The Columbus Civil Service Commission Thursday unanimously upheld the suspension of a Columbus Police Department patrol officer for violating the city’s social media policies.
The decision came at the end of a more than two-hour hearing, during which CPD Officer Jared Booth argued the 28-day suspension without pay he received earlier this summer was excessive and could hurt his chances at getting a promotion.
“I’m looking … to do my part to help the police department,” he said. “And I believe this suspension would hinder that.”
Columbus City Council voted to suspend Booth in June after city attorney Jeff Turnage learned about three Facebook posts Booth had made that are included as exhibits in former CPD officer Canyon Boykin’s lawsuit against the city, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi’s Aberdeen Division.
The three posts include an article about police officers and firefighters coming out of the closet and announcing engagements to same sex partners, in which Booth tagged Boykin; a post containing a racial slur; and a post containing a suggestive comment referring to oral sex over a phallic-shaped symbol, in which Booth tagged a female officer.
But Booth, who represented himself at the hearing, argued he hadn’t realized the content he’d posted was inappropriate, that he hadn’t harassed the officer tagged in the sexually suggestive post because she hadn’t been offended and that he had a First Amendment right to post his opinion on Facebook provided he didn’t comment about his duties as a police officer.
Certain city employees, including police officers, can appeal punishments or terminations to the Civil Service Commission, a three-person body that meets on city employee matters. In Booth’s case, the commission ruled the city council had decided to suspend Booth on good faith.
Highlights of the hearing
During the hearing, Booth told the commission he hadn’t realized the sexually explicit post he’d shared was inappropriate and that he’d thought the sex toy in the photo was a Popsicle. He tagged the other officer in it because the two of them had recently had a conversation about Popsicles, he said.
The female officer he had tagged, CPD Officer Toni Howard, told commissioners Thursday she hadn’t paid close attention to the picture but that she thought it was funny when she first saw it.
“The first time I saw it … I just thought it was a Popsicle,” she said.
“If they’re offended by a Popsicle, I think they’re in the wrong line of work in the first place,” she later added.
She also said the post was meant to be private because both she and Booth have their Facebook pages set so that only Facebook friends can see their posts.
Turnage disagreed.
“If it’s so private, how did Canyon Boykin get it?” he asked.
“Nothing’s really private in 2017,” he added.
Turnage said that whether Howard took offense to the post is irrelevant given it could have offended other officers and contributed to a hostile work environment.
During the hearing, Booth also brought up Facebook posts by former city councilman Marty Turner, who also used racial slurs on social media. However, both Turnage and commissioner Thomas Moore argued Turner’s posts were relevant because elected officials are not subject to the purview of the Civil Service Commission.
Booth also claimed that Police Chief Oscar Lewis had talked about religion with him in a private conversation after Booth learned he would be punished for the posts and argued that was also a violation of harassment policy. But Human Resources Director Pat Mitchell said bringing up religion was not necessarily harassment unless it was used to discriminate against an employee.
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