Despite considerable attempts to cover up the truth within the Arizona State University Police Department, the truth always has a way of getting out. We recently received information about one of the latest appointments through several channels, plus day to day information about the meetings and consternation of command trying to handle another so-called “promotion process” as officers are walking out the door in quick succession just prior to the annual shift change.

The tradition of promoting people who are tired of working as police officers to greater and greater responsibilities, but significantly less work and much higher pay continues. This is nothing new and neither is the empowering and rewarding employees for failure. The command at the ASU Police Department are the embodiment of all these qualities.

This promotion is disturbing because Sergeant Terry Lewis was in charge of detectives and failed to do his job. What job will he do in the lieutenant position?

He failed to submit charges on cases, failed to arrest when there was probable cause to arrest, made decisions only a qualified lawyer should, and opened up the department and university to gross liability.

Fairly recently, he was removed from detectives by the then newly appointed current Chief Michael Thompson, but now climbs the ladder to Lieutenant despite on the job incompetency at the Sergeant level and being known for never leaving his desk since he became a corporal many years ago.

This proves once again that job expectations, actual experience, competency, decision making, recent performance, integrity, liability, public trust, and honor all mean nothing when it comes to some promotions at ASUPD. They want lackeys who will do their bidding for them and accept the liability that comes with it.

Also, with Detective Jennifer Bryner making the Sergeant list over veteran police officers with many more years on it says something about the integrity of the process. Bryner was just off probation from field training, her prior experience was the police academy, with 1 year on, when she was selected over many highly experienced officers for detectives. How is she again propped up above officers with many times her own experience? Job experience and resumes mean abdolutely nothing.

Detective Brady made Sergeant despite having even less time on with ASUPD than Bryner and prior experience being limited to NAUPD. What can we say? These two promotions prove that it certainly helps when you have access to the testing materials through your friends who are trusted with keeping it confidential. It also helps when your social calendar includes extra-curricular engagements with command.

Do you want to succeed at the Arizona State Police Department? If so, find out who the power brokers are, kiss as much of their ass as you can stomach, find out who they don’t like and disparage them, show you are not above doing any unethical thing they ask you to do, volunteer for every extra-curricular engagement that becomes available, and do it with a smile. That’s the meaning of police work , serving and protecting right? Wrong. Like the legions of former ASUPD officers, you need to go some place else for that.

There were two notable exceptions to this process. We congratulate Lieutenant Latella and Sergeant Icenogle on their promotions. Unfortunately, their rank is too low to do much to change how the morally defunct ASUPD command operates.