We Believe

The Anderson Police Department must do some housecleaning to polish its tarnished image.

When your job is to uphold the law, you are in turn held to a higher standard.

This should be the guiding behavioral philosophy for law enforcement officers in Madison County and everywhere. Unfortunately, four Anderson police officers within the past half year have apparently ignored this code and been charged with alcohol-related offenses.

Their behavior sheds a bad light on the APD and leads the public to question the integrity of a department that would employ such officers. Such behavior also raises serious question about the commitment and sincerity of APD personnel in general and is a slap in the face to the many officers who do conform to a higher standard.

APD Chief Darron Sparks and the Anderson Board of Public Safety took a step early this month toward both repairing the department’s image and sending a disciplinary message to his officers. The message is that reckless or illegal behavior will not be tolerated. Following Sparks’ recommendation, the board suspended two of the officers — Steve R. Ohlheiser and Joshua L. Senseney — without pay.

While there are circumstances where suspension with pay is appropriate, the practice in government is viewed with a jaundiced eye by taxpayers who don’t take kindly to paying someone to sit on the couch at home and watch TV.

“In the eyes of our citizens and taxpayers, that would be a negative thing to do,” Sparks said.

Some might argue that Ohlheiser and Senseney, whose criminal trials are set for November and December respectively, are being punished without due process. But due process for job-related disciplinary action isn’t necessarily the same as due process for legal action. In keeping with the higher standard of behavior, the evidence needed for suspension without pay or even dismissal need not rise to the level of evidence needed for criminal prosecution.

In other words, if the two officers are found by Sparks to have acted recklessly and without regard to public safety, APD disciplinary action is warranted regardless of the disposition of the court case.

If Ohlheiser and Senseney are ultimately found guilty in court — both face drunken-driving charges — Sparks should seriously consider firing them. It might be the only way to restore public trust in the APD. Whatever measures are taken by the court of law and by Sparks, it will be important for the police chief to spell out what’s being done to assure the public that the transgressions won’t be repeated.

The larger matter, of course, is to recruit officers of the highest integrity and then to make a commitment to a higher standard of public behavior a top priority. In the end, the APD must put officers on the street who put the law above themselves — not the other way around.