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Police officers in Idaho are held to a higher standard than the governor
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KREM 2 News in Spokane, Washington reports that the Idaho Police Officer Standards and Training Council (POST) recently launched an investigation to determine if Mike Gunderson should be decertified. Gunderson is currently a reserve officer for the city of Pinehurst, Idaho; however, in 2003, according to the KREM 2 report, Gunderson was a captain for the Shoshone County Sheriff's Department who resigned from duty after allegations surfaced that he had a sexual relationship with an 18-year old girl.
The brief story has conflicting views about what kind of officer Gunderson is or was. That's not the point. The reality though is that the age of consent in Idaho is 18 and Gunderson was cleared of any wrongdoing in 2003. Lawyers are not necessarily math wizards unless it comes to calculating a fee, but it seems like 2003 was six years ago.
Section 19-5109 of the Idaho State Code provides that officers may be decertified if he or she "[v]iolates any of the standards of conduct as established by the council's code of ethics, as adopted and amended by the council." This is a standard conduct unbecoming rule and the Idaho conduct/ethics rules do not objectively disqualify decertification on such "grounds."
Gunderson's age is not disclosed in the report, but frankly consensual legal relationships should not be of concern to the Idaho POST Council. Maybe there is more to the story. This is not a Gunderson defense piece, but an awakening that most of you are subject to two authorities: your department; and your certifying authority. They can and often do act independently.
As for Idaho, however, police officers are held to a higher standard than that state's governor. A police officer with a felony DUI equates to instant decertification. An officer convicted of misdemeanor DUI means discretionary (read probable) decertification. According to the Spokesman Review, Governor Butch Otter was convicted of DUI in 1993. According to Governor.com, "Otter married his girlfriend, a former Miss Idaho USA, in 2006. In order to marry the much-younger woman, Otter’s first marriage had to be annulled by the Catholic Church."
If Gunderson is decertified, he should run for governor.
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