and previously sustained. You have stated that part of the reason you did not believe you were prohibited entry was because no attempt was made to retrieve your keys to the office or reprogram your electronic access. You also offered in your defense that you did not hide the fact that you were going in, as evidenced by having Officer Skaggs accompany you, as well as letting your Patrol supervisors know that you were entering. Istill fmd that you were given the order and that you did disobey that order on two occasions and therefore those charges are still sustained. However Ino longer find the charges relating to untruthfulness to be sustained as you may very well have believed in your own mind that what you were doing was proper. GO 100.06, Rules and Regulations, VI. Rules of Conduct, D. Conduct toward fellow employees, 6. "Officers who are given a lawful order which is in conflict with a previous order or department order shall respectfully inform the supervisor issuing the order of the conflict. If the supervisor does not alter or retract the conflicting order, that order shall stand Under these circumstances, the responsibility for the conflict shall be upon the supervisor. The allegation that you violated this general order is Sustained. GO 100.06, Rules and Regulations, VI. Rules of Conduct, C. Accountability, responsibility, and discipline, 2. "Officers shall cooperate fully in any internal administrative investigation conducted by this or another authorized agency and shall provide complete and accurate information in regard to any issue under investigation. "4. "Officers shall be accurate, complete, and truthful in all matters. 5. "Officer shall accept responsibility for their actions without attempting to conceal, divert, or mitigate their true culpability. 1/0 officer shall engage in efforts to thwart, influence, or interfere with an internal or criminal investigation. The allegation that you violated this general order is Not Sustained
JJ

Workplace Harassment A major contributing factor to. my finding that you violated the City's workplace violence/harassment policy was the sustained allegation that you were deliberately tracking the movements of Officer Nicholson with the Sentinel GPS. Since I no long am sustaining that allegation, I am left with the instances of video use and the offensive comments. Absent the GPS tracking, I do not find sufficient evidence to sustain a charge under the Workplace violence policy.

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Officer Jeffrey Wilson Letter of Discipline - PS # 11-02 September 8, 2011 Page 4

Based upon the evidence, you violated General Order 100.06, Rules and Regulations, ill Policy, V. Knowledge, A "Officers shall be familiar with and understand all city personnel rules, department orders, the collective bargaining agreement, and all established procedures of the department pertaining to their assignments. ", relative to: The City of Peoria's Workplace Violence Prevention and Anti-Harassment Policy. This policy prohibits harassment and defines it as " ... any unwelcome behavior that degrades, demeans, humiliates or embarrasses a person". The policy provides examples of such behavior as "..unwelcome remarks, slurs, jokes, taunts or suggestions about a person's body.. " and "..humiliating an employee infront of co-workers." Not Sustained Conclusion Following my assessment of the new evidence that you brought forth, I contacted you through your Benevolent representative, President Troy Skaggs. I requested that Benevolent President Skaggs contact you and relay to you the modifications to your discipline letter based upon the new evidence. I offered to you, in lieu of termination, a suspension of 20 days. I further stated that the 20 days suspension was contingent upon your acceptance of the discipline as fair and reasonable and your agreement to waive your rights to grieve or otherwise contest the discipline. President Skaggs relayed back to me that those terms were acceptable to you. I therefore order that you be suspended for twenty (20) working days, conditioned upon your acceptance of this discipline and your waiver of grievance/appeal rights. Upon receipt of this notice you are to make arrangements with your commanding officer for the scheduling of suspension Clays as well as the arrangements to surrender your Department issued badges andrntification 7d all other Department equipment //

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.A'- r "=' teven M. Settingsgaard Chief of Police'

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Fire & Police Commission Acting Director of Human Resources Acting Labor Relations Manager Captain of Investigations Captain of Uniformed Operations PPBA President. Personnel File Professional Standards File .

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