The slow-moving wheels of Detroit police disciplinary action
rolled before the Detroit Police Commission last week, a year and eight months
after the incident in question.
Detroit Police Officer Tiniki Gibbs on Aug. 31, 2011, is
accused of coming into work late, being assigned a dirty vehicle due to a
shortage, refusing to take it to the car wash, leaving sick, throwing a pen at
her superior and posting a picture and negative comments about her dirty police
car on Facebook.
Gibbs was now fighting a proposed 12-day suspension, which
is why the Police Commission, which meets each Thursday, reviewed the matter.
Gibbs "came late to roll call," said Commander
John Serba. "They borrowed a vehicle from the 6th Precinct. This was the
vehicle that they had available for her. All she had to do was take it to the
car wash."
Gibbs didn't like this idea and reportedly told her
superior, "I don't wash cars for a living."
The officer has denied making the statement. According to
Serba, Gibbs then left work without filling out paperwork required when
officers leave sick.
"Yes, officers can go home sick when they are
sick," said Serba, "but you can't go home because you're mad about
your assignment or you're made because they gave you an old car."
"If that happens we would have chaos in the
department."
Chief Investigator Pamela Davis Drake says Gibbs threw a pen
at her superiors as she left the police station and said, "Here, write me
up with this."
She then proceeded to post a picture of the vehicle on her
Facebook page and make comments that the department found unflattering.
Her attorney told the Detroit Police Commission the vehicle
was in "extreme disrepair; wires were hanging out of the interior of the
vehicle it was in unsafe condition in addition to being dirty."
The parties agreed to reduce the penalty to a 10-day
suspension, which the commission agreed to.