City Manager
Dennis Taylor (left)
and new Police Chief
Robert Lehner.
a neighbor during an argument.
• Under pressure from the community,
TPD released a list of seven ongoing internal
police investigations in progress including
incidents involving an alleged racist false
arrest and illegal search, an officer banned in
several courtrooms because of allegations he
lacks credibility and an excessive force com-
plaint involving a broken knee.
Lehner Opposed Reform
Will New Chief
Clean House?
Tucson department Lehner left was
troubled with police abuse. 5By Alan Pittman
I
n the wake of accusations that two Eugene
police officers coerced women into sex
while on duty, citizens are looking to Eugene’s
new Police Chief Robert Lehner to tighten
discipline and make sure nothing like this ever
happens again.
But that’s something Lehner and other
police managers weren’t able to do in Tucson,
Ariz., where Lehner served for 26 years, ris-
ing through management ranks to the position
of assistant chief.
“TPD [Tucson Police Department] has a
historical reputation as a police force short on
discipline and strong leadership and far too
aggressive in dealing with the public,” Tucson
attorney Louie Carrasco complained in a letter
to the Arizona Daily Star.
Before entering management, Lehner
served as head of the Tucson police union.
The powerful Eugene police union has histor-
ically opposed tightened discipline for its offi-
cers. Last year, the Eugene union opposed the
hiring of George Aylward of Minneapolis.
Aylward had angered the police union in
Middletown, Conn., for firing an officer
accused of racism in arresting four black col-
lege students in 1995. Aylward also angered
the Middletown union for suspending an offi-
cer who wrote a memo threatening college
students. Aylward, the top finalist for the
Eugene job, withdrew in the face of opposi-
tion from the Eugene union.
The Tucson union praised Lehner’s disci-
pline of officers and the Eugene union sup-
ported Lehner for the chief position before he
was hired last month.
It’s unclear what direct role Lehner had in
handling or preventing police misconduct
cases in Tucson. No allegations of misconduct
against Lehner were found. Lehner and City
Manager Dennis Taylor did not return calls for
this story. They did call city public relations
staffers who said Lehner and Taylor said it
would not be “appropriate” to comment.
‘Disgusted and Embarrassed’
In a press release when he hired Lehner,
Taylor said Lehner had undergone a “thor-
ough” background check. “He has the demon-
strated ability to inspire employees and to earn
community respect and trust,” Taylor said.
But in 1996, when Lehner served as a
police captain, Tucson was not the scene of
inspired policing the community respected
and trusted.
“I’m shocked and appalled,” Tucson
Mayor George Miller, told the Daily Star after
a masked police officer committing a suspect-
ed robbery was shot and killed. “It’s an awful
feeling to think that the people you have to
trust may not be worthy of that trust. It’s pret-
ty hard to have a police department be effec-
tive when no one believes in them.”
“Morale (within the department) is at a
very low point, including my own,” Chief
Douglas Smith told the Star. “I’m disgusted
and embarrassed.”
The shooting wasn’t the only problem the
department had. Tucson’s problems with offi-
cer misconduct came to a head in the 1990s
under Lehner when he served as chief of staff
and a police captain and lieutenant. In 1996-
97 the local Tucson Citizen and Daily Star
reported that 18 TPD officers were being
investigated for misconduct, including 11
arrested or convicted of criminal charges in
the past year. Here’s a look at some of the
TPD cases, according to reports in the Star
and Citizen.
• An officer was sentenced to three years of
probation, fines and restitution for molesting a
15-year-old girl he met while on patrol duty.
• A 19-year veteran officer of the TPD was
sentenced to five years for attempted child
molestation.
• An eight-year veteran officer was sen-
tenced to 20 months for groping the breasts of
three women while on duty. One victim said
in court, “I cannot escape the feeling of
intense fear and shame.” Another women sued
TPD for negligent hiring and failing to inves-
tigate the officer’s misconduct.
• Another officer was fired after he was
indicted in two charges of sexual abuse of a
woman while on duty.
• A suicidal officer fired at other officers
who then shot him in the stomach.
• A police sergeant and 22-year veteran
resigned after he was charged with aggravated
assault for kicking a handcuffed woman pris-
oner.
• Another police sergeant and 17-year vet-
eran was suspended after his second arrest for
violating a stalking order a court ordered to
protect his estranged wife.
• Another officer was indicted for assault-
ing a prisoner.
• An officer was cited for assault for hitting
As the number of Tucson police miscon-
duct cases mounted in 1996, public concern
increased.
But Lehner downplayed the problem, the
Star reported. “Lehner said the cases are unre-
lated and completely coincidental. They have
left the department ‘dazed,’ but he said 99 per-
cent of the department’s 837 officers are law
abiding citizens.”
But Mayor Miller didn’t buy the small per-
centage argument by Lehner and other police
officials, the Star reported. “Miller said that
claim is invalid because ‘police have a special
position in the community.’”
