We would like to take a moment to discuss the myth of ASUPD impartiality in this case. Nobody can deny the Officer Ferrin VS. Professor Ore situation is a high profile case where the Arizona State University Police Department features up front and center. Can Chief Mike Thompson explain who is the man, singled out by the arrows, that appears in both of these photos? Is it appropriate for the two top administrators ASUPD chief Mike Thompson and ASUPD assistant Chief Lou Digirolamo (front row left and center) to be socializing with a member of Professor Ore’s defense team/advocacy group before a decision was supposedly made on this case?
Please email them to ask about this issue: Michael.L.Thompson@asu.edu AND Luigi.Digirolamo@asu.edu
For that matter email the entire Arizona State Police Command, ask them about this issue, check out their bio page qualifications to run a police department: https://cfo.asu.edu/police
A writer and retired police officer writing for the Mesa Tribune found out some interesting facts about this case. http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/columns/east_valley_voices/article_1a07b042-a36c-11e4-956e-0fa5f8404016.html
We found it particularly interesting is the fact that ASU is practicing the over active redacting game on its FOIA requests for a third recorded time showing not only will it federal law and ethical standards for government transparency, it has no impartiality with the information of these two employees, “When I made a public records request for the personnel files for Ferrin and Ore, I was provided with Ferrin’s 47-page file. Ore’s information was a redacted one-pager that gave me her name and not much more. Why give me everything on one employee and not give me everything on the other employee?”
Reposted here with some key points highlighted:
Arizona State University police officer Stewart Ferrin was supposed to be fired this week. The ASU police chief has placed him back on indefinite administrative leave pending further review.
Ferrin arrested ASU professor Dr. Ersula Ore in May 2014 for traffic and criminal charges, including assaulting a police officer. Ore admitted to kicking Ferrin. Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery brought formal criminal charges against her, and she pleaded guilty to the resisting arrest and was sentenced to nine months supervised probation.
Ferrin’s actions were examined at the time of the incident by the university and ASU police officials and deemed appropriate.
Soon after her arrest Ore and her backers played the “race” and “victim” cards. That took the spotlight off of her crimes and breaking a serious university rule regarding assaulting a fellow employee. Ferrin is white; Ore is black.
Assaulting a fellow employee is a serious offense that can result in termination. Employers can’t have a person with a history of violent and assaultive behavior against a fellow employee without taking on considerable legal liability.
In a matter of weeks Ferrin went from being a cop on the night shift in Tempe’s notorious and dangerous “Loud Party Corridor” to being the white cop who attacked a black professor. The obvious implication was Ferrin is a racist.
Ferrin was suspended. Soon after Ferrin was benched, the university provost, one of ASU’s chief executives, sent an email to ASU employees praising Ore and aiming guilt at Ferrin.
The university administration ordered yet another investigation into Ferrin’s conduct. This time it was conducted by a private investigator chosen by the university administration instead of asking for an outside and independent investigation by another police or prosecutorial agency. The Arizona Department of Public Safety’s Special Investigations Unit normally investigates internal police investigations with a high profile, but ASU chose not to go that route.
Police officers are bound by state statute to conduct an independent, complete and impartial investigation or subject themselves to prosecution and revocation of their peace officer certification; private investigators aren’t. Even with Ore’s guilty plea to criminal conduct, she’s kept her job teaching our kids.
When I made a public records request for the personnel files for Ferrin and Ore, I was provided with Ferrin’s 47-page file. Ore’s information was a redacted one-pager that gave me her name and not much more. Why give me everything on one employee and not give me everything on the other employee?
Ferrin’s file revealed he consistently met standards, satisfactorily completed his probation period and was rewarded for his service.
When faced with a possible felony conviction, Ore made a plea agreement. Ferrin has refused resign under pressure and maintains his innocence.
If ASU eventually decides to fire Ferrin it will leave a permanent scar and a lingering stench on the reputation of Arizona State University and its police department.
• Retired Mesa master police officer Bill Richardson lives in the East Valley and can be reached at bill.richardson@cox.net.
