Information continues to emerge from the controversial releasing of information last week during a “meeting” of the Fort Smith Audit Committee that resulted in the release of three undercover narcotic officers’ names through an initial story published on a news and politics website.
By virtue of information obtained through an Arkansas Freedom of Information request, Inside Fort Smith has learned of a complaint filed against city internal auditor Tracey Shockley by one of the undercover officers whose identity was compromised.
In addition, an inter-office memo from the acting patrol division commander refute may of the claims attributed to Shockley in the initial story.
Inside Fort Smith has reached out to Ms. Shockley though email, Facebook messenger and through since the initial story broke October 5. She has not responded to any of those efforts.
The complaint, filed on October 16, is apparently by one of the undercover officers that was unmasked, states that information disseminated in the online report was a violation of state law A.C.A. 25-19-105(b) 10a b8t also “has put the lives of the undercover officers and our families at risk.”
Composed on Fort Smith Police Department letterhead as a memorandum and addressed to the mayor and Fort Smith Board of Directors, the complaint was routed though Captain Brian Rice, Major Larry Rannells, Chief Nathaniel Clark, City Administrator Carl Geffken and Naomi Roundtree, director of human resources for the city of Fort Smith.
Part one of the complaint addresses the online article and how it potentially exposed undercover officer and families to anger after the names of the officers were left unredacted in preliminary report surrounding the findings of the audit.
The complaint specifies that the identities of the undercover officers were released not only to the online reporter, but to four Board of Director members and the civilian members of the Audit Committee as well.
The compliant states that another undercover officer was contacted but the media on October 16 asking for comments in the audit confirming he officers had been unmasked to more than one media outlet.
The first part of the compliant concludes the employee responsible for the release of the officers names is both “incompetent and negligent an should be dealt with harshly”.
The second half of the complaint deals with with the information released in the preliminary report. The complainant, who was part of the original audit process, contends ht Shockley was “dishonest in the report about what she found and ht our statements were during the audit.”
The compliant to on the specify seven different items in which the complaining officer says Shockley’s statements made the police department “look dishonest and corrupt.”
“The dishonest report that Tracey Shockley has provided to the Board of Directors and the Internal Audit Committee which has also been given to the media has caused great deal of controversy and has made the police department look dishonest and corrupt.
If Ms. Shockley had reported the truth, none of this would have ever happened” concluded the complaint.
Captain Danny Baker, the Acting Patrol Division Commander, sent a multi-page memo to Chief Clark through Major Larry Rannells also pointing out inconsistencies between the information released in the leaked “preliminary report” and what he claimed occurred during the actual audit process.
The entire FOIA file sent to Inside Fort Smith, which includes both the officers complaint and Baker’s inter-office memo, can be viewed HERE.
The complaint portion of the file is on pages 3-10 while Captain Baker’s memorandum is included on pages 12-18.
Other information uncovered by the FOIA request reveals that Chief Clark originally requested the audit on January 13, 2017 and that a meeting was scheduled one month later on February 14 to discuss the audit.
Shockley notified Sgt. Brian Rice about the pending audit on July 17 and an email was sent out to Clark and Geffken on August 8, 2017 as “official notice that the PD audit had begun and ll assistance, information and request would be appreciated’.
In the same email Shockley refers to the “special request for the audit” being made earlier in the year.
Captain Brian Rice also sent a memo to Chief Clark on October 6, two days after the initial story had appeared online.
In that memo Rice stated that Shockley had come to office “this afternoon and spoke with narcotics officers”.
“She talked with them about the article that had been released regarding the audit ans how the information had been misconstrued.
She able to ease their their concerns by the end of the conversation” the memo concluded.
That memo was dated ten days before the undercover officer filed his complaint with Mayor Sandy Sanders and the Fort Smith Board of Directors.
