COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (CBS4) – A Colorado Springs Police Department sergeant was temporarily suspended and transferred following an internal affairs investigation that showed he had posted comments on a live broadcast of a protest last June.
The CSPD investigation uncovered the sergeant. Keith Wrede responded to a press team’s policy with “KILL THEM ALL” and “KILL EM ALL” a Facebook profile with the call Steven Eric. The news station, a subsidiary of ABC KRDO, approached the police a few days later after receiving a tip that the sergeant. Wrede was the source of the comments.
In a letter to the public, CSPD leader Vince Niski called the comments Monday “invisible, unsightly and reflecting our department.”
The sergeant sanctioned with a 40-hour suspension and a loss of more than $2,000 salary, as well as the revocation of his specialized unit and reassignment to some other branch office.
But the leader also asked the public not to judge the officer by an act of solitude and the sergeant. Wrede’s successes over two decades of service.
“Determined,” Chief Niski wrote, “that the comments were made out of service out of frustration and that there was no indication of physical action or intent to cause harm. I’m not downplaying Sergeant Wrede’s comments. Your comments were unacceptable, broken our relationships with members of our network and did not meet our standards ».
Sergeant The disguised comments of Wrede occurred in an incident on June 30. A protester organization blocked traffic on Interstate 25 with a dozen cars, then pulled out cars with symptoms and symptoms in aid of the Black Lives Matter movement. The blockade lasted just over an hour and was peaked before CSPD officials responded.
Chief Niski also wrote a letter to the public, supporting community frustration with the recent series of protests and damage to assets, and explaining why his department remained in response.
A total of thirteen other people were cited for their role in the incident.
In his last letter, Chief Niski defended his resolve not to fire the officer, despite calls from the public to do so.
“While your statements were damaging and reprehensible, I cannot deprive the network of a smart police officer and yours because of a remote incident of an error of judgment,” Niski said. “We hope you can settle for our apologies and be confident that CSPD and Sergeant Wrede will continue to serve the public faithfully.”
The boss’s letter:
For our –
As a leader of the police, I will be transparent and fair with our network, in smart and bad times. As many of you know, one of our agents has been accused of writing misplaced comments on social media under a pseudonym. The investigation and review procedure for this incident has been completed. It was discovered that the Facebook profile used to make those comments actually belonged to Sgt. Keith Wrede of the Colorado Springs Police Department. We offer our organizational humility and sincere apologies to our entire network. Make no mistake, I do not condone your movements, or check to minimize the severity of the damage you have caused at a time of reconstruction between law enforcement and the network. However, we need to provide a complete context of what happened.
We have listened to the considerations of many members of the network and are also aware of erroneous data or misconceptions about our role and reaction to this survey. I would like to begin by responding to the termination request. These requests were for a prompt suspension even before our investigation was completed. While I sense the frustrations, Sergeant Wrede, as members of our network, has due process every time a type of investigation is conducted. Several other people also told me that I had not responded to those comments or that I refused to provide data for internal research. From day one, I took the position that the comments made on the live stream were unprofessional, unsightly and did not reflect our department. As mentioned above, public sector workers are entitled to due process under the law, and in any investigation, we do not disclose the main points as they are ongoing. We owe it to our network and our workers to ensure that a thorough and fair investigation is conducted without any undue influence.
I fully recognize that it will take time to rebuild the relationships that have been broken. All I would ask of our network is not to condemn all the officials who carry our badge for a person’s movements. Remember that officials are also human beings and make mistakes. Throughout his 20-year career, Sergeant Wrede has worked professionally on this network. While his statements were damaging and reprehensible, I cannot deprive the network of a smart police officer and his facilities because of a remote incident of an error of judgment. I would also like to reiterate that the unfortunate comments that have been made do not reflect the character or expectations of our branch as to how we serve or communicate about our network. We hope you can settle for our apologies and have confidence that the CSPD and the sergeant. Wrede will continue to serve the public faith completely. We will aspire to be worthy to settle for everything we say and do.
For the sake of transparency, we have provided the internal affairs investigation to our community, which can be discovered here: https://coloradosprings.gov/police-department/page/cases-interest