J~ --CITY OF

PEORIASeptember 8, 2011

PEORIA POLICE DEPARTMENT

Officer Jeffrey Wilson1108 Sleepy Hollow CourtPeoria, 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 roomrelative to this investigation. You were present as were Captain ~vfichael Scally and Benevolent PresidentTroy Skaggs. At this meeting I informed you that I was prepared to issue discipline in this case and that Iwas prepared to terminate you for multiple rule violations. I read to you a letter of termination thatoutlined 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 otherrelated 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 inthis investigative file and will be attached to this letter, setting the stage for the findings in this subsequentletter of discipline. Please note that the July 29 letter is unsigned as it was not served due to the mitigatingfactors 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 dataand at a followup meeting with me on August 25th at 1:30 p.m., you pointed out what you thought werediscrepancies in our findings. The following represents my actual findings as a result of the new evidenceyou presented. The charges below are reprinted from the July 29 termination letter and I will speak to eachcharge individually,

Video AllegationsThe 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 responsiblefor and whether or not you had received instructions by supervisors not to capture video of OfficerNicholson's desk area .. I will not detail your responses here as they are a moot point as it relates todiscipline in this case since I found no wrongdoing on your part in this regard. I offer you the opportunityto submit a written response to the references to the use of video contained in the termination letter andyour written response will also be maintained in this investigative file.

GPS Tracking AllegationsThe termination letter sustained a rule violation relative to allegations that you placed a GPS trackingdevice on Officer Nicholson's vehicle. That finding was heavily dependent upon my belief that there,,{IT!:lC Cllhct!:1nti,;d n-rAf'\-ttl-'l';::tt "'{TAll activated fh.c C!o"Y'l+~T"Iol nUQ r'\Y'I "'l'T"''''~ r'\"("("", ,,(Toh~ .•...•lC>. a~well a~ substantial1'''\.+>...1 ..., .•..•..••.../I,..J\,.\..W,..L'-'....f.A,J. .l-'.LVV.1. "J....LU-" JV\A. V1....LY ",V'\...I. Ll..LV UV.LLLil.LV.l '-JJ... U V.L.l yULU. UYV1.l Y'-'.l.U.V.lL.O •... v

600 S. W. Adams StreetPeoria, IL61602-1592Phone 309.494.8300

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

Page 2

circumstantial evidence that you were reasonably the only individual who had the access, ability, andavailability to have placed the unit on her car. You have since demonstrated that the Sentinel unitfrequently "skips" parts of its track and frequently does not record its own location or movement. Youdemonstrated that the Nicholson tracks had occasions where the system started up at a time and placethat might have indicated the operator of the car was manipulating it, the same way it did while it wason your vehicle. This realization refuted a good portion of the evidence making it impossible to rule outother officers as potential suspects. You also convinced me that the laptop in question was fullyaccessible and utilized by other members of the unit, again diminishing the amount of evidence thatyou 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. Insummary, I am certain that the Sentinel unit was tracking your movements on your car and I am certainthat it was tracking Officer Nicholson's movements on her car. I can no longer say with any degree ofcertainty who was responsible. Since I cannot prove who is responsible, I cannot say that you wereuntruthful in your denial that you were responsible.

General Order 100.06, VI. Rules of Conduct, G. Maintenance of city/private property; 1. "Noofficer shall use or provide any city equipment or service other than for official city business withoutthe 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 anotherauthorized agency and shall provide complete and accurate information in regard to any issue underinvestigation. "4. "Officers shall be accurate, complete, and truthful in all matters. " 5. "Officer shallaccept responsibility for their actions without attempting to conceal, diver, or mitigate their trueculpability. No officer shall engage in efforts to thwart, influence, or interfere with an internal orcriminal investigation. Not Sustained

