CHARLOTTE, N.C. - News cameras were rolling as Officer Tom Allen was led from police headquarters in handcuffs Wednesday afternoon. A few hours later, he was booked into the Mecklenburg County Jail. Allen's accused of secretly taking inappropriate photographs of four teen girls in CMPD's Explorer program. It's a summer program for high school students interested in police work. A program Allen has overseen since 2002.
Police Chief Rodney Monroe says, "Allen's behavior is totally unacceptable. He violated the public's trust and needs to be, and will be, held accountable."
Monroe says the investigation into Allen started back in October after a supervisor got suspicious. Allen was immediately suspended, and remains suspended without pay.
He allegedly took the photos of the girls, ages 14 to 16, in 2011 and 2013. The pictures were taken with a 35 mm camera during physical training exercises: sit ups, push ups, running. The girls didn't know Allen was allegedly focusing on their underwear. Monroe says no one knew. "He committed these offenses in front of other people," says Monroe.
Search warrants--not yet made public--were served at Allen's home. His computers and thousands of pictures have been reviewed. Monroe says there's no evidence of child porn. "It never occurred to me that he would do any of that stuff that I heard on the news," says Explorer program graduate Christian Coe.
Coe says he's now studying criminal law in part because of Allen's mentorship. He calls Allen a great, genuine guy. Coe went on several week-long trips with Allen. He believes so much in the officer, he says he'll wait until Allen has his day in court. Coe says, "As of now, I can't really say I'm disappointed, because I don't know if he actually did anything."
Allen has been cited for termination. Because of his tenure, he can appeal the decision. Over the course of his CMPD career, Allen's been in direct contact with about 700 youth. So far, CMPD has interviewed about 180 of them. There have been no other reports of inappropriate contact.
Police Chief Rodney Monroe says, "Allen's behavior is totally unacceptable. He violated the public's trust and needs to be, and will be, held accountable."
Monroe says the investigation into Allen started back in October after a supervisor got suspicious. Allen was immediately suspended, and remains suspended without pay.
He allegedly took the photos of the girls, ages 14 to 16, in 2011 and 2013. The pictures were taken with a 35 mm camera during physical training exercises: sit ups, push ups, running. The girls didn't know Allen was allegedly focusing on their underwear. Monroe says no one knew. "He committed these offenses in front of other people," says Monroe.
Search warrants--not yet made public--were served at Allen's home. His computers and thousands of pictures have been reviewed. Monroe says there's no evidence of child porn. "It never occurred to me that he would do any of that stuff that I heard on the news," says Explorer program graduate Christian Coe.
Coe says he's now studying criminal law in part because of Allen's mentorship. He calls Allen a great, genuine guy. Coe went on several week-long trips with Allen. He believes so much in the officer, he says he'll wait until Allen has his day in court. Coe says, "As of now, I can't really say I'm disappointed, because I don't know if he actually did anything."
Allen has been cited for termination. Because of his tenure, he can appeal the decision. Over the course of his CMPD career, Allen's been in direct contact with about 700 youth. So far, CMPD has interviewed about 180 of them. There have been no other reports of inappropriate contact.
10 comments:
read between the lines - "supervisor became suspicious" in other words he pissed off one of Rotney's goons.
The man is a pervert, anyone who would look at a 14 year old girl as a sex object rather than a child should be removed from society.
People are pissed off....for good reason!
Suspicions were confirmed....it was not pretty.
Tip of the iceberg.
Just another victim of Rotney's rage.
WRONG! Just another closet pervert who has been rightly removed from a position of trust he obviously should not have been in...........
The guy is a sicko, and liked underage girls. He slipped up, that's all and thankfully he was caught "red handed" before he acted on any of his pedo urge.
Rather than backing the pervert up and slamming the chief some people should be thanking IA and Chief Monroe.
I've been with the PD for 22 years now, and say you can't put this one on the chief. I'm not a fan of the chief, but this is a case that the chief had no dealings with. We can't blame everything on Romo.
To 8:57 : agreed.
CMPD has become totally screwed up under Rodney Monroe.
He has promoted and surrounded himself with people less intelligent than him,which Is hard to do..but he has managed to do it. These minions, these ass kissers never challenge him, and anyone who does is removed from any job of any significance. He wants no challenges, no new ideas, no innovative thinking. He has insulated himself by design.
In doing this he has lost touch with the real world.
Instead of telling the truth, his ego and hubris has lead him to lie and cover up anything he sees as a threat to his reputation.
Instead of saying what actually is the reason for this sick individual being let go, he has chosen once again to cover up and cover his ass.
Rodney does nothing that doesn't benefit him in some way.
Be thankful to him and to IA....are you kidding?
They have chosen once again to hide facts and cover up the truth..period!
Right...having people that feel free to challenge you keep you honest.
And honesty is something Rodney does not value.
The not so artful lie is his area of incompetence.
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