Delvin White (pictured) returned to duty Tuesday, after Tampa’s Civil Service Board decided that police Chief Brian Dugan’s decision to fire him went too far, the Tampa Bay Times reported
A black police officer was reinstated to his job, nearly six months after he was fired for using the n-word on duty and defending it as expressing ‘culture and experiences among the African American community.’
Delvin White returned to duty Tuesday, after Tampa’s Civil Service Board decided that police Chief Brian Dugan’s decision to fire him went too far, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
While the board agreed Dugan, who is white, was within his right to fire White – a beloved resource officer at Middleton High School – it voted 3 to 0 to reinstate the officer, effective immediately.
‘I do not want to see the city lose an employee like that who obviously does his job above and beyond—a difficult job in, let’s face it, very difficult circumstances,’ a board member told the Tampa Bay Times. ‘It’s like cutting off your nose to spite your face.’
White was fired in March, after a random audit of his bodycam captured him using the N-word multiple times in November 2020.
White was reinstated to his job, nearly six months after he was fired for using the n-word on duty and defending it as expressing ‘culture and experiences among the African American community.’
Pictured here is Middleton High School, where White was a beloved school resource officer
While the board agreed Chief Brian Dugan, (pictured) who is white, was within his right to fire White – a beloved resource officer at Middleton High School – it voted 3 to 0 to reinstate the officer, effective immediately.
He was fired for ‘violations of policy that prohibit discriminatory conduct’, according to a disposition letter released by the Tampa Police Department.
Ahead of Monday’s vote, Dugan said his initial decision to fire White had nothing to do with the word itself, but that White used the word around a minor.
‘This isn’t about racism, this is about professionalism,’ Dugan said, according to the Times. ‘Officer White isn’t playing golf with his frat brothers, he’s not playing poker, he’s wearing the uniform of a Tampa Police Department officer and speaking to a student that way.’
At the time, White told his supervisor he did not mean for the word to be derogatory, police said.
He added that he was using the word as it is ‘commonly used in today’s society as a means of shared culture and experiences among the African American community’.
White was recorded using both the slur and the word ‘ghetto’ to reference a group of people while on the phone driving home from an off-duty, work-related assignment November 13, the letter said.
At the time, White (pictured) told his supervisor he did not mean for the word to be derogatory, police said.
White later used the word while talking on the phone with his wife (pictured right)
He later used it again while talking on the phone with his wife.
Camera footage also captured White using the word twice while arresting a student November 30, when the student disobeyed White’s orders to put his hands behind his back for handcuffing,
‘Man, make me, bro. You trippin’, ‘ the student says in the bodycam footage.
‘I told you, n*****, we ain’t playing games with your ass,’ White responds.
‘You trippin’,’ the student repiles.
‘N*****, you trippin’,’ White responds.
‘You don’t know what a n***** be going through,’ the student responds before getting into the patrol vehicle.
Tampa police Chief Brian Dugan said in a statement: ‘Derogatory statements made by police officers jeopardize the trust that our department works to establish with our community.’
‘Tampa Police officers are held to a higher standard and incidents like this negatively impact the entire law enforcement profession.’
White’s supporters, many of whom include Middleton students and staff, agreed the officer should have been sanctioned for his behavior.
But they saw his firing, ending the career of a beloved black officer at a school where the majority of students are black, as unfair.
During Monday’s hearing, Kristina Ravenel, a former Middleton teacher, said the officer went above and beyond to mentor students, launching programs to make the campus cleaner and safer.
‘He understood where they came from and tried his best to help them understand that they don’t need to be a product of their environment,’ said Ravenel.
Source: Daily Mail
