What happens when a police chief is the subject of a police interrogation? This happened recently in Ohio, USA.
James Hanzey was the chief of police in Buckeye Lake, a town about 35 miles due east of Columbus, the state capital. Chief Hanzey didn’t run a very tight ship.
His tenure came under particular scrutiny after he accidentally fired his service weapon in a private home while on duty, just one day after he had a finger amputated. After 34 years on the force, town officials had seen enough. At the request of Buckeye Lake town council, he was investigated by the neighboring Pataskala Police Department for a long litany of administrative charges, including neglect, incompetency and malfeasance. There was talk of fraud and how much he worked when claiming to be on duty.
In this police interrogation of Hanzey at a Pataskala police station, the chief accepts he has been “lackadaisical” with administration and needs to “tighten things up,” but passionately insists he would not purposely damage the department.
“To say I blatantly ripped off this Buckeye Police Department is bull,” he says. “I’ve put 34 years of my life out there. I gave them more than anyone. I lost a marriage over this police department. I’ve lost girlfriends over this police department because I spent more time there than I would with them.” Shortly afterwards, the town council voted to remove him from office.
Here is the full video of the police chief's interrogation.
▶️ DTube
▶️ IPFS