During the disruption following the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, a police officer in Elgin, Illinois posted two entries concerning the dispute. The first included a link to a video purporting to show Brown stealing cigarillos from a local store. Under the link to the video the officer wrote "Hmmm ...innocent victim my ass. Did society a favor." A couple of days later the officer posted a second entry. This entry contained a photo of a Missouri State Highway officer with a protester. Both individuals in the photo are making a hand gesture which the officer interpreted as a gang sign. Under the photo he wrote " This is Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson. He's also in the Chicago Tribune hugging protesters Just awesome...appears to be the enemy within."
While the officer's settings were set so his posts were visible only to his friends, one of his friends, a Sergeant in the Department, saw the initial post and reported it to superiors in the Department. Grievant was spoken to about the posting, and,while there was a dispute about the content of the conversation, it was undisputed that the officer was told that the posting was inappropriate and as a result of the conversation he removed everything following "Hmmm...." Grievant removed the second post after he learned that what he believed to be a gang sign was a fraternity gesture.
The City conducted an investigation of the officer's Facebook posts. As part of the investigation it met with community representatives and the investigation received considerable local news coverage. That coverage included references to the Facebook posts and other details of the investigation. Following the investigation the officer's employment was terminated. That termination was grieved, and the dispute submitted to Arbitrator Aaron Wolff for resolution.
Arbitrator Wolff described the issue before him:
Discharge of Elgin police officer with 171/2 years service for two postings on his Facebook account in August 2014, allegedly made in violation of Elgin's Social Media Policy, at the height of the Ferguson, Missouri riots after a white policeman shot and killed an 18 year old black man.
The Union (Policemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, Unit 54) raised a number of arguments, including a claim that that the City's action violated grievant's First Amendment rights.
Arbitrator Wolff found it unnecessary to reach the First Amendment issue, finding instead that the City's actions, while the investigation was pending, of providing information to the media concerning facts in dispute and copies of the Facebook postings undermined the City's claim of just cause. Arbitrator Wolff concluded:
The above record of expedited release of documents (fn30) several weeks prior to completion of the investigation of [grievant] on September 19 was a clear violation of the City's Police Department rules and regulations and is a bar to finding just cause for the discharge. ...
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In light of that finding and conclusion there is no need to decide the First Amendment issue or other issues in this case. It should be noted, however, that both City staff employees and Police Department employees released confidential information to the public while the investigation was pending and, therefore, both violated the Collective Bargaining Agreement ....
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fn30 ...An unanswered question in this case is how the media learned of the investigation in order to make any FOIA requests. ...
Nonetheless, Arbitrator Wolff did find cause for a six month suspension for grievant's failure to follow what he found was the direction to grievant to remove posts relating to the Ferguson incidents. While noting that the First Amendment issue remained unresolved, he concluded "Grievant should have followed the golden rule of obeying orders and grieving them later. At that time and manner he could find out if the postings were protected by the First Amendment."
Arbitrator Wolff's award is available here.
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