Recently, the head of ASU’s HR (Kevin Salcido) sent a very strongly worded email to all ASUPD employees in an attempt to dissuade people from posting on The Integrity Report. We assembled a carefully crafted letter where we discussed the legal issues Salcido brought up in his email, as well our take on the entire ASUPD/HR situation. However, our response was later eclipsed by another ASU employee who voiced HIS concerns in a formal email, addressed to PD-ALL with a CC to CFO Morgan Olsen and President Michael Crow.
Sir, thank you for having the courage to send the most epic email chain in the history of ASUPD; you are deserving of a “Lifetime Achievement” Sun Award, at a minimum! We wouldn’t be surprised if the Chief is scrambling behind the scenes, contacting legal council to see how the sender of the email could be reprimanded. This email perfectly addressed how ASU HR had reason to know about the issues occurring at ASUPD, but failed to take any corrective action at all.
Speaking of nonfeasance, we have heard whispers ASUPD Command Staff has requested a possible investigation of The Integrity Report by DPS. Allegedly, citing violations of a few broad ARS statutes, DPS has been tasked to investigate the blog’s release of a picture of Sgt. Pam Osborne and her personally owned vehicle. After months of emails, meetings, and phone calls to Command Staff/ASU HR about problems in the department, none of the issues (which have been discussed at length on The Integrity Report) apparently meet the threshold for an HR INVESTIGATION. However, after Salcido inappropriately applies ARS , somehow the threshold for a CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION is met? This is nothing more than a formalized witch hunt to attempt to stop people from posting on the blog, after an attempt to discover the blog creators via ASU’s IT department were unsuccessful.
Mr. Salcido, Chief Pickens, and ASUPD Command Staff: You are dangerously close to stifling the 1st Amendment rights of your employees.
- In Pickering v. Board of Education, 391 U.S. 563 (1968), held that an employee’s interest as a citizen in making public comment needs to be balanced against the employer’s competing interest “in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs through its employees.” This “balancing test” will weigh in favor of the employee when the speech is made as a citizen on a matter of public concern. In 2006 the Federal Circuit court ruled in Garcetti that an employee is protected only if the speech is unconnected to employment (ie, they are not speaking from their position as an officer or a teacher).
- In October 2012, U.S. District Judge William W. Caldwell ruled in Beyer v. Duncannon Borough that a former police officer’s anonymous online speech was a form of protected citizen speech because he was speaking matters of formal concern.
Additionally, you assume the creators of the blog are ASUPD employees, which is why you are citing ARS statutes aimed at persons who are “employed by a state or local governmental entity”. Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that we are students, or members of the press, or people unaffiliated with the university in any capacity. Would you still be so eager to instigate a criminal complaint, and in the process, violating the 1st Amendment rights of the general public? Didn’t think so.
Hail to the Big C, meaning Chuck. It takes some balls to put your job on the line to challenge the desperate, cowardly, adolescent, clumsy and stupid response from the so called head of Arizona State University’s Human Resources.
This is how he chooses to approach the people who will be called to save his ass if a bad man shows up at his office ready for war? After this email maybe he should call Tempe, we probably won’t have staffing available for his call. Due to Bozos like him who won’t neuter spay the problems within ASUPD we will never have the staffing.
Bozo, formerly know as Kevin Salcido, needs to find another career choice because he only creates human resource problems. He is supposed to solve them. Bozo, how about a new career as a ASU police officer? You want to talk the talk, so walk the walk.
Given your screw everyone who has a problem or complaint attitude maybe they will promote you straight to commander. The chief values that attitude up there. You should be removed from office like a rabid dog on a playground.
Salcido’s letter was very effective in convincing his audience, ASU Police employees, of two things. Not only did his office of Human Resources not care about what was happening inside the Arizona State University Police Department, it was openly hostile to anyone that did. As the head of human resources Chuck is correct in stating inexcusable. What would it really take for his office to take action on anything?
Salcido has systematically proven he is unfit to handle the daunting task of ASU human resources effectively and especially professionally. I can only imagine how much the tax payers and students are paying for him to draw a paycheck. Whatever it is it’s too much.
Unbelievable. This is how this guy chooses to address the people who put on the uniform, put their lives on the line every day and night to protect this university, to protect him?!? What a joke. This is bullshit.
I guarantee you if a lone nut shows up looking to do evil they won’t be expecting a Kevin Salcido to save them, he will be stepping over people to save himself.
Salcido is way out of line. He’s a big man when it comes to his title and pushing his weight around to the people he owes his safety to. As far as Arizona Revised Statutes you need at least a 7th grade reading comprehension level to handle it.
Don’t quote ARS again, someone might think you’re pretending to be a police officer and arrest your ass. Come down to the police station and bring your copy of Green Eggs and Ham, we’ll start there and move forward together.
He’s supposed to be a mediator, a solver of problems, but the only thing he managed to do was upset a number of us who read his absurd response. He wants to claim he’s concerned about Pam’s safety, but then turns around and doesn’t care if people don’t like things and want to leave?
That concerned me because when they leave for good so does our backup, our support, and that is a real safety concern. Not some stupid photo on a website. It’s not just a stupid photo, it’s a great photo. It shows a person claiming to be a police officer supervisor and can’t follow the law when she parks. She’s breaking the law. Are you going to do something about that?
