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Peoria Police Chief Roy Minter announced today that a patrol sergeant was demoted and suspended for directing a “racially derogatory term” at a podium in April.
Sergeant Patrick Kief is now Officer Patrick Kief for “us[ing] a racially derogatory term to describe his frustration with a podium he was using during a shift briefing for patrol officers.”
Police spokeswoman Amanda Jacinto didn’t offer New Times the exact quote, but says “the term is racist against African Americans.”
Kief was also hit with an unpaid, 80-hour suspension, which he already served.
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Minter called Kief’s word choice “highly inappropriate,” and quoted the department’s code of conduct, as he did after one of the department’s officers posted a picture on Facebook of a bunch of kids who’d apparently just shot up a T-shirt depicting President Obama.
Kief’s punishment was the same as the Obama t-shirt cop, Sergeant-turned-Officer Pat Shearer.
