GREENEVILLE, Tenn. — Greeneville Assistant Police Chief Michael Crum has been terminated following numerous complaints from fellow employees.
His departure comes on the heels of a scathing department-wide review that revealed employees have not been satisfied with the work environment.
The report by Tennessee’s Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS) showed employees believed there has been gender-based discrimination against women, favoritism by management, and even illegal practices.
According to the report, the request for the review was made by Greeneville City Manager Todd Smith after complaints from department employees.
A total of 55 employees were interviewed for the report. The study does mention six to seven employees who were “supportive” of the department as a whole.
Several of the complaints centered around Assistant Police Chief Michael Crum.
In the report, there were claims made that Crum “belittled” employees and described him as quote: “evil, polarizing, bad temper, revengeful, derogatory, a “politician,” controlling, manipulative, two-faced, and vindictive.”
Documents obtained by 10News provided more details into the complaints directed at Crum.
Gender-based discrimination
Several claimed Crum engaged in gender-based discrimination in the department. He reportedly made discriminatory remarks to women, “specifically inferring a negative impact of pregnancies and/or having children and how that would affect the Department,“ or was heard making comments like “women don’t belong in a police department.”
One claim said a “pay raise and a take-home vehicle were withheld from a certain female employee.”
The report also said Crum, on more than one occasion, “asked a detective to reopen the background investigation on a female applicant whose score placed her high on the hiring list specifically to find something that would disqualify her.”
According to claims, women were not allowed to go to conferences and were told by Crum “the department could not afford a separate hotel room when only one female would be attending.” However, he would not allow female officers to go to the Women in Law Enforcement training “because there is not a comparable training just for men.”
Favoritism
Claims in the report also said there was a clique in the department “who are favored by at least the Assistant Chief and possibly by the Chief.”
Favored people were allowed to attend desired conferences, events and classes, according to the report. They were also given “desirable shifts.”
Crum reportedly said he didn’t like the Criminal Investigation Division (CID), saying they were “lazy” and “not allowed to go to lunch together.”
Human resources issues
The report said Crum oversaw the department’s PTSD training, which was called a “Mental Health Inservice.” The MTAS said this training “should be facilitated by a trained person.”
Crum reportedly removed the human resources director from the promotions process and had arranged for certain people to attend classes to benefit them during promotion time, according to claims.
Employees reported having “very little faith” in the system and said it was because the police chief had a “rigged” system of “points.”
“On at least one occasion an employee who had been recently written-up was interviewed for a certain promotion, which is against civil service rules,” according to the report. An auxiliary officer (a citizen volunteer for the police force), “whose parent makes donations to the department, was promoted instead of significantly more qualified candidates.”
Illegal activity
According to the report, the police chief and Crum “ordered a patrolman to dismiss 17 parking tickets,” which is against the law. “Officers have been asked to write memos instead of putting crimes in the TIBRS system,” making crime look like it’s going down.
Other claims said Crum “routinely schedules auxiliary officers to work more than 20 hours per week,” which is against the law and the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission (POST) standards. He also reportedly assigned auxiliary officers to SRO roles, which is against POST.
The report also said, “some auxiliary officers have been allowed to drive without having received training, which is against state law.”
“Two supposed influential people in town were appointed as auxiliary officers in order that they could carry a weapon in places where they were not otherwise allowed to do so. This was done without them being held to the same auxiliary standards required by state law and the department itself,” according to claims in the report.
The full report is available here.