They picked this guy to head a department on Human Resources? Other than being told he’s an out of touch, clueless, idiot what is he hoping to accomplish? A diplomatic middle finger from a marine combat vet from Vietnam is quite an accomplishment, but what else?
Seriously, anything this man says regarding impartiality between the employee and the university is cast into doubt and suspect. This blog captured that dialogue and intent on here for the public and unwitting ASU employees to see. With his impartiality forever blown I don’t know how they can keep Salcido employed here without risking a huge liability.
Kevin Salcido not only manages to lose credibility in a job meant to build it, he recklessly throws it away when he doesn’t have to. Another brilliant leader who follows an age old recipe of management, “The beatings will continue until morale improves!” Way to go, looks like you really thought it through.
The reply email was well done. I disagree that there was an issue with posting Pam’s photo, the SUV, but other than that your were on target for politely telling Salcido where his head was lodged. You saved him from asphyxiation with an email, he owes you his life. He also owes everyone in the email chain an apology. Until then he can get a slow roll response to his building when they call 911 for help.
Yes, he is supposed to be a negotiator, not a combatant. Maybe he’s not the right man for the job.
Jun 05 2014: Kevin Salcido addresses The Integrity Report once again.
WheresMy907, we agree, maybe he’s not the right man for the job.
“This is business, Mr. Salcido, so please do not take what is posted here as slander on your character. I am sure you are an okay person, just maybe not the best fit for a position with immense responsibilities to protect and safeguard university students and employees.” Embudo
Good job Chuck. Salcido was out of line and you bent that punk over your knee like you caught him playing with matches next to the school house. That makes you eligible for Sun Awards and Integrity Report awards. You are an A+ father figure teaching the kids.
Professor Chuck Cornfield, honorary Doctorate in the abnormal psychology of sort of a police department mismanagement, taught an online lesson on the ancient art of logic. It’s so funny how everyone but K. Salcido notices the hypocrisy within his letter. Another round of Kool-Aid please.
Chief Pickens and assistant chief James Hardena know very little about ARS. In fact it’s amazing what they don’t know. Hardena probably led this charge while Thompson was shaking his head.
I have a question Jim. When you called DPS did it sound like this?
HARDENA: “Yeah hi, James Hardina here, I’m a big deal. Can you guys investigate the Integrity Report for us? It’s getting really annoying with the fact barrage. Can you just make it stop? They violated the law that says you can’t put the photo of a police officer online and take photos of their vehicles when illegally parked.”
AZDPS: “Are you serious? You read this? Look over the statutes again “assistant chief”. We have police work to do here, stop wasting our time with your policy violations. Are you familiar with false reporting? How about the fact your officer in the photo was doing something wrong, do you understand the term “whistle blower”?” Click…
HARDENA: “Hello…are you there? Hello. He hung up.”
CHIEF PICKENS: “I’m the great and all powerful JP. If they won’t do this I’m going to cut them out of football overtime!”
I can see the education being a two way street on this one. DPS learned how lacking in the knowledge ASU command is and ASU command learned that just because you can misinterpret ARS it doesn’t mean it applies. You would think they would have learned this lesson from all the dropped charges coming from county over the years, but they are slow.
Well done Chuck, we were all thinking it, but you said it. I’m glad they didn’t take any punitive actions against you because you did nothing wrong.
GO CHUCK! I think he should get the vacated Chief position!
Instead of handling any of the serious issues within the ASU Police Department Salcido puts his hand up into his police chief puppet and spits out another disrespectful bogus email threat to the employees of the ASU Police Department who protect him.
Everything is a perceived threat to this man because he’s counting on finding sympathy for his fight against freedom. The first amendment is alarming to him, oh well, nobody cares. This is America you communist, your manifesto is out of order and the May day parade is over. It’s time to come back down to reality.
Thanks for speaking out against this Chuck. It’s a shame James Hardina thought he had the right to fire you for professionally replying to an email. Shame on him.
[…] In response to “a concerned employee”‘s email, Salcido’s retort was less than professional, at best. […]
They just couldn’t help themselves! Despite being told not to harass Vietnam combat marine veteran Chuck Cornfield they are actively doing so anyway.
The inexcusable crime of professionally replying to an email means you get summoned off your campus across town to another, by someone who isn’t in your chain of command, to have another one of Johnny Pickens frivolous internal affair investigations done on you. Furthermore an employee who received above average reviews for a career with asupd lasting longer than Pickens’s 14 year career is now having to content with the veteran hating Commander Michelle Rourke, who is demanding he receives a below average 2 on his evaluation instead of the 3 his supervisor recommended him for.
Commander Rourke has a history concerning her unethical treatment of veterans. Harassing one to the point where he quit the department in disgust. This issue was already brought to Salcido’s attention. In response he made excuses about how there could have been many reasons despite being shown an email the vet wrote specifically pointing to the treatment he received from then Sgt Rourke. Classic retaliation garbage employees have come to expect working at ASUPD.
What you have are people who call themselves Americans, enjoy the freedom to live their lifestyles without persecution, but have no respect for the veterans who fought to preserve these freedoms. In this case two Marine combat vets who simply wanted common respect any American deserves.
Perhaps it’s time to start reaching out to veteran groups, the media, and bringing these skeletons out of the closet.
[…] at ASUPD. Instead, ASU’s HR, Kevin Salcido, has disregarded any employee concerns regarding ASUPD that have been brought to his attention. Salcido has repeatedly refused to intervene in the department’s […]