Omaha Police Uniion takes free speech case against Omaha to Industrial Relations Commission

September 2, 2005 Omaha Police Union takes City of Omaha to Nebraska Industrial Relations commission in free speech dispute WORLD-HERALD The Omaha Police Union has filed a lawsuit asking a state commission to intervene in a dispute with the city and Police Chief Thomas Warren over union members' rights of expression. Internal investigations of two union members and an inability to resolve differences with Warren were named in the lawsuit as evidence that union members' expression of opinion has been "chilled," which is a violation of Nebraska's Industrial Relations Act, the lawsuit states."Our members should be able to freely express opinions in meetings or newsletters without fear of administrative censorship and retaliation," said Aaron Hanson, the police union president. The lawsuit against Warren and the City of Omaha was filed Wednesday with the Nebraska Commission of Industrial Relations, an administrative agency with quasi-judicial powers. According to the lawsuit, it was inspired by three events: • An internal affairs investigation, opened in December, into Sgt. Tim Andersen's comments at a police union meeting. It was alleged that Andersen, in response to a question, urged officers to violate standard operating procedures to answer radio calls in a way that would inflate police response times. Andersen, the union president at the time, contended that he was merely answering a question. The investigation found that Andersen didn't violate standard operating procedures. • The firing of Sgt. Kevin Housh in March after he wrote an article in the union newspaper, the Shield, that was critical of the chief and the mayor and ridiculed the investigation of Andersen. Housh regained his job after apologizing and dropping a lawsuit challenging his dismissal. • A warning issued by Warren when he met with Hanson and the union's vice president, Chris Circo, on Aug. 22 to discuss past interference with what members said at union meetings or expressed in the Shield. Warren said that he would take the same action again in similar situations. Furthermore, Warren said he would take action against anyone overseeing the Shield who allowed disrespectful and false articles to be printed. The union has asked the commission to order appropriate remedies that will give union members assurance to express their opinions at union meetings or in articles for the union newspaper. Paul Landow, the mayor's chief of staff, called the lawsuit a "difference of opinion." "They are fighting for the right to call their superiors 'liars' and 'criminals,'" he said, referring to Housh's union article that used those terms in referring to the chief and mayor. "We don't feel that kind of disrespectful rhetoric is useful or productive." Hanson said the lawsuit was filed after he was unable to resolve the issues with Warren during a meeting within the past 10 days. The union's attorney, Thomas Dowd, requested that the city provide the following materials for inspection: Andersen and Housh's internal investigation files and documentation concerning Warren's review of police officers' articles submitted for publication in the Shield.