Cop canned for doing something good.

A Rice University Police Office was fired for leaving his post to assist two Houston Police officers who had been wounded in a shootout. It was his instinct to go to the aid of fellow officers in need and he paid for his good deed with his job.

With stories of cops abusing their authority, beating and killing suspects and then facing absolutely NO penalties for their actions, this story sends a shocking message to law enforcement; The department will stand behind you so long as you are busy oppressing the people. If you try to do some actual good in the community, expect to be disciplined.

Cop fired after helping fellow officers in distress

It was a Saturday on campus when David Sedmak, a Rice University police officer, heard "Officer down, officer down!" on his scanner: Two members of the Houston Police Department had been shot downtown. Sedmak rushed to the scene to help his fellow officers.

But Rice didn't see Sedmak as a hero. Instead, the university fired him, citing "dereliction of duty."

The university said in a statement that its officers often assist other law enforcement agencies when the need arises. But Sedmak erred, it said, by not informing the university police dispatcher about where he was.

Kevin Lawrence of the Texas Municipal Police Association agreed. "You don't fire a guy for this unless he's a chronic disciplinary problem," Lawrence said. "You call him in, you counsel him and you put him back out there. If he's a good cop, he's a good employee. You use this as a training opportunity."

Yahoo News


The police no longer are looking for people to serve and protect the community. Instead, they now want officers who are only interested in making the public comply with their authority.

This represents the backward logic of many government entities.

"you broke the rules doing something morally just so we're gonna brake you, however, if you had done something bad via loopholes we wouldn't even acknowledge it"

Key words are, Fired because he left his post! He was terminated for leaving his duty station for over an hour. No communication with his command center. Also he is a Rice University Campus Police Officer and not a Houston Police Officer. What was he doing leaving campus to attend to another departments crisis? Slanted stories make for slanted opinions.

reply to post by FortAnthem


Here we go again. Do the right thing, get fired. Let people potentially die knowing you very well could have saved them, get a promotion. Ahem...

ColoradoJens

Yea , I would have to agree with this guy - Kevin Lawrence of the Texas Municipal Police Association agreed. "You don't fire a guy for this unless he's a chronic disciplinary problem," Lawrence said. "You call him in, you counsel him and you put him back out there. If he's a good cop, he's a good employee. You use this as a training opportunity."

This is an example of why America is becoming a police state, we all better get used to it or do something about it...

reply to post by redbarron626


The guy got caught up in the moment in his desire to rush to the aid of his fellow officers. The article says the Campus Police often assist neighboring jurisdictions. He just forgot to call in his whereabouts in all the excitement.

Like the article says; this should have been used as a learning experience. If the officer was not a chronic discipline problem, he should have been counseled, received additional training and maybe received some type of discipline but, firing him for showing good intentions and bravely rushing to confront an armed suspect is going WAY overboard.

This is the kind of Officer I would vote in for Sheriff.
Once again this is code over common sense

I can understand the reasoning of releasing an officer due to abandonment of his post. By leaving your post, you potentially put people at risk of any number of things. However, in this case, I feel that he should not be disciplined at all. Sure, let him know, that if something like this happens again in the future, to make sure to let your superior know. The reason WHY he left his post, is admirable, at least in my opinion. It's not like he left to get a quickie, or something equally unprofessional, he was responding to a fellow officer down.

On the bright side, he'll probably be one of the first hired at the HPD should he want the job.

I don't know enough about the incident to judge but just to throw another hypothesis out there, how do we know he isn't one of those gung-ho "wanna-be" cops who thought this was a chance to get in on some "real action" and away from the humdrum days of busting keg parties and watching half-nekid coeds run around campus.

Just a thought.....

reply to post by FortAnthem


No insult intended to anyone but we don't know if a College/University Police is a really nice title for a Security Guard. We don't know if he is trained at police academy. We don't know if he carries a sidearm or is limited to a cell phone so he can call 'real' cops upon seeing real trouble on campus.

Many businesses and schools have security/cops that are fellows of retirement age who don't want to watch TV home alone. This does not mean they are qualified to assist LEO's in a situation.

reply to post by LargeFries

The article stated the campus cop is a former Galveston police officer (real cop) and that the university routinely helps HPD with back up, when needed. He was trained to take action, guess forgetting to use his radio to update his supervisor wasn't at the top of his list, though.

There is no room for exercising personal judgement. Policy reigns supreme.

Seems with each passing day there are fewer "shot callers" and more "soldiers" than each day previous.