BELIEVABILITY: A CASE OF DIVERSITY IN LAW ENFORCEMENT
Egidio A. Diodati
Assumption College
Here I sit, waiting to see the Chief. Waiting to see if any of those jerks are going to get what is coming to
them and waiting to see just what is my fate. When this started, I was pretty much all I wanted to be—a
uniformed patrol officer on a city police department. Now I am facing the possibility of disciplinary
action.
My name is Janet Cruz and I am a 24-year-old Hispanic woman, who grew up like a lot of others in this
city. My neighborhood was pretty diverse but I can’t say that I ever felt any outright hostility to me
personally. When I was in high school, my mom would say, “Stay with your own kind,” when she did not
like someone I was dating or hanging out with. You know, I dated just about anybody I wanted and it
worked out or it didn’t. To me most people are just people.
In my high school, they had this junior police cadet program, and I knew once I saw it that being a cop
was for me. Maybe it was the uniform, or the drilling, or taking care of each other—but as far as I was
concerned, it was all good. After high school, I joined the National Guard to pay for college. There was no
way mom could afford that. I made sure that I was in a military police unit. The state university had a
campus in the city with a major in Criminal Justice. So, I enrolled there. It was nearby and I could live
with my mom to save money.
All of these exposures to the “police” business left me with some valuable beliefs. First of all, this is a job
about doing the right thing and helping people. Second, officers did not just work together; it was closer
than that. It was a family that took care of each other—or at least I thought it was that way.
It really thrilled me that I had scored highly enough on the competitive entrance examination and got an
appointment to the “Academy” the very first time I took the examination. When the academy started, the
following weeks of training seemed to affirm much of what I had felt about police work with one
exception. One of the sessions at the academy was given by someone who was not on the instructional
staff, the Union Chief Steward. Although he was in the uniform of a patrol officer, he was sterner, older,
heavier, and generally less neatly dressed than the other instructors.
The class was told that the union represented the brotherhood of officers (collectively and individually) to
the command staff made up of “superior officers.” He said, “Our job is to represent all officers fairly,
equally, and to the best of our ability.” I think that unfortunately I may have placed too much faith in that
statement.
After I finished my probationary period, I think I began to fit pretty well into the ranks. Sure, lots of guys
came on to me, but I’m grown up and I dealt with it. I got to know Jack MacKenzie while working in
Precinct Three, a tough section known as “the mile.” He was a patrol officer and the steward of the
precinct union local: everybody seemed to like him. We began to date. You know, I actually thought that
he was a very funny guy and he told me that I was “cute.” It worked for a while at least. It took me about
three months to figure out that he was just too high maintenance. He wanted me to move in but when we
spent too much time in his apartment, I noticed that it was all about him, his accomplishments, and his
family. I never got much airtime. It must have been a power thing. Another thing that I noticed was that,
after a few drinks, he began to make references to minorities that made me uncomfortable.
One night we went out for dinner and I broke up with him. I started with the, “It’s me not you.” thing,
since I knew I had to leave room for his precious ego. I finished with the, “time apart” suggestion. It
seemed to have gone fairly well. A bit later, a couple of guys on my shift mentioned that they had heard
he broke up with me. I did not get into it. It was just not worth it.
When a couple of overtime details got canceled, I figured it was just bad luck. The overtime list was
maintained by the union, and I could have filed a grievance, but it would have meant getting MacKenzie
involved. When my backup was slower than usual, I chalked it up to a busy night. It occurred to me that
Jack might just be behind this stuff, but I figured if I made anything out of it, things would just get worse
Well, here I sit 11 months later, at risk of losing my job, and I either see a pattern or am letting my
imagination run away with me. Nevertheless, I see Jack MacKenzie as a major part of my recent twist of
fate. About a month ago, a flyer was put in each officer’s mail slot by the union and posted on the union
bulletin board. It encouraged all officers to attend a political rally for one of the candidates for governor in
the upcoming election. The union was going to rent a bus, and I could swear it said something about
refreshments on the bus. I was going to be available and asked a couple of people if they were going and
they said yes. So, I figured it might be fun.