The Integrity Report on the Arizona State University Police Department would like to remind the staff of ASUPD, particularly the command, about the oath we all swore as certified police officers in the state of Arizona.
I solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Arizona, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, and defend them against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of a peace officer to the best of my ability, so help me God.
While We Breathe, Let Justice Be Done
Dum Spiramus Fiat Justitia
Contrast that with what’s going on now.
Very peculiar how Bill Richardson (a retired Mesa cop) drops a FOIA request for two Arizona State University Employees and one employee (Professor Ursula Ore)is afforded complete redaction with only one page of information being turned over while the other employee (Officer Stuart Ferrin) has 40 pages of his information released. Sounds really impartial and smells of bullshit.
I hope Stuart Ferrin sues the shit out of you people and the individuals responsible for upholding the ethical standards of incarcerated felons. The more the investigative reporters dig the more corruption they find in this renegade branch of state government. I am confident the digging will continue to expose how public servants large and small have abused the power given to them by the citizens of the state of Arizona. They need to be held accountable.
Just one more example to take to court on how they refuse to operate ethically.
That’s the only black and white issue here, how unashamedly fucking corrupt some of these snakes are. It’s an insult that some wear the badge, that others run a public university and knowingly allow corrupt practices to happen or encourage them.
A 1 to 40 page ratio of redaction for two ASU employees, how did that happen? With questionable management practices like this it’s really no wonder why we’ve had a retention problem for years at the ASU Police department.
Everyone knows the university administration, asupd command, and others are actively searching for a way to shut down this blog, but that isn’t the solution. The solution lies in fair equitable management practices. You need management practices that have a standard applied equally to all employees, even if they’re white
You have to do right by your people if you expect them to have any loyalty to you. This isn’t the mob, a crime syndicate. This is a government institution in the United States, not some private corporation where you get to do whatever you want. If you take away just some of the key reasons for complaints at our department there will be less to read about here and in the news.
Just wait for the flood of excuses to come forward. No matter what they do they do they have an excuse for it.
They backed Ferrin over Ore before reversing their decision, then they give away 40 pages of his information while giving away virtually none of hers.
Is that fair or more evidence of an agenda being set down by the Michael Crow administration?
The Arizona State University has a problem with some of the basic concepts of responsible public service. Honesty and transparency are the responsibility of everyone running a public institution. That’s not happening here and leadership is the issue.
I read books on leadership after seeing how our police department was run. The information in the books contradicted common practice here and it looks no different at the university administration level. It’s considered impossible to be a good leader without a functional moral compass. It’s the foundation on which everything is built.
Crow and the university administration are in more control than ever over the Arizona State University Police Department. After Pickens was screwing up so bad they are afraid to let Thompson run the place.
Ferrin would already be back to work if it wasn’t for the political maneuvering of the university administration to appease minority race traders who want Ferrin to pay with his career no matter how many official entities exonerated him. The convicted criminal keeps her job after assaulting another employee. Way to go ASU.
This is truly appalling and disgusting how ASU PD command staff members continue to operate and treat its employees.
Apparently Chief Thompson has chosen to compromise his integrity and ethics as a sworn officer just to appease and pacify some very misguided bosses and individuals playing the race card.
Chief Thompson appears to be no better ethically and morally than his predecessor, John L. Pickens, who was finally booted from command last July.
Good luck and Godspeed to Officer Ferrin in successfully suing Arizona State University for what they have done to him and his family.
Corruption within the department has undermined it’s public safety mission. When it comes to issues of impartiality just look at the photos here. Officer Stuart Ferrin is a sacrificial offering to appease cry baby bigots by the weak men running this police department and university.
They are trying so hard to be on the “right” side of everything that they stand for nothing other than lies, pandering, and indecisiveness. The world, especially America, doesn’t need another politically correct pussy setting a poor example for generations tomorrow!
Corruption has been a problem because the standard of ethics was lowered by the damaged goods Pickens hired to staff key leadership positions.
We have always had a department full of people looking out for themselves, people held to varying standards depending on who they know, and if someone can promote on the backs of others they do it.
Many officers were attacked by the in crowd because they didn’t fit in or came to us with considerable experience. Nothing has been done about it.
