When I began blogging about police topics, I checked with my chief. What good is blogging about police work if it gets you fired? The chief didn’t have any issues with it and I tried to steer away from the overly controversial topics to be safe.
Then I got moved to Internal Affairs and my chief became uncomfortable with my writing on Spartan Cops. He pointed out that officers I am investigating could misinterpret my thoughts and opinions as departmental policy. He asked me to consult with the city attorney to confirm this issue, which they did.
What this means
After much consideration, I have opted not to get into a conflict with my boss, so I will no longer be writing at Spartan Cops while I am in Internal Affairs. Typically that is a two year sentence in my department.
What happens to Spartan Cops
Spartan Cops will still continue to publish articles about police topics but they may not be as frequent. We will continue to publish articles by Matt and guest writers. (Email us here if you would like to contribute a guest article.)
Thanks
Hopefully the two years will go by quickly and I will be back writing here again. For now I would like to say thanks to everyone who has been supportive of me and Spartan Cops.
Many readers have sent praise and constructive criticism and I have been thankful for both. Writing has opened doors for me and exposed me to writers and trainers that I admire. It has given me clarity about important police issues. We need more police writers and I would encourage other officers to try their hand at it.
Related posts:
- One year later It has been a year since we started Spartan Cops...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Dear Scott,
I am not your target reader, rather a civilian. But I follow this blog because I admire great good sense. I’m sorry to see you go, even for a couple of years.
But it is the love of police work that drives your posts, and so naturally it comes first. I’m glad the blog won’t be shut down. I will continue to read and hope to see you back!
Sincerely,
Ann T.
I will miss Scott’s posts.
A potential conflict of interest?
Unfortunately, the higher you go in an earned position, the more you have to lose.
Massad Ayoob tells us “Know where the attack will come from, and have a counter in place”.
Great counter Scott! I am sure you will do a professional job during your sentence. (Possibly an early release for good behavior?).
Your PD’s gain is an important but temporary loss for SpartanCops!
It’s been really interesting reading your insights on here. I hope you can come back soon and write more. Until then, we’ll keep our fingers crossed :-). Best of luck with everything!