When the Department of Public Safety installed red and blue lights onto its patrol vehicles in March, management had full knowledge that it would be illegal for officers to use them.
A memo from DPS Director Tom Fitzpatrick, dated March 7, instructed DPS officers that the “use of the lights and siren on the new patrol vehicles is strictly prohibited.”
In an Oct. 23 Emerald article, DPS Director Tom Fitzpatrick denied a claim by a former officer that the staff signed a memo agreeing not to use the lights. Kim Maynard, a former DPS officer who quit about two months ago, said DPS installed the lights with the assumption that officers could become commissioned to use them.
According to state laws, only police and fire department vehicles can use red and blue lights.
“They’re not illegal to have. It’s illegal to use them,” Maynard said.
After being presented with a copy of the memo, obtained by the Emerald from another former DPS employee, Fitzpatrick said he did not remember ever releasing it, and said it could have come from a lieutenant acting out a verbal order.
“I don’t remember seeing it,” he said. “I’m not saying I didn’t see this.”
He added that he never put his initials on the memo to indicate that he read it before officers signed it.
The memo has 13 signatures from DPS officers, each one verified by a management supervisor. Lt. Marte Martinez was the manager for nine of the officers who signed the memo. Martinez is on personal leave, and DPS and University officials have declined to disclose the details regarding the issue.
While no agency has cited DPS for installing the lights on its vehicles, Fitzpatrick said the lights will be removed once replacements, probably in yellow and white colors, are found.
But DPS made the decision to install the blue lights before officers had been commissioned.
Fitzpatrick said that when DPS bought the used cars from the state motor pool, they had been stripped of lights and other police equipment.
He said the decision to install the lights was part of an ongoing attempt by DPS to commission between five and 10 officers to “special security officer” positions. The new rank would give officers probable cause arrest authority and the ability to frisk suspects — and to use blue police lights.
“It was not a big issue. At the time it occurred it was a relatively minor issue,” Fitzpatrick said of the decision to install the lights.
The commissioned status is an ongoing process, which Fitzpatrick said should be completed by Jan. 1.
Special security officers are one part of an attempt by Fitzpatrick and the department to be a more professional force with increased policing privileges.
As these changes are being made, a string of veteran DPS employees have left the department, accusing management of harassment, abuse of power and discrimination. Maynard was one of those officers, and said Fitzpatrick didn’t cause problems such as the one with the car lights.
Instead, he said Lts. Martinez and Joan Saylor abused their power and made management decisions without properly consulting the director.
Fitzpatrick “is just out of the loop. He’s basically retired,” Maynard said. “He just let [the lieutenants] run the show.”
Despite saying he never saw the memo, Fitzpatrick insists he is still in charge at DPS.
“I know what’s going on in this department,” he said. “I am not out of the loop.”
Saylor said there is no age discrimination in the office and would not comment on any DPS personnel issues.
At least five DPS employees have left the department or been transferred to other jobs at the University since summer. Former dispatcher Pauline Conaway filed a lawsuit against DPS and the University, which was dismissed, but Conaway received a new University job and $15,000 in an out of court settlement.