On the day of the rally, my shift ended about 4 P.M. and I had just enough time to get home to shower,
before getting back to get on the union bus going to the rally. As usual, I carried my badge and personal
service weapon with me when I left the house. I spotted Paul Wilson, one of the guys from my precinct
who said he was going. We talked for a couple of minutes and walked to the bus. Paul is a great guy with
a great family. He is always showing pictures of his wife and kids and is very easygoing. Paul is African
American and he helped to found the minority officers association. As we walked toward the bus, I
spotted MacKenzie and two other union shop stewards standing near some coolers at the back entrance to
the bus. The other two guys were named Dalton and Taggert. I had seen them at a union meeting a couple
of months earlier.
Paul and I sat near the front, about two seats behind the driver and began to talk with some of the people
sitting up there. The noise level went up as MacKenzie and company entered through the back door. He
yelled from the back to the driver to, “get going.” I had seen him with a few drinks in him before, and he
did seem like he had a few in him already. The rally was about a 45-minute drive, and although the noise
level did go up, it was not bad. I could hear his voice in the back telling jokes and hear people laughing.
Because one of the coolers was up near us in the front, I had a couple of beers.
After we got to where the rally was and went in, I heard that MacKenzie and couple of guys went across
the street to a local pub. The rally went till about 10:30. After that, a group of us (Paul and a couple of
other guys from my precinct) went over to the pub to get a sandwich and a beer. I could see MacKenzie
gesturing in my direction, with the others around him laughing. About midnight, we all went back to the
bus. I sat up near the front again because I was hoping to get some sleep on the way back and because I
did not trust what MacKenzie or his crew might be up to doing.
It was getting loud in the back of the bus. They were still drinking. It was then that I began to hear his
voice mentioning my name. Things like, “Yeh, Cruz was my Monica Lewinsky. It got worse but Paul
Wilson said, “Just ignore them. They’re drunk and they’re just being jerks.” The comments continued
with things like (I’m not sure but I think it was MacKenzie who said it.) that he had a “cruz” missile. I
kept my back to them but I’m sure I also heard Taggert and Dalton’s voices with some comments.
You know what was really awful? Nobody spoke up to tell them to back off or that they were out of line. I
really expected more. Then it got worse. First, one then another of the three would ask for oral sex saying,
“Hey Monica, how about it?” Even though there were two other women on the bus, I just knew that they
were talking to me.
After a bit, it quieted down for a while and I thought it was over. I was sitting in a seat on the aisle and I
started to drift off when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned and saw MacKenzie standing over my right
shoulder exposing himself with his pants open and I think he said something like, “You know that I am
better than Wilson, how about it?” That’s when I yelled for the driver to pull over and I got out. I heard a
couple of voices tell the driver to, “Let the spic bitch go.” The bus pulled away and I was left standing
there.
Just when I thought that things could not get any worse, a guy jumped out of doorway and said, “How
much baby?” I guess he thought I was a hooker. I tried to walk away and then he pushed me against the
building. That’s when I drew my personal service weapon, put him on the ground and started to scream
for help. Pretty soon, the local police came. Would you believe that they drew their weapons, put me on
the ground in cuffs, and then searched me?
As I told the local PD’s watch commander the story, I could sense two things. First, he did not seem to
believe me. Second, he was getting angrier by the minute. “So,” he says,” I guess it’s not against
procedure in your department to drink while carrying your personal service weapon.” Obviously, it was. It
was then that I said, “Look, that son of a bitch MacKenzie is lucky that I didn’t shoot him.
About a half hour later, he came back to tell me, “O.K. honey, here is what we all have agreed to and you
really don’t have much say in it. So, listen up. We have agreed not looking at charges here in our
jurisdiction. We are going to let your own department deal with you. You will be transported back to your
department’s headquarters building. There you will be turned over to your own Internal Affairs people,
who are just waiting with baited breath to speak with you.”
The ride back was not bad until it hit me that my riding in back made me look like a criminal. Lt. Bruce,
head of IAB, met me and brought me directly to an interrogation room and left me alone. The wall
opposite where I was sitting had a good-size mirror. I wondered who was on the other side. It wasn’t
feeling much like family now. God, I was tired, angry, and damn near tears.
Deputy Chief Miceli, a gruff and physically intimidating individual, entered the room and immediately
began with some of his famous up close and personal straight talk—with none of the expletives deleted.
