Anonymous officer speaks out about Shaffer

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A Manning Police Officer, who prefers to remain unnamed, spoke to the Manning Times about Blair Shaffer on Sunday and Monday. “Shaffer is a good man in some ways, but he has a lot going on that the public doesn’t know about,” said the officer, who then shared concerns regarding the possible reinstatement of Shaffer. “If the city manager, Council or Mayor knew what was going on, Shaffer would have been demoted or fired some time ago.” The officer then spoke of instances of vehicle misuse, which include using the Tahoe provided by the city for out-of-state vacations, sometimes pulling his personal camper, and using the Tahoe to pull his utility trailer to haul trash to the Police Department to put in the dumpster. The officer was also concerned regarding the security issues surrounding the fact that Shaffer’s wife and daughters have the door code to the secure areas of the police station. “They would drive up into the back parking lot, use the code, and just walk in,” said the officer. According to the officer, Shaffer also brought his daughter’s boyfriend to the firing range while officers were actively qualifying and allowed the young man to fire down the range. Shaffer also hired his daughter’s best friend, according to the officer, two and a half months prior to her 21st birthday. During this time, she answered phones and performed basic secretarial work while receiving a full officer’s pay. Also during this time, Shaffer allowed her to ride, in uniform, with other officers on calls. “She wasn’t allowed to carry a gun yet, so she couldn’t even protect herself,” said the officer. The officer expressed frustration regarding what was seen as “cliques” within the police department. The officer stated Shaffer had preferred officers who “could never do anything wrong,” and who could “get away with anything.” The officer did state that nothing Shaffer did seemed racially or gender biased. According to the officer, Shaffer allowed officers to use expensive overtime money to clean the range, although they had not been trained to do this. This allows the officers to bill expensive overtime hours. The officer spoke of the promotions policies which were mentioned in Shaffer’s grievance hearing as listed on his termination letter. According to the officer, until two and a half years ago, Shaffer followed departmental policy as laid out in the hiring and firing procedures by the City. Shaffer would post jobs and promotions, email the promotions to the entire department and would email the entire department to let everyone know who was promoted. Two and a half years ago that all stopped. No one was notified of any promotional opportunities, and according to the officer, no emails were sent out stating who was promoted. “The only way to find out someone was promoted is if you noticed new stripes on their uniform,” said the officer. The officer addressed the directive they were all instructed to sign, which happened after someone spoke to a Council member regarding the promotions issue. Shaffer called the department together and told them they were not to be talking to anyone, including Council members, about any promotions or anything only Shaffer could answer questions regarding. According to the officer, Shaffer never mentioned vehicle use approvals, which Shaffer stated in the hearing. Shaffer also instructed all officers to keep their body cameras on at all times, even when talking to Council members. “This could keep officers from being able to go to Council members with concerns,” said the officer. Though some officers would be off during the day and could meet with Council members when out of uniform, some would not be able to do so. Their hours off would be too early or too late in the day to catch a Council member when not in uniform. The officer spoke of the day Shaffer was fired. During the hearing, City Administrator Scott Tanner had mentioned Shaffer yelling at a judge, which had caused friction between the judge’s office and the police department, and this was listed on the termination letter. After Shaffer knew he was being let go, according to the officer, Shaffer discussed the judge with his officers. “In the office the day he was getting fired, Shaffer said, ‘This is why they’re claiming they’re firing me. I did yell at the judge, because he was doing some wrong things.’ So he admitted he was yelling at the judge because he thought the judge was doing wrong,” said the officer. Lastly, the officer expressed concerns regarding a change in the GPS system usage. “We had a GPS system in the cars where we could see where other officers were located,” said the officer. “I could see how fast everyone was going, what direction, whether they were stationary. If someone got into trouble and needed help, we could all see where he was.” The alerts came to the officers via cell phone. According to the officer, around a year and a half ago, Shaffer changed the system so that only Shaffer received the alerts and could see where anyone was. “If he’s at home in bed at night when someone gets in trouble, what good does that do us? It’s just wasting money on a program that’s not working any more. It’s not doing anything safe for us. We had a good thing, and he changed it to something that benefited only him,” said the officer. “I think he got very comfortable in the fact that he had been chief for ten years and felt he could do what he wanted to do when he wanted to do it.” The officer did say he was pleased with Interim Police Chief Keith Grice. “I wish he would stay. He’s calm and steady and is doing a great job,” said the officer.