An Overland Park, Kansas police officer has been fired after an investigation revealed that he threatened the life of a 5-year-old girl via her mother’s Facebook page. This happened a few hours after the police shootings in Dallas this past week.
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Lanaydra Williams lives in Dallas, TX, and tells KCTV5 she had a couple pictures posted to her personal Facebook account back in October 2014. About 11:50 p.m. Thursday she got a notification that a new comment had been made on them. That's when she read the comment that she found both horrifying and alarming.
"We'll see how much her life matters soon..better be careful leaving your info open where she can be found :) hold her close tonight, it'll be the last time," stated the post.
It takes a big man and a sick mind to threaten someone else’s child on social media. According to the Daily Mail, that big man is Rodney Lee Wilson. Looking into the man’s account she realized that the man was from Overland Park, and seemed to be a police officer. She contacted the Overland Park Police Department (OPPD) to make a complaint. The OPPD investigated the matter and released this statement:
This morning, the Overland Park Police Department received notification about a Facebook post, reportedly made by one of our officers’ from his personal Facebook account.
“I immediately initiated an investigation into the officer’s actions and requested it be completed in a timely manner,” said Police Chief Francis Donchez Jr.
During the investigation, by our Professional Standards Unit, we learned our officer did in fact make this post, Donchez said. It was obvious that our officer did not meet the standards of professionalism for the Overland Park Police Department. Overland Park has terminated the officer, effective immediately.
“This quick action demonstrates our commitment to our core values including integrity and respect,” Donchez said.
“I want to assure our community, and those outside our community, that our highest priority is the safety and welfare of the citizens of Overland Park, and the men and women who protect everyone. I will continue to hold the employees of the Overland Park Police Department accountable for its actions on and off-duty.
“Finally, I want to publicly apologize to those affected by our officer’s personal actions. His actions do not represent the Overland Park Police Department in anyway and no one should be subjected to any type of discrimination or this kind of behavior,” the Chief said.
A criminal investigation is underway as a result of information discovered during the course of the personnel investigation.
Chief Of Police Francis Donchez Jr
Part of the problem for law enforcement these days is the caliber of person they are attracting and employing. It’s time to not only expect much better results from our police, but also raise the standards of who gets a chance to be a police officer.