Harassment Policy Issued for Sheriff’s Department : Workplace: Even an off-the-cuff remark could result in discipline. Order follows recent allegations of racism within the force.

Ventura County Sheriff’s Department employees were told this week that they could be fired for physically or verbally harassing other employees or members of the public.

Issued Tuesday in response to recent allegations of racism within the department, the new directive also said that even an off-the-cuff remark could result in discipline, probably a verbal reprimand.

The new policy requires that supervisors keep a written record of any act of harassment reported to them and to forward it to the head of personnel. Such records had not been previously required.

“We’re trying to make sure we’re doing everything we can to provide an environment where employees can feel free from this kind of contact,” Assistant Sheriff Richard S. Bryce said.

The department has investigated seven complaints in 1990 by employees who said they had been subjected to racial prejudice. But Bryce said the directive also forbids sheriff’s deputies from harassing the public.

It could not be immediately determined how many complaints have been filed against the department by members of the public.

Previously, the Sheriff’s Department had followed a county policy forbidding sexual and racial discrimination, Cmdr. Dick Seery, director of personnel, said. But the directive is the department’s first formal written order outlawing physical or verbal harassment, he said.

A representative of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People said three to four deputies in the department have complained to him about racial prejudice in the department.

“Policy statements are the same all the time,” John Hatcher, president of the NAACP’s Ventura County chapter, said. “They don’t do anything.”

In addition to addressing charges of discrimination, the department should be hiring and promoting more minorities, Hatcher said.

Of the 607 sworn employees in the Sheriff’s Department, 15, or 2.5%, are black. There are 62 Latino deputies, 10.2%; 10 Asian-American deputies, 1.6%, and one American Indian deputy, 0.2%, records show. Blacks make up 2.2% of the county’s population, Latinos, 26.5%; Asians, 4.9%, and American Indians, 0.5%, according to census figures.

Of the seven complaints of racial discrimination in the department, four were found to be justified. And before the new policy was handed down, disciplines ranging from verbal reprimands to one suspension were issued, Seery said.

The department also received two complaints of sexual harassment in 1990, one of which was sustained, he said. Seery said discipline was administered in this case but refused to elaborate on this or any other disciplinary action.

Neither would Seery outline any allegations of racial or sexual harassment.

But Hatcher said deputies have described overhearing their peers using racial slurs. One department employee allegedly sold articles that bore Ku Klux Klan markings, Hatcher said.

About three months ago, Sgt. Kenton Rainey, the highest-ranking black in the department, leveled several allegations of racism, Bryce said. Rainey, who is now on paid leave, refused to comment on his allegations when contacted Wednesday.

And in July, then-Deputy Greg Jones complained that he was ordered to be retrained because he is black, not because his job skills were lacking.

Jones maintained that his supervisors made racist remarks to him and that he heard other deputies make racist comments over the police radio. He said deputies in the department had found photos of black inmates with minstrel faces painted on them and that a sergeant had called him “Mr. Brown.”

Jones appealed to the Civil Service Commission the department’s order that he be retrained. A county affirmative affairs investigator determined that the department had justification for placing Jones in retraining but added that supervisors in the department needed sensitivity instruction. Jones later withdrew his appeal and resigned from the department, authorities said.

Bryce said the new departmental policy addresses actions that harass on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual preference or national origin.

Employees are encouraged to ask those harassing them to stop, Bryce said. But they can also immediately notify supervisors, who would then decide what type of discipline should be administered. Supervisors are obligated to notify the commander in charge of personnel and document the incident in a memo. The personnel commander would then determine whether the incident was handled appropriately or whether an internal investigation is needed, Bryce said.