The unidentified man was recently reprimanded for telling a woman that she needed to beat her son “within an inch of his life” — or he would likely do it for her.
Ombudsman Pierce Murphy concluded that the officer acted in a manner unbecoming to the city and the Boise Police Department after investigating a complaint from the mother.
Neither the officer nor the woman has been publicly identified.
Murphy reviews complaints against police, but city ordinance does not allow the ombudsman to recommend disciplinary action. That’s up to the police department.
Capt. Randy Roper, who oversees internal affairs investigations, said Thursday that department policy prohibits him from commenting on the officer’s punishment.
Roper recently reviewed Murphy’s report and concluded that the officer violated the department’s policy regarding “relationships with others and demeanor,” rather than violating the conduct policy.
“We just felt that the demeanor policy was more appropriate,” Roper said.
Murphy said the incident was an isolated case.
“I don’t see any conduct to suggest there’s a pattern by this officer or other officers,” Murphy said. “I think quite the contrary.”
INVESTIGATING COMPLAINTS
The complaint is among a small number that Murphy has ruled valid this year. Others included a complaint of excessive force against an officer who helped arrest a young man for public intoxication in Downtown Boise and a complaint about an officer who swore at a man and pushed him without first asking him to step back.
Murphy also sustained a complaint from a man who said a police officer unfairly targeted him when ticketing him for having an expired parking meter, and a complaint from a woman who said an officer made a sarcastic comment to her while responding to a car crash.
In the most recent case, the Boise mother complained that the officer targeted her and her 16-year-old son, advocated she use violence against the boy and threatened the boy with physical harm.
She contacted Murphy’s office the same day officers responded to a call on the Boise Bench involving the teenager and a neighbor he had been accused of assaulting.
ON HIS RADAR
Murphy said the officer’s recorder, which all Boise officers wear, was on for the conversation.
The officer told the boy that he was on his “radar” and that if he heard of further problems, “he will spend his whole 10-hour shift in the trailer park” until he could take the boy to jail. The officer also checked records and learned that the boy’s mother didn’t have a valid driver license; he told her he’d be watching her and would take her to jail if he saw her driving.
“For a BPD officer to say that he would be indifferent should the parent of a 16-year-old child beat that child ... is troubling,” Murphy wrote. “For that same officer, just a few minutes later, to tell the teenager, ‘I’m going to take that nice little head of yours and I’m going to rearrange it for you,’ is shocking.”
The officer told Murphy that he was “speaking ‘tongue in cheek,’ ” according to the report.
He also told Murphy that the boy’s behavior has improved and that he “seems to be developing a relationship of trust” with the officer.
Meghann Cuniff: 377-6418
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