Political cop gets warned

YOUNGSTOWN -- A police officer who stood outside a polling location on Election Day and solicited votes for mayoral candidate Robert F. Hagan will not be disciplined, the outgoing chief says.
"I'll talk to the officer involved and tell him to leave politics alone," Robert E. Bush Jr. said Wednesday. "Nothing formal will be in his file."
In December, the police department's Internal Affairs Division launched an investigation based on a formal complaint, an anonymous letter, that alleged prohibited political activity. Three officers were investigated, with only one found to have violated departmental rules and classified service laws.
The officer, off duty at the time, stood outside Zion Lutheran Church on Canfield Road on Nov. 8, 2005, which was Election Day. In an interview with IAD investigators, he acknowledged that he had a Hagan sticker on his outer clothing and approached incoming voters to solicit votes for Hagan. Hagan lost the election to Jay Williams.
Before the formal complaint was filed, Bush sent a memo to all police department employees Nov. 14, saying it had come to his attention that some officers may have been in violation of the Ohio Administrative Code that governs permissible and prohibited political activity for city employees. The penalty for engaging in political activities can be termination, according to the memo.