FULLERTON : Chief Looks Into Police Meals Issue

Fullerton Police Chief Philip A. Goehring said Thursday that he is looking into a complaint that an unspecified number of police officers may have been accepting reduced-rate meals in one area restaurant.

“I’m looking at what might be an irregularity,” Goehring said, adding that he would neither confirm nor deny that an internal investigation is taking place.

Department policy forbids members of the Police Department to accept meals free or at a reduced rate, Goehring said. In addition, Goehring said that the complaint was disturbing “in a sense that we do not like to see that many officers eating at the same place at the same time.”

The restaurant was not named.

“Hypothetically, if that has occurred and if there is good evidence, then the officers could be disciplined,” Goehring said.

Accepting reduced-rate or free meals “is very annoying to me,” he said. “It’s a policy of long standing. When an officer gets a meal and continues to get free meals, he will face discipline.”

Goehring said that while he understands why restaurant owners would offer low-cost or free meals to officers on their beat, the officers should be aware that it violates the department’s ethics code.

“I do not despise a restaurant that does that,” Goehring said. “I look at the behavior of the officer.”