Offensive CommentsDuring our meetings you have reported to me that you do not recall making the alleged offensivecomments and you don't believe that you said them. You said "If I said it, I have no recollection ofsaying it." I still find that there is sufficient evidence that you made the alleged comments and thatcharge remains sustained. I however no longer believe you were intentionally being untruthful in yourdenial, but rather than your denial is based upon you inability to recall. Therefore I am no longersustaining 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 thisdepartment, fellow city employees, and other outside agencies, showing respect, courtesy, andprofessionalism in their dealings with one another. JJ 2. No officer shall use language or engage in actsthat 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

Officer Jeffrey WilsonLetter of Discipline - PS # 11-02September 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 J.J U LA-" 1:'...... W"" II- I I"" I- I I-

investigation conducted by this or another authorized agency and shall provide complete and accurateinformation in regard to any issue under investigation ". 4. "Officers shall be accurate, complete, andtruthful in all matters. "5. "Officer shall accept responsibility for their actions without attempting toconceal, 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

Failure to Obey OrderYou have explained to me that you do not believe that you intentionally violated an order when youentered SID on the two separate occasions as alleged and previously sustained. You have stated thatpart of the reason you did not believe you were prohibited entry was because no attempt was made toretrieve your keys to the office or reprogram your electronic access. You also offered in your defensethat you did not hide the fact that you were going in, as evidenced by having Officer Skaggsaccompany you, as well as letting your Patrol supervisors know that you were entering. Istill fmd thatyou were given the order and that you did disobey that order on two occasions and therefore thosecharges are still sustained. However Ino longer find the charges relating to untruthfulness to besustained 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 departmentorder shall respectfully inform the supervisor issuing the order of the conflict. If the supervisor doesnot alter or retract the conflicting order, that order shall stand Under these circumstances, theresponsibility for the conflict shall be upon the supervisor. The allegation that you violated this generalorder is Sustained.

GO 100.06, Rules and Regulations, VI. Rules of Conduct, C. Accountability, responsibility, anddiscipline, 2. "Officers shall cooperate fully in any internal administrative investigation conducted bythis or another authorized agency and shall provide complete and accurate information in regard toany issue under investigation. "4. "Officers shall be accurate, complete, and truthful in all matters. JJ 5."Officer shall accept responsibility for their actions without attempting to conceal, divert, or mitigatetheir true culpability. 1/0 officer shall engage in efforts to thwart, influence, or interfere with aninternal or criminal investigation. The allegation that you violated this general order is Not Sustained

Workplace HarassmentA major contributing factor to. my finding that you violated the City's workplace violence/harassmentpolicy was the sustained allegation that you were deliberately tracking the movements of OfficerNicholson with the Sentinel GPS. Since I no long am sustaining that allegation, I am left with theinstances of video use and the offensive comments. Absent the GPS tracking, I do not find sufficientevidence to sustain a charge under the Workplace violence policy.

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

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, departmentorders, the collective bargaining agreement, and all established procedures of the departmentpertaining to their assignments. ", relative to:

Page 4

The City of Peoria's Workplace Violence Prevention and Anti-Harassment Policy. This policyprohibits harassment and defines it as " ... any unwelcome behavior that degrades, demeans, humiliatesor 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 ofco-workers." Not Sustained

ConclusionFollowing my assessment of the new evidence that you brought forth, I contacted you through yourBenevolent representative, President Troy Skaggs. I requested that Benevolent President Skaggscontact you and relay to you the modifications to your discipline letter based upon the new evidence. Ioffered to you, in lieu of termination, a suspension of 20 days. I further stated that the 20 dayssuspension was contingent upon your acceptance of the discipline as fair and reasonable and youragreement to waive your rights to grieve or otherwise contest the discipline. President Skaggs relayedback 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 ofgrievance/appeal rights.

Upon receipt of this notice you are to make arrangements with your commanding officer for thescheduling of suspension Claysas well as the arrangements to surrender your Department issued badgesandrntification 7d all other Department equipment

.~- .A'- r "=' ~-~.// teven M. Settingsgaard

Chief of Police'

c Fire & Police CommissionActing Director of Human ResourcesActing Labor Relations ManagerCaptain of InvestigationsCaptain of Uniformed OperationsPPBA President.Personnel FileProfessional Standards File .

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