The police chief has suspended a “school resource officer” — a cop assigned to a school — for 10 days after an internal affairs investigation concluded that he acted improperly with a female student.
Police Chief Anthony Campbell announced the discipline at Thursday night’s monthly meeting of the Board of Police Commissioners, at which internal affairs chief Capt. Anthony Duff reported on the internal investigation.
The investigation centered on the complaint of a New Horizons High student that school resource officer Jeremie Elliott had shown her “unwanted sexual attention” by “standing too close, staring at her body,” making remarks on social media, and asking to meet her off school premises, according to the police.
IA found that the allegations were true and that the officer violated both a department general order forbidding conduct unbecoming an officer as well as a city policy governing use of government computers, Duff reported. His office sent the report to Campbell, who suspended Elliott for 10 days. He added three more days’ suspension in abeyance, meaning he doesn’t serve them at this point. Campbell said he has reassigned Elliott to patrol. He said Elliott will not work in the schools or in emergency services.
Asked why Elliott wasn’t fired, Campbell said that he was dealing with portions of the complaints related to actions that occurred while Elliott was on the job, which included “being in people’s personal space” and “had more to do with teachers than it did with students.” The complaint included off-duty conduct that “may be morally reprehensible to me. It may be offensive. But I can only discipline for what I’m responsible for.”
The department is in the process of redacting portions of the IA report so it can be released in response to Connecticut Freedom of Information Act requests. At that point more details of the incident will become public.
Sounds like someone wasn't listening in his own class.
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/officer_jeremie_elliott/