Decision made to reduce dispatcher’s suspension

In the end, the dispatcher loses one day of vacation.

STAFF report

WARREN — A police dispatcher suspended without pay for six days for two violations of departmental policy has had five of the six days of her suspension eliminated.

After a grievance hearing Aug. 19 before Safety-Service Director William “Doug” Franklin, he ruled the three-day suspension dispatcher Robin Hager received for allegedly giving out private police information was without merit because of due-process issues, incomplete investigation and lack of and/or contradictory evidence.

Hager also was accused of illegally using a law enforcement computer database.

Franklin’s decision said the city and Hager’s union, the Ohio Patrolman’s Benevolent Association, also agreed to reduce her three-day suspension for improperly using the computer database to one day.

The one day will be deducted from her vacation days, Franklin ruled.

Gary Cicero, city personnel director, said the agreement by the parties on the computer database was reduced to one day because the captain working with Hager at the time gave permission for her to use the database, but he was unaware the information sought was not police related.

The union agreed not to appeal the decision, Cicero said, so the matter becomes final rather than move on to a mediator.

After an internal affairs investigation, police Chief John Mandopoulos suspended Hager for three days for allegedly calling her husband on her personal cell phone Jan. 11 and telling him a raid team was at police headquarters and was “gearing up to do a raid.”

Hager’s husband then passed that information along to at least one other person, a businessman, the investigation indicated.

That businessman also told Detective Jeffrey Hoolihan the dispatcher had run a Social Security number on the Law Enforcement Automated Data System, or LEADS, to determine whether one of the businessman’s employees had a valid driver’s license.

She also was accused of checking a license plate number for someone outside the department to determine who owned a vehicle, according to the internal affairs investigation.

Detective Sgt. Jeffrey Cole has said state law prohibits the use of LEADS without prior approval. Cole said giving out information on a raid violates department policy.