GPD changes selection criteria for specialty units after officer who should have been disqualified is selected to K-9 Unit
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – According to public records received by Alachua Chronicle, Gainesville Police Department (GPD) revised its selection criteria for specialty units after an officer who should have been disqualified based on selection criteria was selected for the K-9 Unit.
First K-9 Unit Selection Process
Following a series of resignations from GPD’s K-9 unit, Chief Lonnie Scott issued a Vacancy Notice for the unit with an application deadline of February 10, 2023. The criteria for selection included, “No sustained allegations as a result of an IA investigation within the last 12 months.”
Four officers participated in the selection process: Michael Henderson, Maurquice Miller, James “Daniel” Rengering, and Dalton Ripley.
During the selection process, Henderson and Rengering were disqualified in the navigation run, and Miller and Ripley successfully completed all portions of the process. Acting Sergeant Dylan Hayes-Morrison recommended Miller and Ripley for selection to the K-9 Unit, and Lieutenant Mike West wrote on March 14, “I concur and recommend Ofc’s Ripley and Miller… They are very proactive officers and I believe they will be beneficial to the unit and agency.” Captain Anthony Ferrara wrote, “The results of the selection process speak for the adherence to policy that you require.” Miller and Ripley were officially selected for the K-9 Unit on March 20, 2023.
However, Miller had a sustained finding as a result of an Internal Affairs (IA) investigation into “improper behavior” following the arrest of Terrell Bradley on July 10, 2022, which was still in the 12-month window. The allegation was that Miller used his personal cell phone to take a photo of Bradley’s injury from a photo displayed on another officer’s cell phone and that he failed to submit the photo into evidence in violation of GPD policy. The finding was sustained, and Miller received correction action in the form of a written warning.
Second K-9 Unit Selection Process
Since the first selection process only yielded two K-9 handlers, GPD put out a second Vacancy Notice with a deadline of April 5, 2023. This one, however, changed the selection criteria from “No sustained allegations as a result of an IA investigation within the last 12 months” to “No sustained allegations as a result of a ‘Major IA’ investigation within the last 12 months.”
Field Training Officer Selection Process
While the K-9 selection process was ongoing, a Vacancy Notice for Field Training Officers (FTO) was also issued, with a closing date of March 3, 2023. The criteria for that opportunity included, “No sustained allegations as a result of an IA investigation within the last 12 months.” A memo was issued on March 13, the day before Miller was recommended for selection to the K-9 Unit in spite of the sustained IA finding, announcing that seven candidates had progressed to the interview process but two were “screened out of the process due to having a sustained IA investigation within the past 12 months.”
On March 14, Sergeant Charles Owens sent an email that pointed out the inconsistency between disqualifying one officer for FTO selection while selecting Miller to the K-9 unit when they had the same finding in the same IA investigation. He wrote, “This sends a clear message to officers that rules are only followed when they benefit the department.”
Owens wrote that he was not saying Miller should not have been selected, but “If this continues on a person by person basis, that is obviously not consistent and no doubt has a negative effect on morale. This came to my attention because officers were upset and confused as why this is allowed to happen.”
Change of selection criteria
On March 24, Chief Inspector Jaime Kurnick sent out an email that said, “After consultation with Chief Scott and the command staff, it was determined that only IA’s with a sustained discipline (employee notice or above) could be used as a sole reason to disqualify an individual from a process”; “employee notice” is one level above a written warning. Kurnick’s email instructed the command staff to “adjust the vacancy notices in the future” to reflect this, and a second email specifically asked that any officers disqualified from the FTO selection process be reinstated and interviewed.
As a result, an officer who had been disqualified from the FTO process in early March for the same infraction as Miller (taking a photo of Terrell Bradley, with correction in the form of a written warning) was re-interviewed and then selected for FTO.
GPD did not respond to our request for comment on the change in selection criteria.
It’s always the red tape.
Good grief. This is so obvious what GPD command staff is doing. Glad Sgt. Owens spoke up and called them out.
Common sense might actually be returning again? How soon the optics wear off. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Seems like a very minor violation.
That’s a slippery slope Jimmy.
GPD’s command structure has learned that sometimes bad cops must be retained and promoted in order to “fill a billet”. And when that happens, they create more bad cops on the beat, in the ranks and foster low morale (not to mention lawsuits). One would hope that the police union and the accreditation review process would have more than just opinions on this topic. CI Kurnick is more than willing to turn a blind eye to misconduct when “nescessary” and ensure that the internal affairs review process is “investigated” to support the officers regardless of guilt or questionable behavior with a blind eye to misconduct. GPD flies by the seat of their pants without regard to the law or their own policy and procedures as routine. The Bradley case is the only reason they have decided to tighten up on the IA review process because the IA Investigator in that case followed the process and procedures in accordance with policy and procedures and the law. That was an exception to their more common practice of deception and denial at any cost. GPD needs a serious reset of the command structure because the current “leadership” is too deep in questionable behavior and damage control that both the department and the community are suffering their incompetence. GPD is NOT an example of ‘the best in the nation” as Chief Scott repeats over and over again because he believes if he says it enough (like Trump) it will be “true”. Time for a serious review of GPD, but that will not happen under the current city manager and the city commission. ” Damage control is hard” when you have to spend so much time denying and lying. The citizens and the good cops deserve better, and the law requires it.
Smoke & mirrors, dog & pony, take your pick. This style of internal leadership (or lack of) has been the method of operation as far back as I can recall.
That would be some 40 years.
Nepotism, good-ole-boys, turn the blind eye has been the order of the day.
As long as Jones is assigned to city hall and Scott is at GPD nothing will change.
Why can’t TWO Chiefs of Police figure this out?
I want to know if the officer still has the photo. This case was uniformly reported by the regressive press that a dog ripped this man’s eye out. I say that is BS! Only this publication was credible enough to reference a photo with a stick protruding from this man’s eye- suggesting that his eye got poked out, not chewed out. So, let’s see this photo. Does it show a stick? Does it show any evidence of a dog bite in the area of this man’s eye? Were medical records ever reviewed or doctors interviewed about the injury? I want the truth! (But I ain’t gonna hold my breath)
Let’ not get distracted . The City manager empowers behavior of everyone at GPD.
Can we have a different qualification process for city commissioners?
What we have is definitely not working.
A photo of a photo is not “evidence”
PDs and SOs are strange places to work. You might be written up for not keeping a manual 100 percent up to date (happened to me) or you might never have an issue.
It’s not Mayberry.