NEW ALBANY —
New Albany City Councilman and police officer Jack Messer served a one-day suspension from work after an internal investigation showed he violated the department’s policy for revealing information, records obtained by The Tribune this week substantiated.
Messer is also awaiting a Sept. 9 hearing before the New Albany Police Merit Commission to answer to charges regarding alleged racist comments he made during a January roll call meeting.
As for the suspension, a New Albany Police Department disposition dated April 19 states Messer was disciplined for releasing registration data from a license plate to a property management company for which his wife works.
The company was seeking the owner of the vehicle because it had been left parked at one of their apartment complexes, apparently for several weeks.
Messer called the NAPD dispatch center March 16 while he was off duty asking for the license plate information, the police report states.
Later that day, the owner of the vehicle called the dispatch center saying they had received a call from the property owners informing them they would have their car towed.
The dispatcher on duty recognized the license plate number of the caller as being the same one Messer requested information for earlier, according to the report.
The person whose car was about to be towed said the phone number she was called from returned to Lone Star Realty, located at 1636 Slate Run Road. It’s under the umbrella of Precision Property Management, which is owned by New Albany Councilman Kevin Zurschmiede.
In a response letter to the accusation, Messer conceded his wife works for Precision Properties and that she had called him asking if he could locate the car owner’s information as the vehicle had been abandoned on the rental property for more than 30 days.
In his summary report, NAPD Capt. Gregory Pennell suggested Messer be investigated for violating the department’s standard operating procedure as well as breaking rules regarding the dissemination of sensitive information obtained through the Indiana Data and Communication system, or IDACS, and the National Crime Information Center, or NCIC.
In July, The Tribune contacted merit commission President Robert Dusch who confirmed Messer had served the one-day suspension, but declined to comment further on the matter.
After initially being unable to confirm the suspension, The Tribune filed Freedom of Information Act requests with the New Albany administration and police department this week requesting the disciplinary report. The file was received by the newspaper less than 48 hours later.
It included Messer’s response to the charge in which he admitted calling the dispatch center to get the name of the vehicle owner for his wife and Precision Properties, but defended the action as “merely doing my job.”
“I believe a business owner is entitled to information concerning an abandoned vehicle on his property,” Messer wrote.
“The information, which I passed on to one of our businesses, is public record as it is available through the Bureau of Motor Vehicles by using a [vehicle identification number], which is readily visible on all vehicles.”
Messer wrote that his violation stated “no officer shall reveal any information from any part of the New Albany Police Department to anyone not authorized to receive such information.”
To which Messer responded “if this is true, who are we actually serving, if not the citizens of New Albany? Who is authorized to receive such information and who decides who is?”
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the NCIC was created in 1967 and contains 19 files including property records for stolen articles, boats, guns, license plates, securities and vehicles.
The FBI website states the system is accessible to law enforcement agencies nationwide, but that a positive response from NCIC is not probable cause for an officer to take action.
The NCIC policy sets numerous security measures to ensure the privacy and integrity of the data, according to the website www.fbi.gov.
Messer declined to comment further on the issue when contacted by The Tribune Thursday.
As of press time, Zurschmiede had not responded to a message left for him seeking comment for the story. He was also absent from Thursday’s council meeting, so he was unable to be asked about the situation at that time.
Messer is facing possible disciplinary action over alleged racist comments he made during a police meeting Jan. 22.
The commission hearing will determine if he should be punished for saying “the worst thing we ever did was to give [black] people their civil rights” during the meeting as quoted in a police report on the incident.
Messer has claimed the statement was taken out of context.
He’s a 27-year veteran of the police department, and has stated he will retire in May.
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