Advice please...

[ds36]

A former officer is attempting to regain his position after being terminated prior to completing probation. My dilemma is this. It has come to the point where lawyers are becoming involved. At what point does my desire to stand up for what is right have to take a back seat to job survival ? You know they (management) will come after you if they thought you said or did anything without the order of a subpoena. And as much as I would like to think that retaliation is not a possibility, I am not naive enough to think that my career would not be over at the current work place.

[DFrost]

ds,

The best advice I can give in a situation such as this: What is your self respect worth. I know that's an awfully tough way to look at things in that light, but for some questions in life, there is just no easy answer. Good luck to you however you decide to handle it.

DFrost

[Cascade]

You probably got into LE because you wanted to "stand up for what is right." You might regret not "standing up for what is right" alot more than having to leave a job because of it. Only you can decide that. Sounds like you're in a tough spot, though. Good luck with your choice.

EDIT: Another point: I bet that if you did leave your current job and you could clearly articulate why you had to leave (something about an integrity issue and you felt you had to "stand up for what is right"), you could probably get back on somewhere else.

[Kahuna5150]

A former officer is attempting to regain his position after being terminated prior to completing probation.

This is a key point of your original post... In most cases, when you get released from probation you have almost zero chance of fighting it. If you can show you were released for an unlawful reason... Based on race, sex, etc. you would have a case. If you were simply released for a violation of a policy (and you don't think it was a violation, but your department did) you're going to have a big uphill battle.

I would (me personally, my advice) consult an attorney who has exp. in law enforcement related matters (labor, terminiation, etc). Get the straight scoop on what your chances are to get your job back. If it is slim, or a big fight, I would probably just let it go... If you have a bit of a case, but it's still going to be a long shot, you might see if the attorney can get the department to let you submit a letter of resignation and make that the official reason you left (not release from probation). Even the letter idea is not ideal as most backgrounds you will go through will question why you left a job before you had another job...

Tough spot, but generally a probationary release is a near impossible one to fight or overturn...

Kahuna

[ds36]

Thank you for your help. Hopefully, when all is said and done the truth will come out and who knows maybe it will improve things at the place. Can only hope.