Police Union Chief Cites Inquiry on Free Food, Time in Doughnut Shops : Policy: Labor head says six Simi Valley officers are being investigated. He criticizes the acting chief.

Free doughnuts and coffee are no longer just harmless perks for a Simi Valley cop, the police union president warned on Thursday: They are cause for internal investigations.

In fact, six Simi Valley officers are being investigated for accepting free food, spending too much time in doughnut shops and violating time-sheet rules, said union head Blair Summey.

Five of these are former union board members--proof, Summey said, that newly appointed Acting Police Chief Richard Wright is suddenly enforcing the no-free-food policy in an attempt to discredit the union.

“I believe Chief Wright is unwisely using his temporary authority to institute policies and programs which he has been unable to previously convince his two predecessors to implement,” Summey wrote in an April 21 letter to fellow members of the Simi Valley Police Officers Assn.

“I believe,” he added in an interview Thursday, “it’s an attempt to break up the solidarity of our union.”

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Wright, a former LAPD internal affairs officer and Simi Valley captain, was appointed acting chief last month after Chief Willard Schlieter resigned amid charges he was a weak commander.

Wright declined to answer Summey’s allegations. The letter was addressed to the officers, Wright said, not to him.

“The policy’s laid out in General Order 1001,” Wright said Thursday. “It puts it out that, essentially, officers are not to accept gratuities. . . . Department policy has not changed. I’ve made no additions or subtractions to anything that relates to that. The current policy’s in effect.”

The chief declined to discuss any current investigations, except to say that there are no more going on now than usual.

Summey said the policy was never enforced this strictly under Schlieter’s one-year tenure, nor during predecessor Lindsey Paul Miller’s 12 1/2 years as chief.

“I think everybody in the world knows that cops go to doughnut shops for their coffee breaks,” Summey said. “And at some doughnut shops--not all--the owners have a policy that they give officers a free cup of coffee.

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“But for some reason, the new leadership has made a new policy,” he said. “The unfortunate aspect of that new policy is they failed to inform my members . . . how this policy was to be enforced, and they have brought several of my officers up on charges.”

Summey’s letter, dated last Friday, warns union members to stop accepting the perks that street cops in some jurisdictions accept as part of the job.

“How many of us, while on duty, have received a meal at half price or even free (unsolicited of course),” the letter asks. “ . . . I feel compelled to issue a stern warning to all Association Members. First, accept no form of any discount on meals, including coffee, donuts, McDonald’s, ‘7-11’ or similar convenience store.

“If any Member elects to stop at a donut shop or convenience store for coffee or a well-deserved snack between radio calls, make sure that you pay full price and then leave the area with your food or drink and quickly resume your patrol duties,” the union letter says.

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The free-food fuss is a two-way problem.

Officers take the gratuities from businesses that give them gladly.

Two Simi Valley merchants said they often give cops a break--as a reward for a job well-done, not as a bribe for better service.

“It’s more of a patriotic thing than because I get anything out of it,” said Tom Carter, who offers a 20% discount to police and firefighters at his Maverick’s Restaurant and Saloon.

Once or twice a week, half a dozen Simi patrol officers sit down for a 20% discount meal at Maverick’s, but the restaurant does not force the discount on those who decline it, Carter said.

“As far as it being (that they’re) on the take, that’s stupid,” he said. “I don’t see the connection, or that they frequent the place any more often because they get a discount.”

The 7-Eleven Food Store on Los Angeles Avenue gives out free coffee to cops on the graveyard shift, said manager Eric Coleman.

“They work hard, they deserve it,” he said.

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The store once gave out free candy bars to police, Coleman said, but the 7-Eleven chain ended the practice because employees were walking out with candy and claiming they had given it to cops.

“It’s only a cup of coffee,” Coleman added.

For police departments, the no-free-food policy is nothing new.

Departments such as the LAPD, Ventura County Sheriff’s Department and Oxnard police all do more than just frown on such gifts: Their policies, like Simi Valley’s, strictly forbid them.

“We hope it doesn’t take place, but I guess we’d be naive to assume it never takes place,” said Ventura County Undersheriff Richard Bryce. “Our policy is our officers are not authorized to accept any gratuities, although over the years I’ve been faced with it as well.”

Two Ventura County sheriff’s deputies were found taking discount or free food over the past five years, he said.

“It wasn’t a major problem. It was discount food, or free food, and we dealt with it,” Bryce said. “Discipline was imposed, and we haven’t had any more problems.”

More than 10 years ago, then-Oxnard Police Chief Robert Owens cracked down on gratuities, and even ordered his officers to discourage restaurants for giving the discounts.

“Taking gratuities is frowned upon, discouraged, and officers are told not to take them,” said Oxnard Assistant Chief Tom Cady. “I think the vast majority of officers, even if somebody doesn’t bring the bill, leaves enough money to cover the coffee and the tip.”