I worked for the Independence, Kansas Police Department for a short time in 2004. During my time at the department, I witnessed behavior by both employees and administration that would make anyone angry.
I left on mutual terms after an incident where a person whom I had arrested made a complaint against me. This incident started out as a typical domestic violence call and ended with me being rushed to the hospital by ambulance because of the lack of assistance I witnessed at the scene.
I had responded to a domestic violence call to backup a rookie police officer and when we arrived, we found a woman in her livingroom with a couple of her friends whom she had called to come over. The woman was bleeding from her forehead and stated her significant other had pushed her head through the glass panes of a French style door. The suspect had left the premises and was at his mother's residence at this time.
I notified my Lieutenant of the situation by radio and advised dispatch I would be on my way to the subject's location. Upon my arrival at the suspect's location, I observed the man sitting on a set of stairs directly in front of the house, next to the street.
I called for backup and waited up the street for about 10 minutes. When I called for backup again and was told that there "is no backup available". I approached the suspect and got out of my car. After speaking with the suspect for a brief period of time, the suspect lunged at me and I pushed him back to a seated position. He then lunged again, this time going for my gun.
A struggle ensued and I lost my cell phone and radio so, I had no contact with anyone as we were wrestling in the front yard. A woman who lived next door dialed 911 and came out of her house, screaming at the suspect to "stop it". The suspect had gotten up and immediately started kicking me in the back of the head. He had already attempted to bite my right thumb completely off and I found out later that he is positive for Hepatitis C.
The rookie officer that I originally taked about, came running up the street and used his pepper spray on the suspect as I was backing away from him with my firearm drawn. The suspect was under the influence of some sort of mind altering chemical and the police department refused to give me details. I was then joined by a Sheriff's Deputy and two other officers, including my Lieutenant, who were all at a local Wal-Mart Super Center on a misdemeanor theft case for a candy bar and a bag of chips instead of assisting me.
My Lieutenant told me after the incident, "Oh yeah, I was going to tell you earlier that this guy likes to fight cops and he hates them". This information would have been vital to the way I approached him if it were given to me on the way to his location but, my Lieutenant had other priorities such as assisting veteran officers with a minor theft case.
The suspect happened to be a police department Dispatcher's son and Chief Lee Bynum fabricated a disciplinary action form against me saying that I did not follow the "use of force policy" when he had already admitted that I did nothing wrong.
The investigation by Internal Affairs also cleared me of any wrong-doing but I was asked to resign because Lee Bynum said that I lied on a polygraph (which I passed) and that I didn't follow the use of force policies. That's another story. You see, I took a polygraph test and the department's contracted examiner said that the test was "inconclusive".
I was called to the police department several days later and I was told by the detective that the Chief needed to talk to me. I arrived and was forced to redo my polygraph and this time, the examiner told me this time that I had "failed the test" but, would not show me the results.
While on the way back from taking the initial polygraph, the detective made a comment unrelated to the case. The detective told myself and the rookie officer "there isn't a police officer anywhere who has not used the word n*gger" while discussing gang members and African Americans. This greatly offended me and when I told the Chief about the comment, he told me to "just suck it up".
I also had previously gotten a memo from the City Court Clerk which, instructed me to discontinue scheduling people for an over-booked court date or she would "beat me about the head and shoulders". This was also ignored by the administration when reported. I was told by my Lieutenant that, "there isn't an attorney in this city that would take your case against the police department, they're all in too good with the Chief and City Manager".
Chief Lee Bynum told me in my exit interview, "I will make sure you never work in law enforcement again" because I disagreed with his management style and confronted him about being corrupt.
I also have a friend whom used to be the Assistant Chief of Police in Independence and was wrongly terminated for starting an investigation against Bynum and the City Manager for illegal activities. Upon being terminated, the ex-Assistant Chief attempted to turn his investigation over to the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department and it was swept under the rug by Sheriff's Officials. The ex-Assistant Chief won a Federal law suit against the city and received a substantial settlement.
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