Police Chief of Staff Lehner joined the
police union and police chief in opposing the
creation of a citizen review committee of
police misconduct.
Human rights advocates criticized an
existing Citizen Police Advisory Committee
(CPAC) with many officer members as
“cheerleaders” for police. But Lehner said the
CPAC “runs pretty good” and said police can
police themselves, the Citizen reported. “How
would a civilian review board change that pic-
ture?” Lehner asked.
But after the large number of police mis-
conduct cases emerged, Miller and city coun-
cilors didn’t buy that argument, either. They
voted unanimously to create a citizens police
review committee, the Star reported.
“Obviously something has gone wrong,”
Miller said.
The Tucson police chief blamed lax hiring
before his tenure for many of the department’s
problems.
But a University of Arizona criminology
professor told the Star that the problem was
more of supervision. “Once we hire them, we
don’t care anymore.”
Problems within the TPD appeared to have
brewed for years before they emerged in
1996.
Local attorney Carrasco wrote to the Star
that he received 200 calls complaining of
police abuse after he ran a radio advertisement
in 1993. The calls showed “the tip of a very
large and ugly iceberg,” he said.
In 1993, when Lehner served as a lieu-
tenant, the Citizen reported that the city had
paid out more than $1 million in 103 alleged
police brutality and false arrest lawsuits and
incurred another $1 million in legal fees over
the past six years. In one $400,000 settlement,
the police were accused of arresting the wrong
man for rape and holding him for a day with-
out letting him remain silent or see his lawyer.
“There is some severe abuse going on,”
Carrasco told the Citizen. “Police are running
wild.”
Recent Police Abuse
TPD’s misconduct problems continue up
until today.
In 2001, the Tucson Weekly reported on the
TPD’s alleged failure to investigate a hit and
run accident allegedly by the children of a
TPD sergeant. “A lack of real and effective
checks and balances on TPD’s personnel, pro-
cedures and powers has created a bullying
municipal bureaucracy that is borderline
ungovernable,” the Weekly reported.
The Weekly quoted Lehner as calling the
injured victim of the accident “someone who
goes to extreme extent to force additional
action.”
A citizen review board questioned how
“the victim in the [accident] case, becomes the
bad guy” or is “thought to be a nuisance” by
police officials, the Weekly reported.
In a story last month, the Tucson Weekly
reported the police cracked down on student
drinking, citing 1,244 kids and taking 130 stu-
dents to jail last year. The raids and mass
arrests have sparked student complaints. “I
was scared,” one student told the paper. “I
know we were in the wrong, but they didn’t
have to treat us like animals.”
Here’s some other recent police miscon-
duct cases as reported in the Tucson Citizen.
• Last month the FBI arrested a retired
Tucson detective accused of stealing at least
$527,000 in drug money while he worked in
drug seizures for TPD. The corruption “under-
mines the public’s trust in its government and
the law enforcement community,” an FBI
agent told the paper.
• This month, a police officer resigned
after he was accused of stealing items during
police calls, sexually harassing a 15-year-old
girl and showing an interest in transporting
drugs.
• Last month, a Tucson police officer was
jailed on charges of soliciting a minor for sex
over a TPD computer.
• Last August, a TPD SWAT officer was
accused of excessive force in the mistaken
arrest of an undercover narcotics officer. The
undercover officer suffered a broken nose,
significant eye injury and a possible broken
collar bone.
• An officer was indicted but acquitted last
year of lying to get his wife committed to
thwart a protection order in his pending
divorce.
• A police detective was indicted for per-
jury in two murder trials but acquitted last
year.
• Last year, a police lieutenant was sus-
pended after he was accused of buying a hand-
gun for law enforcement purposes that was
later found in a home with six large bales of
marijuana.
• Last month police arrested an off-duty
police sergeant for driving a city car while
intoxicated.
• In 2002, a TPD detective shot and killed
a man he found with his wife and then com-
mitted suicide. The victim’s widow is suing
the department, alleging managers knew the
detective was dangerous but failed to take his
police weapon.
• Last November, an officer responding to
a call ran a red light striking a family’s car and
killing an 8-year-old boy. The family is con-
sidering a lawsuit.
• Last September, a police sergeant was
shot by a Taser stun gun when she allegedly
struggled with officers at a concert.
Only time will tell whether Lehner has the
will or ability to tighten discipline at the EPD
to prevent more misconduct cases in the
future. Other outsiders have failed in the past
after opposition from Eugene’s powerful
police union.
The Eugene police union played a major
role in ousting City Manager Vicki Elmer
after she angered police by asking for a state
police investigation into alleged use of exces-
sive force and pepper spray against tree sitters.
The police union also heavily criticized
former chief Leonard Cooke before his ouster.
Cooke had tried to tighten discipline after he
arrived in 1992, he testified in a union dispute.
Cooke said he was amazed at the “loose” dis-
cipline in the EPD. “I was sorta stunned.” ew
JANUARY 29, 2004 11