Roswell Police Department out of Georgia terminated a long time officer after an investigation showed she flew a Confederate flag in the front yard of her home, and was “possibly” parking her patrol car close to it, says a report by WSBTV.
According to the report, investigators were made known of the flag when a passerby informed a local pastor that he noticed a police car was parked next to a Confederate flag outside of a home.
The pastor then told Roswell Police Chief Rusty Grant during a community meeting, and Sgt. Silvia Cotriss was fired after an investigation.
During the investigation, Cotriss told investigators that she “didn’t see anything wrong with it” and “was unaware the flag had been adopted by neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups.”
The flag is visible in a Google Earth search of the home’s address, which investigators confirmed.
Cotriss received a termination letter, which reasoned that she had been “engaging in conduct on or off duty, which has a tendency to destroy public respect for the employee, or the department, or destroys confidence.”
“I was shocked at her obliviousness regarding the confederate flag,” Pastor Lee Jenkins, of Eagles Nest Church, told WSBTV.
Jenkins, who alerted Roswell PD Chief Grant, is proud of the way the situation was handled.
“I appreciate the chief maintaining a high level of professional and ethical standards in the police force, and whatever decision he makes, I support because I know he is trying to do the right thing,” Jenkins said. “I believe one of the answers is dialogue, and maybe if we could come to the table, listen to each other, we can see unity and maybe we’ll see the dial move just a little bit.”
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