San Jose has perhaps one of the strictest gift policies for its public officials and police to follow. the city gift ordinance prohibits gifts of over 50 dollars ... and no free tickets from athletic teams. that ordinance stems from the city council which created it after a city councilman about a decade ago was convicted of accepting sharks tickets and a case of opus one wine (very expensive). the police dept has its own duty manual which trumps the city ordinance. the police policy says cops cant accept ANY gift...period. the obvious intent is to prevent any perception of conflicts of interest and/or overly cozy relationships with entities that the police may have to investigate down the road. the san jose pd has in the recent past investigated at least three 49ers, aldon smith, chris culliver and now ray mcdonald, who earlier this month was arrested for allegedly abusing his pregnant fiancee. in this case, a certain san jose police sgt who also moonlighted for the niners security was called by mcdonald the night of the incident. the cop, who was on duty and in uniform, rushed over to the home before officers who were responding to the 911 call arrived. that presence of the sgt complicated the san jose police investigation of the domestic violence case. the chief then suspended all moonlighting with the niners (it affected about 20 cops) until he could review the secondary work policies because he was concerned about the perception of an overly cozy relationship with the team. fast forward to now ... we learned that two chiefs from the command staff were receiving free tickets from the niners on at least two occasions. they were on the niners public safety appreciation day. but unlike the san francisco giants public safety appreciation days, which were publicized and included a public tribute ceremony at the beginning of the games, where the public paid tribute to the first responders, the niners simply gave out free tickets to selected public pollice and fire officials. while the chief suspended rank and file cops from working for the niners ... the two chiefs had accepted gifts of free tickets which is in my opinion really two faced! the police PIO says well the chiefs reimbursed the niners so everything is ok. well .. they paid back the niners AFTER i inquired about the tickets. mind you, the first game chief eddie garcia went for free was in august of LAST YEAR. the duty manual again says NO FREEBIES AT ALL, REGARDLESS OF VALUE!!! no wonder the rank and file are so pissed about the hierarchy of the police dept. the san jose police dept seems to have issues which need to be dealt with before it can be healthy again. as one veteran cop told me decades ago when i was a cub reporter ... it all starts from the top! so true!
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 06:03:08 +0000
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