Detective Emma Jackson, back on the Englewood police force for more than two weeks, has not been given any clear work assignment, city officials said.
Payroll records show Jackson is being paid $110,837 but she is not patrolling the streets or working cases in the detective bureau.
Interim City Manager Robert Casey and Police Chief David Bowman said they are working together to determine Jackson’s duties but as of last week, no determination was made.
Bowman said Jackson is in "orientation."
"I haven’t decided where I want to put her now," Bowman said in a phone interview March 14. "She has no particular assignment, she’s just assisting me until I assign her."
But Jackson, a plain clothed detective, hadn’t been given any new title or new police work in the chief’s office.
Bowman currently gets support from two civilian administrative secretaries, Deputy Chief Arthur O’Keefe, administrative Lt. Lawrence Suffern, and administrative Sgt. Anthony Cureton.
Councilman Gordon Johnson said he didn’t specifically know what Jackson has been working on since she’s been back on the job, five months after she was acquitted of criminal charges against her and Bowman.
Police sources, who asked to remain confidential, said they didn’t know what responsibilities Jackson had except picking out carpet samples for the chief’s office.
Before being suspended in 2004 for her alleged involvement in falsifying documents to release a prisoner from jail, Jackson, 60, was the department’s domestic violence coordinator. In Jackson’s absence, the part-time assignment was taken on by Detective Sgt. Claudia Cubillos, who also works juvenile crime cases, supervises all juvenile detectives and runs the city’s community policing unit.
The main duty of a domestic violence coordinator is working with a group of citizen volunteers who respond to victims of domestic violence if they need counseling or other support. The officer acts as an advisor and liaison between the county’s domestic violence agency and the volunteers, according to Dianna Lachman, the Englewood domestic violence response team leader since 2001.
"We are working very well with Sgt. Cubillos, our current liaison officer, and have no reason to want to change," said Lachman.
According to statements made by Bowman and Casey, Jackson may be re-assigned as the domestic violence coordinator but as of last week, that assignment had not happened.
"Back in 2003 she was working domestic violence cases and she’ll be back working that, on that path," Casey said.
Jackson was not working any cases, domestic violence or other, police said March 14.
Johnson said that Jackson not having a duty was "problematic" and he planned to meet with Casey to "find out what’s going on."
"The Englewood PD needs to put as many people in the streets patrolling as they can, including investigators," said Johnson, a former Englewood officer and county under sheriff.
"Any cops not fully participating is probably something that needs to be looked into. There’s a personnel shortage with around 10 injured or ill officers. Therefore we need every man and woman in the department either patrolling or investigating."
Jackson did not return a call for comment.
