LETTERS

TO THE EDITOR

Exposing a bad cop

To the editor:

Thank you to reporter Finn Hartnett. Your investigative reporting on the Peabody “officer” and his apparent lack of an adequate pre-hire background was excellent.

No city, county or state in the USA should have to rely on an officer of this reputation and work history to call at a time of need or emergency. There are plenty of other hourly jobs this guy could apply for besides public service.

You would have thought that Peabody would have known how to do it right after the last people-problems they hired.

These bad officers travel the USA and our state, working from one to two years before they find themselves back into a self-imposed corner for violating department rules, ethical rules, and — yes — even Kansas laws.

They mostly survive as officers by going to and from the smaller law enforcement agencies that don’t have adequate personnel policies or the knowhow to conduct even a cursory background and work history.

I was undersheriff at Abilene and a KBI senior agent until I retired after 33 years in police work. As a KBI agent, I investigated many public servants at the state, county, and city governments, including law enforcement officers who committed very serious crimes including murders, sex offenses, drug sales from seized evidence rooms, and thefts they thought they could get away with because of their positions of trust.

Some people should never be employed in law enforcement or as public servants in any capacity. These are the employees that get caught and arrested.

It takes everyone to stand up to these losers and say no, you can’t work in our community.

It takes city and county leaders, sheriffs, chiefs, and — yes — even local newspapers to investigate wrongdoing and report the news.

Sometimes it’s as easy as a few phone calls or a records waiver signed by a prospective employee that relieves a city or county from any liability for giving information to a prospective employee.

We have a local newspaper in Abilene that has some nice folks working for it, but unfortunately they don’t want to upset anyone, so they don’t report untruthful statements by public officials, nor do they care to question anything they are hand-fed by city and county officials.

In many cases, they never get public records because the agencies jack up the prices of copies so newspapers can’t afford to investigate anything.

Forty years ago, when I began working as a deputy at Abilene, we had the Salina Journal that checked into everything.

Its great investigative reporter David Clouston was one of the best reporters I have ever met. He always told truth to power by asking the right questions and was greatly supported by the Journal’s editor at the time.

Those days are passed, and the Journal is a shadow of what it was. Nowadays, cities, counties, and even state agencies work hard to cover up their mistakes when all they have to do is tell the truth and learn from them.

I wish my current home of Abilene had a reporter such as you and the others at the Marion County Record with the guts to investigate complaints and report the news to the citizens that are all too often kept in the dark.

Thank you for doing your job to the best of your ability and the integrity to tell the truth. You deserve a big pat on the back by every officer in Kansas and the city fathers of Peabody for saving them a potential lawsuit in the future.

Good work!

John C. Nachtman, Abilene