He was clear that the Chief was going to end my career if I was not forthcoming with the IAB
investigators. But, you know what, he just might do it anyway so the old boys in the department could
cover their collective behinds. He then took my badge and gun and told me that I was suspended pending
investigation. As he left, he wordlessly passed Lt. Bruce who was coming into the room.
Waiving his finger just inches from my face, he began, “Look Cruz, you’re in some pretty deep trouble.
Just because the other department is not filing criminal charges, it doesn’t mean that this thing is over. Far
from it, honey! Do you understand me? I want the whole story, right from the start. If I even think that
you have left something out, you are going to be leaving this room in cuffs. Understand? You can ask for
your union representative, but something tells me that they are probably not coming out from under the
rock for you. You can ask for a lawyer, but we all know what that is going to look like, don’t we?” He
ceremoniously pushed the button on the tape recorder and said, “O.K. honey, take it from the top.”
So, I went on to give Lt. Bruce chapter and verse on how it had happened. The interview was punctuated
with a couple of questions that did not make me feel all that comfortable. “How much did you have to
drink?” “Are you aware of the policy on off duty drinking while carrying personal firearms?” “Did you do
anything to encourage this behavior?” I was ordered to have no contact with anyone on the bus until
further notice and to go home until further notified. The next day, I did hear through the rumor mill that
MacKenzie, Taggert, and Dalton had also been suspended but that the union was making real fuss about
it, threatening a no confidence vote in the Chief.
About a week later I was summoned to a meeting in the Chief’s office. At the head of the table was the
Chief, with Lt. Bruce on his right, and Miceli took the seat to his left. The Chief began, “Cruz, have a
seat. MacKenzie claims that this is all made up by you because you are upset that he broke up with you.
I’m not sure how much credibility to place in that statement. The results of the internal affairs
investigation were severely hamstrung by the union. They would not provide a list of members on the bus
and told all members not to give any information to us. They are telling the rank and file that we are just
trying to break the union to put us in a good position for the upcoming contract negotiations. We are
going to place a lot of weight on your statement. You are being returned to duty after a three-day loss of
pay for conduct unbecoming an officer because you admitted to drinking when armed. MacKenzie is
being terminated. Taggert and Dalton will be suspended without pay for three months. You should know
that the union will probably grieve this and perhaps bring it to the state review board and they can act on
it, if they see fit, including reversing it.” Now that, I thought, was a fair result.
Now here I sit, waiting outside the Chief’s office yet one more time. The union hired a law firm and
brought the whole case to the state review board, and they have apparently made a ruling. After the door
opens, again I find myself sitting opposite the Chief, Deputy Miceli, and Lt. Bruce. The Chief does not
look happy but begins, “The state review board has come up with a finding after reviewing our reports
and recommendations and looking at sworn statements provided by a number of officers who say that
they were on the bus that night. The finding is that, although no one actually says MacKenzie exposed
himself to you, he was abusive to you. They have upheld his termination. There was not enough evidence
to support the suspensions of Taggert and Dalton, so their suspensions have been reversed with back pay.
Several of the statements indicate that they saw you in several exchanges with one or more people in the
back of the bus. That is in direct contradiction with your sworn statement. The review board finds that
you have lied on a sworn statement and should be held responsible. As a result, you are being suspended
for a month without pay. In addition, it might be a good idea if you were reassigned. We are sending you
to be a school safety officer for a while.”
Project Questions
1. Describe the corporate culture of this police department as you see it.
2. Was Janet Cruz treated fairly? Why or why not? Here you should think about how Janet Cruz sees
here situation and how others might see her situation.
3. Given your knowledge of the case what recommendations would you have given to Janet Cruz when
she entered the Police Force?
4. Given the state of affairs at the end of the case, what recommendation would you make to Janet Cruz
regarding her future course of action? Why?
5. So the police force has been directed to increase the diversity of its workforce and you have been
hired to assist in this transition. What are some of the ways that you can help them reach their goals?
*These are not essay questions! You can reply in point form if you so desire. But you will need to provide
evidence to support your response.
BELIEVABILITY: ACASE OFDIVERSITYINLAWENFORCEMENT
