An 11-year veteran of Montgomery County’s police volunteer program was dismissed from service this month after he wore volunteer identification to an anti-illegal immigration rally.

Wheaton resident Al Eisner, who says he worked more than 10,000 volunteer hours for the county police department during the past 11 years, was removed from duty after a police commander monitoring an anti-illegal immigration rally reported Eisner wore his volunteer police badge at the event.

Eisner acknowledges he had the identification on, but says it was an accident that it was displayed — he wears a plastic ID holder that has a pool pass on one side and the ID badge on the other. Eisner maintains he wears the pool pass most of the summer and intended to visit the pool after the rally.

“It was an inadvertent mistake,” Eisner told The Examiner. “I had all my pool stuff in the car and I didn’t realize it had flipped the way it had. Nobody said a word to me about wearing the badge while I was at the rally.”

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Police spokeswoman Lucille Baur said the police department does not comment on personnel matters, but that the badge incident was not the first time Eisner had run afoul of volunteer program protocol.

“He is certainly well aware of the circumstances that led to his dismissal from the volunteer program,” Baur said. “It was not based on this one incident alone.”

Baur said he was never told that volunteers are prohibited from wearing badges.

Eisner said he was never told during his years working for the department that police policy expressly prohibits volunteers from wearing ID at political rallies, but Baur said doing so is not “appropriate.”

“It would not be appropriate to represent yourself as a representative of the police department when you are involved in your own personal activities,” Baur said.

kmiller@dcexaminer.com