Every workplace has it’s issues, but our department has far too many issues for a department this size.
I blame this on the loser legacy of former chief Pickens who created too many supervisor positions for too few officers to supervise.
The man wanted to insulate himself from an honest days worth of work. It was good to see him go, but has anyone seen any significant improvement?
When you have compromised men leading a department whose profession is supposed to be about duty, holding true to a sworn obligation, being fair and impartial, then the unthinkable is possible. The rats get the cheese and prosper to spread disease.
The hopes of getting a new chief were high. Look at the process Pickens’s former department went through to pick a new chief when another university gave him the pink slip before coming to ASU. This is for a tiny university police department whose responsibility was a fraction of ASU’s.
http://m.northernstar.info/city/article_513b2ade-8a77-5183-b262-d8e1c82acafa.html?mode=jqm
Contrast this with the fake process that netted some friends from crow’s former stomping ground in NY and was finalized with the interim man they were already working with. Not much of a process at all.
You have two good points here. They are deciding the fate of our backup and moving forward with termination while hanging out with someone who at the very least is an advocate of Ore in this case.
Anyone could be standing in his shoes as an officer who contacted someone backed by the university contrary to court rulings in the matter.
Furthermore, they have to explain the disparity between the amount of information released on two ASU employees.
They have to explain how one employee can break the law, assault another employee, retain their job, and explain why they are terminating the employee who is a victim of that assault.
There’s plenty of explaining to do when you are doing the wrong thing. When you do the right thing little or no explanation is required.
The command of ASU does whatever it wants, there have never been consequences for what they’ve done, so why would they change now? Not getting new blood in command is working wonders for the department.
Apparently Officer Stewart Ferrin and Rev. Jarrett Maupin are now breaking bread.
Rev. Maupin and civil-rights activists now want Officer Ferrin reinstated.
I suppose we will receive an email in the not-too-distant future from Chief Thompson telling us he has decided to reinstate Officer Ferrin.
Who’s really running the police department, Chief Thompson?
I guess this will save the university and its police department from being forced to air their dirty little ways in a publicized lawsuit.
Either way he needs to sue them in court. They put him and his family in jeopardy by giving professor hate whitey the air of credibility by standing behind her and singling him out for termination.
The university damaged his credibility, career, and put his family under incredible stress with how they mishandled this whole thing. There is a moral judgement that needs to take place to discourage this from happening again and to protect him.
If he does come back they will be active trying to prove they were right all along. That’s just how they operate.
This gives a great deal of credibility to the reverend for not being another rabble rouser who gets people worked up by color. He looked at the other half of the picture and sided with Stuart, good for him!
Now that Reverend Maupin looked at all the facts and met the man he was able come to the right conclusion. Ferrin is not a racist, Ferrin didn’t do anything wrong, and Orr is trying to turn this into something it’s not.
Now we wait and see if the politically correct and cowardly Crow administration flip flops again and brings Ferrin back or hold to their guns and fire him based on the how ASU pd command cooked the books.
The university is going to look at the facts and realize it’s going to have to eat crow…eat crow..eat crow.
When the world is watching the same old incompetence from the command at asupd won’t cut it. Their attempt to manufacture a case to fire him will fail.
They fully intended to retain Ferrin before the Ore stop. They put junk in his files, some legitimate, some not, but at the end he finished his first year of probation.
More and more support is building for Stuart because the university and it’s police department command made mistakes after mistake without acknowledging any issues.
They do the same thing with internal pd problems and as you can see here they put the full blame on the employee, saving none for themselves.
It was said by another poster that asupd and the university leadership provide the content for everyone written here and that’s undeniably true
Two thumbs up for the reverend, you are trying to build relationships and bring people together. It’s too bad professor Ore wasn’t there. It’s too bad ASU didn’t have the foresight and leadership skills to do this in the beginning with both parties before this spiraled out of control.
The house of cards keeps falling away. Tired of having to defend the police department yet? If it’s not time to admit that your police department has issues you will continue to have issues.
It’s not that hard to figure out. We are well past the time to start taking public safety seriously. It’s time to stop blaming the boots on the ground for why the problems exist.