A growing number of elected officials and a citizens group are calling on the Baton Rouge Police Department to clarify recent changes to its policy regarding officers on administrative leave and whether they can work extra duty.
The clamor comes in the wake of revelations that officer Blane Salamoni, who was placed on administrative leave following his role in the July 2016 shooting death of Alton Sterling, was working paid security detail for at least one local company.
Late last month, WBRZ-TV aired an investigative report that found Salamoni, along with nine other suspended officers, had worked some sort of extra detail while on leave. BRPD said after the station began asking questions, the department reviewed its files and has since ended the practice.
“We have since changed the policy,” Interim Chief Jonny Dunnam told the station. “We’ve recognized the fault in our policy. We worked to change it. It has been changed, and moving forward it won’t happen again.”
But in a statement issued this morning, the grassroots citizens group Progressive Social Network says it wants more specific answers about what the policy was before and, more importantly, what it is now.
“We believe the public deserves an immediate and full accounting of the issue,” the statement reads.
Metro Councilmember Chauna Banks is also demanding answers. This morning, she placed an item on the agenda for the Oct. 11 Metro Council meeting asking the BRPD to provide answers to such questions as: When Salamoni began working extra duty, whether Dunnam or Mayor Sharon Weston Broome knew about it, who approved the extra duty, what BRPD’s revised policy is, and whether any Civil Service rules were violated.
“The reason you are on administrative leave is because there is something questionable about your job performance and when you’re on administrative leave you don’t have a gun or have a badge,” Banks says. “So how can you be providing any protection?”
State Rep. Denise Marcelle, D-Baton Rouge, has also called for an investigation into the matter in recent days.
An attorney for Salamoni declines to comment.
—Stephanie Riegel
