Officer Barrett will have to put in overtime to rebuild trust

The South County Spotlight, Mar 3, 2010 (3 Reader comments)

Mike Lucas / The South County Spotlight

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Trust is a precarious relationship between people.

Years and years of consistent, trustworthy behavior can establish a deep-down conviction that somebody – a parent, sibling, wife, husband, etc. – would not do anything intentional to harm that relationship.

But allow only one untrustworthy act, and the trust relationship unravels.

Such is the situation that exists now with Scappoose Police Officer Shaun Barrett and, to a lesser degree, Scappoose Police Administrator Susan Leipzig.

Polk County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Barrett in September while he was a patron at the Spirit Mountain Casino. Barrett had been drinking in the casino’s nightclub, Raindrops, with Leipzig and, according to police reports generated about the case, had been asked by the club bartender to leave when it became apparent he was intoxicated.

Then, according to the reports, Barrett became belligerent and combative – he allegedly elbowed security staff who were trying to usher him out of the nightclub – resulting in the sheriff’s office summons and his ultimate arrest and booking into the Polk County Jail on criminal trespass, disorderly conduct and harassment charges. The casino’s security cameras had captured the entire episode on video.

If this had happened to any average citizen, it would be counted an unfortunate event and would be cause for the arrested person to undergo soul searching to steer his or her life back on the right track. And that would have been that.

But this was the reported behavior of a police officer, and like it or not as a society we do hold police officers to a higher standard, as we should. We give them a gun. We pay their wages to protect us from criminals. We expect them to walk a straight line. And when they step off that line, we need them to acknowledge the problem and take the necessary steps to make amends.

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