The Overland Park Police Department has fired an officer following an investigation into a Facebook post he made from his personal social media account.
Lanaydra Williams, who lives in Dallas, TX, says that she received an alert from Facebook late at night saying she had a comment on a set of photos that were posted back in 2004.
The comment read:
“We’ll see how much her life matters soon..better be careful leaving your info open where she can be found :) hold her close tonight, it’ll be the last time.”
Horrified, she clicked on the page of the person who wrote it and discovered that he was a cop — a cop named Rodney Lee.
via KCTV5:
“I saw that he was a cop and I was like, ‘This is outrageous. This is not acceptable at all,'” she said.
OPPD launched an investigation into the post when Williams reported it.
“I immediately initiated an investigation into the officer’s actions and requested it be completed in a timely manner,” Overland Park Police Chief Francis Donchez Jr. said.
During an investigation by the department’s Professional Standards Unit, Donchez said they learned his officer did in fact make the post.
“It was obvious that our officer did not meet the standards of professionalism for the Overland Park Police Department,” Donchez said.
The police department immediately terminated the officer.
“This quick action demonstrates our commitment to our core values including integrity and respect,” Donchez said. “I want to assure our community, and those outside our community, that our highest priority is the safety and welfare of the citizens of Overland Park, and the men and women who protect everyone. I will continue to hold the employees of the Overland Park Police Department accountable for its actions on and off-duty.”
Donchez said he wanted to publicly apologize to those affected by his officer’s personal actions.
“His actions do not represent the Overland Park Police Department in anyway and no one should be subjected to any type of discrimination or this kind of behavior,” he said.
Williams says her story shows that racism between cops and people of color is real and getting this out there should wake people up.
Williams will hold 5-year-old India a little closer tonight, but she won’t tell her what happened. She says that’s a story for when her little girl is older.
Terrible.
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