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Last month, I was asked to attend a press conference in Sacramento and had book a 6:30 A.M. flight to get there on time. I had just sat down in my seat when my cell phone began to ring. (Normally I would still be asleep). The call was from one of our managers informing me that an employee working at a job site for our most high profile client hotel, had backed his car into a truck and left the scene.
I couldn't really do much from the plane, so I instructed the manager to get in touch with that employees supervisor and have him call that employee and persuade him to come back to the hotel. I then sent an email to our upper management to let them know what was happening. I then called one of the Directors at the hotel and left him a message letting him know what had happened and that I report back to him on the situation when I got back later that night.
When I got back that night, I found an email from the Director with an attached incident report created by hotel security. I could not believe what I was reading in this report. Apparently, the hotel employee whose truck was hit, had called the police department who was waiting there at the hotel for our employee to return. The good news is that our employee did return to the scene, the bad news is the reporting is hard to believe after that point.
“Employee returned alone, and spoke to Police. He had a Mexican Drivers License, but said he forgot his California I.D. The Police Officer told him he already knew he did not have a California I.D. and he knew Employee was an illegal alien.” “Police asked Victim (owner of damaged vehicle) if he wanted Employee to be deported. Victim told the Officer to relay in Spanish, he only wanted to be compensated for his insurance deductible. He did not want Employee to lose his job, or be deported because then, he would not be compensated. Police let Employee go.”
Since when do citizens get to decide if someone gets deported?? How did the Officer know he was an "illegal alien"? Not all Hispanic males in California are "illegal" and you can't tell if they are by just looking at them!! Was this some sort of profiling, or Discrimination?? By the Officer?? Or hotel security??
Normally, an employee who had committed a felony on a job site would more than likely be fired. However, the report says he was not charged or arrested, so no felony was documented. The "illegal alien" reference in the report attributed to a police officer was more disturbing to me at this point anyway.
As far as I was concerned, I had a responsibility to the Hotel, the Employee, and the my Company to investigate this matter and take appropriate action. If the Police Officer has information that proves our Employee is not authorized to work as claimed in the incident report which is contrary to our HR paperwork, we need to know what that information to lawfully terminate his employment. Also, such a statement made by a Police Officer interferes with our contract with the Hotel and any adverse action taken by the Hotel will be attributed to the Police Department.
My first step was to call the Police Department to find out if there was a police report. Just getting the answer to that question was like pulling teeth, but I finally was given an incident number and a name of an Officer and was transferred to his voicemail to leave a message. A few days went by and no return call from the officer, so I drove to the station and left a copy of the incident report for the officer with a note to call me.
When another few days had gone by, I decided to move up the chain of command, all the way of actually. I faxed a letter to the Chief of Police informing him of the lack of response and the potential liability to his department for the disparaging remarks and interfering with our contract.
The very next day, the Sergeant in charge of the traffic division called me and told me that I was given the name of the wrong officer at the scene. He said he spoke to the officer at the scene and according to that Officer, all conversations he had with Employee were in private and not in the presence of hotel security or Victim. Officer denies he said any of the words written in the report and questions how such statements could be attributed to him when he spoke to Employee away from hotel security and Victim.
Sergeant stated that he will contact someone in upper management at the Hotel to inform them that the information contained in their incident report attributed to their Officer was incorrect. He also stated that if any adverse action is taken by the Hotel regarding this incident that affects our contract or adversely affects our company in any way, he will instruct the Officer to provide a written statement that he never made the statements attributed to him in the Hotel Incident Report written by hotel security.
At this point, I had all of the information I needed to write a report of my investigation. I was concerned that I had nothing in writing to back up the information given to me by the Sergeant. To remedy that situation, I emailed a copy of my report to the Sergeant asking him to verify that my notes from our conversation were accurate and correctly stated in my report. He emailed me back confirming the accuracy of our conversation as stated in my report.
This is how I ended my report.
Based on the conclusions listed above, I find that any further investigation regarding the information written in the incident report by Hotel Security should be conducted by the Hotel. In addition, any contemplated adverse action taken by the Hotel to cancel our contract based on these allegations would be highly unwarranted. And finally, any adverse action taken against our Employee should only occur if he fails to compensate the Victim for the damages to his vehicle.
Last week, our contract was renewed for another year!!
I look forward to your feedback on how you might have dealt with this situation at your company or if you have experienced something similar to this.
Thanks
SBD
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