Elgin Police Officer Jason Lentz was fired Monday over controversial posts on his personal Facebook account that could be considered racist. In one of those posts, Lentz said that the Ferguson, Mo., police officer who shot and killed a young man last month “did society a favor.” Police department leaders had placed Lentz on administrative leave Aug. 26 after the social media postings were pointed out by another Elgin officer. Responding to a Freedom of Information Act request, Deputy Police Chief Bill Wolf reported that “effective 09.29.14, Jason Lentz was terminated from his position as a police officer with the City of Elgin. This action was a result of postings he initiated on his personal social media website.” Specifically, Wolf said, Lentz was found by his superiors to have violated the City of Elgin Employee Manual by committing “conduct that would undermine the credibility of the city or employees.” Wolf said he also violated the police department’s general rules and regulations and the police department’s relatively new policy about off-duty use of social media, which prohibit even private social media comments that would discredit the police department. In an official statement, Police Chief Jeffrey Swoboda said, “Our relationship with the community is based upon trust. When an officer violates this trust, action must be taken.” An Aug. 15 Facebook post included a link to a Fox News video entitled “Police Released surveillance footage allegedly showing Michael Brown stealing cigars befor[e].” When posting that link, Lentz added “Hmmm … Innocent victim my ass. Did society a favor” according to a screen capture included in his case file and received through a previous FOIA request by The Courier-News. The first supervisor asked Lentz to remove the post, documents indicate. Instead, Lentz shortened his caption to “Hmmm…” but did not remove the post as he was instructed to, the reports state. The administrative leave marked the fourth time that Lentz, a 17-year department veteran, had had his police powers stripped in an official action. Lentz has served from one- to three-day suspensions in the past, including a June suspension for previous posts to Facebook and other concerns. Lentz’s Aug. 15 post was not the only Facebook post that concerned police command. A police commander, using the Facebook page of another officer, perused Lentz’s page to determine if other posts rose to a level of concern, the file states. Copies of about a dozen were included in the case file.” See full story for more (including text from his other problematic posts): couriernews.suntimes/2014/09/29/elgin-officer-fired-facebook-posts/
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 05:31:13 +0000
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