Officer in Bias Case Fired After 1 Year on Leave

The black police officer whose allegations of racial discrimination jolted the Santa Monica Police Department has lost his job after remaining on a leave of absence for more than a year.

Officer Henry McCray, a 12-year veteran on the force, will be asked to turn in his badge this week, city officials said.

McCray went on a stress-related leave without pay in January, 1988. He said at the time that certain white officers failed to give him adequate backup and that he suffered other racially motivated harassment.

Threatens to Sue

City officials said McCray’s dismissal was part of normal procedures and was not caused by his allegations. But McCray labeled the action “underhanded” and threatened to sue for wrongful termination.

Officials cited the city’s Municipal Code, which states that an employee may take a leave of absence for no longer than one year.

“The code sets up very specific limitations (on leaves). We have no choice,” said Personnel Director Karen Bancroft. “We cannot make an exception.”

A letter signed by Police Chief James Keane was sent to McCray last month, notifying him that if he did not return to work within two weeks, he would be terminated.

The only response was a note from McCray’s doctor, stating he was still unfit to work, Bancroft said.

McCray, in an interview at his home in Hawthorne, said he would have liked to return to the Santa Monica police force but that he feared for his safety because officers he accused of bias resented him.

Among his allegations, McCray, 37, claims that his radio calls for assistance were ignored on several occasions, that other officers tried to set him up by hiding guns in his patrol car to make it look as though he had failed to disarm suspects and that officers harassed him by jamming his locker. Further, he says, in 12 years on the force he was never given a special assignment.

Not Surprised

“The place was going to drive me crazy,” he said, adding that losing his job now was almost anticlimactic.

“Firing was not the worst they could do to me,” he said.

Officials have said they investigated McCray’s claims that he was not receiving backup but could find no evidence to support them.

In his letter to McCray, Keane said that with commercial and hotel development in Santa Monica growing rapidly, demands on the police force are also growing. He is asking that additional officers be hired and said he could not afford to leave McCray’s position unfilled any longer.

In February, McCray joined five other current and former Santa Monica police officers in a lawsuit accusing the department and city of systematic racial bias in hiring and promotion. Although the suit was filed in Superior Court, it has yet to be served, and McCray said he and the other plaintiffs are now at odds.

‘Sting’ Alliance

McCray also joined forces with activist Don Jackson, a Hawthorne police sergeant on leave from that department who has gained fame for staging “stings” to expose alleged police abuse of blacks.

Together, McCray and Jackson headed the Law Enforcement Officers for Justice, a small organization of black and Asian police and security officers that opposed discrimination in agencies throughout the county.

However, the two men had a falling out last year over how to conduct their crusade and they have not spoken since June, McCray said.

The allegations of racial discrimination brought by McCray and other black officers sent shock waves through the Santa Monica police force.

In response, the city hired a consultant to survey the problem, appointed Bancroft as ombudsman, established a committee to oversee department policies and instituted changes in its promotional procedures.

McCray has praised some of the steps taken but likened them to “putting a Band-Aid on a deep wound.”