AG's reports reveal details of findings on Northfield police chief
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Northfield Police Chief Jeffrey Shaw |
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By Thatcher Moats Times Argus Staff - Published: July 7, 2009
BARRE – Two reports from the Vermont Attorney General's Office obtained Monday by the Times Argus give the most detailed view yet of the investigation that led to the recent suspension of the Northfield police chief.
The reports also indicate that at least one town official may have been told about problems at the department as early as 2005. And they contain statements from former officers who paint an unflattering picture of the way Police Chief Jeffrey Shaw ran the department.
Shaw was suspended for 21 days by the Vermont Criminal Justice Training Council starting June 16 for failing to meet in-service training requirements. In letters to the training council, he certified that he had received the training.
The town of Northfield has yet to take disciplinary action against the chief, but the selectboard said last week it intends to hold a closed-door hearing at some point that could decide whether the town will take any action.
The reports were compiled by state police Detective Dan Elliott and June Kelly, who is the assistant director of the Vermont Criminal Justice Training Council. The training council is the state agency in charge of training and certifying police officers in Vermont.
The investigations by Kelly and Elliott began after the training council received an anonymous letter in March 2008 claiming to be from "Northfield officers" that told of problems with training at the department. Their reports offer a picture of former rank-and-file officers who had been unhappy with how the department was being run.
Kelly and Elliott interviewed Shaw, several former officers and at least one current officer.
Some of the harshest criticism of Shaw came from Kurt Snyder, a former police officer who left the department in 2005 and now works for the Capitol Police in Montpelier.
Snyder told Kelly that Shaw asked him to do things that were illegal.
"He told me to violate a restraining order, too, to take a subject to a residence (though) the court said he couldn't be there," said Snyder in a telephone interview on Monday as he elaborated on statements made to investigators. "I argued with him. He said: 'We can do it. We're the police.'"
Snyder also said Shaw's management techniques were "off the wall," and said Shaw was "vindictive."
The chief would make life "a living hell by harassing you and he was very strange," Snyder told Kelly, according to her report.
Snyder told investigators that he informed Northfield Town Manager Nanci Allard during an exit interview about the issue with the restraining order and a problem with training records at the department.
"I told her about the training and there were a lot of other personnel issues," said Snyder, who was a firearms instructor for the Northfield Police Department.
Allard confirmed that she had an exit interview with Snyder and another former officer, Ed Page, but said she did not record the meeting and could not refute or affirm what Snyder said.
"I could not verify it or disclaim it," Allard said on Monday, adding that she offered exit interviews to all officers who left the department.
"What action I took as a result of his information is not information that I'm going to share," Allard added, pointing out that it was a personnel issue.
The investigation by Kelly and Elliott concluded in the summer of 2008, and the training council voted to decertify Shaw in January of 2009.
Shaw appealed the decision and eventually settled with the council, admitting he had not complied with training. He was given a 21-day suspension as part of the settlement, which he began serving on June 16.
The whistleblower letter signed by "Northfield Officers" alleged that Shaw used staff meetings as training, something Elliott confirmed.
Former officers acknowledged that some of the staff meetings that were counted as training did include visits from members of a rape crisis team or a state's attorney.
But they also said Shaw used the meetings as a time to berate the officers.
"…we had monthly meetings that lasted two hours and the chief called them training, all they were was being yelled at for two hours and he called them training…" former Northfield officer Ed Page told Kelly. "It was not training."
Snyder called the meetings the chief's "rant sessions" and another former officer, Michael Armatrout, said "somebody would be thrown under the bus" during the meetings.
Officers also said Shaw was reluctant to pay for training.
Chad Bassette, a former sergeant who is now with the Berlin Police Department, said Shaw did not want to pay overtime for training and wanted officers to donate their time.
Snyder said 14 or 15 Northfield officers have left the Northfield Police Department since Shaw became the police chief in 2001.
Asked why he left, Snyder pointed to the criticisms contained in Kelly's report.
Allard said she didn't think Snyder's number was accurate, but couldn't give a definitive number. She also said some officers left for better pay or for reasons other than being unhappy at the department.
Allard also said the police officers could have filed complaints with their union.
"I'll say that the department is a unionized department which has a process for grievances," she said. "You might want to ask an officer it they ever filed a grievance."
Snyder said he didn't approach the union because he didn't think it would do any good.
"It seemed like every time we talked to the union, it wasn't going to go anywhere," said Snyder. "I guess we were small potatoes. We looked at maybe switching unions, but it was a very long and involved process and we decided not to do it at that point."
The other former officers could not be reached for this story.
Shaw's attorney could only be reached briefly, and was not available for an interview after further calls.
The investigative report by Elliott ends by saying he thinks two issues needed to be examined: the use of department meetings as training and Shaw's missed training.
Shaw told investigators that he did not intentionally mislead anyone and has since made up the missed training, Elliott said in his report. Shaw has also changed the way training is reported to try to avoid errors, Elliott reported.
Current Northfield officer Stephen Clark, who is a firearms instructor at the department, told investigators that he did not think Shaw intentionally missed his training.
Elliot stated that it was a known fact among officers throughout the department that Shaw had missed training for several years.
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