2 Fired For Creating Phony CAD Incident

Two Fort Myers (Fla.) dispatchers have been fired after allegations they conspired to enter a fictional incident in the police computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system in response to a request from a love-struck officer. Dispatchers Joeleen Jeffery and Michael Grimmett were unanimously found guilty by a panel of captains and the police chief of two offenses—willful misrepresentation and falsification, and “conduct that dishonors the police department.” Officer Jason Moore was also fired for the same offenses, for telephoning Jeffery off-duty and asking her to send his ex-girlfriend—also an officer—to a local shopping mall on a “suspicious person” call. Moore told investigators that he hadn’t seen his ex-girlfriend lately and just wanted to talk to her. According to the investigation released by the department, Jeffery agreed to Moore’s request, and told other dispatchers about the plan. Grimmett actually entered the incident in CAD, making up the description of a, “black male wearing a t-shirt and jeans looking into car windows.” The plan unraveled when several other officers responded to the radio call on their own, prompting Grimmett to radio a sergeant and confess what was occurring. The sergeant called off the cover officers, and an internal complaint followed. Download (pdf) the investigative report here.