‘Everybody in this place with a badge can ... die.’ Dispatcher quits after anti-cop rants
A 911 dispatcher is often seen as a lifeline for police officers, providing crucial details they need as they respond to emergencies. Among their duties is to making sure officers are safe, checking in on them during stops and sending back-up when needed.
They are not supposed to say things like this, at least without raising questions about their fitness for the job:
- “Everybody in this place with a badge can (expletive) die.”
- “Everybody on bravo delta that worked the weekend could get (explextive) herpes.”
- “It doesn’t matter if I check on them at three, four or seven minutes, if they’re shot, they’re shot, they’re going to be dead anyway.”
Frank Canelli, a 14-year-dispatcher with the Bradenton Police Department, resigned on July 19 amid an internal affairs investigation into allegations that he made these and other inappropriate comments.
Had he not quit, Canelli would have been fired, after investigators concluded Aug. 21 that his comments and actions had raised serious doubt about whether he could do his job.
“Mr. Canelli’s statements not only are abusive but also leave the impression he has a negative feeling towards the men and women of the Bradenton Police Department,” the investigative summary concluded. “While Mr. Canelli denies this, his comments leave little room for interpretation.”
The internal affairs investigation concluded with sustained findings of a lack of truthfulness, discourtesy and conduct unbecoming a police department employee.
Allegations that Canelli actually failed to check on officers’ statuses or that he at times didn’t answer the phone or the police radio were not proven during the investigation, according to the report.
The investigation started after an April 15 incident involving Canelli and another dispatcher, according to police.
Canelli had come in complaining about a previous shift, according to others working that morning. When he walked up the dispatcher he was relieving, Canelli told her she could leave, according to the internal affair report.
As she was gathering her belongings. Canelli said, “Everybody in this place with a badge can (expletive) die” followed by, “Everybody on bravo delta that worked the weekend could get (expletive) herpes,” she and another dispatcher told professional standards investigators.
At first, the dispatcher ignored his comments but after he interjected into her conversation with a supervisor about wanting to participate in a promotional video, she began yelling at Canelli about his negativity and his comments. As the two began to argue, it caught the attention of a lieutenant who was in the kitchen. Supervisors intervened and put an end to the argument.
The official complaint that followed also included allegation that when Canelli was questioned by a dispatch supervisor on March 26 about his failing to check on a sergeant during during a special detail. Canelli responded, “It doesn’t matter if I check on them at three, four or seven minutes, if they’re shot, they’re shot, they’re going to be dead anyway,” according to the internal affairs report.
But later during his recorded interview with professional standards investigators, Canelli said, “That is not how that statement came out.”
His point, Canelli explained, was that “there’s no fool proof plan for 100 percent for us to keep them safe. ... Because we could check them, Johnny on the spot. ... Thirty seconds later, something could happen to them.”
On the day in question, Canelli said there was a high call volume and that it was never his intent not to check in on the sergeant.
“I didn’t do it maliciously. I didn’t do it, you know, because he wears the badge and I want him to die. I don’t,” Canelli told investigators. “I want every single person to go home everywhere in the world that wears a badge.”
But questioned about wishing death or herpes for officers, Canelli denied ever uttering those words even when confronted with the testimony of his fellow dispatchers.
A comment made by Canelli in 2018 to the same dispatcher he argued with on April 15 came to light during the internal affairs investigation. On July 12, 2018, she told Canelli about a female officer getting hurt during her shift to which she said Canelli responded, “Good, she deserves it. She’s annoying.”
But when asked by investigators, Canelli denied saying anything similar about that officer or any female officer.
Although that comment was reported to a supervisor at the time, it was never investigated. As a result of a related internal affairs investigation, Sgt. Dave Shenk received a written reprimand for failing to be efficient in his duties as a supervisor.
The dispatcher and the female officer the comment was made about had both reported the comment to Shenk, but he did not pass it up along his chain of command nor did he report it to the office of professional standards as he should have.
Canelli had never received any significant discipline since he joined the department in June 2005.
Early on supervisors noted in a 2007 performance evaluation that Canelli “challenges supervision and likes to argue.”
According to a 2014 evaluation, Canelli’s supervisors had voiced complaints that when he worked nights, “he was less than congenial, and respectful to certain officers.” He was also reprimanded when he “posted a vent regarding another local agency on Facebook,” which was found to be inappropriate.
In September 2017, Canelli was issued a written memo of counseling for being disrespectful to a supervisor, according to his personnel file.
“Frank is often blunt which comes off as antagonistic by some people,” supervisors noted in his most recent evaluation. “Frank should try to be a bit more empathetic with callers and officers, trying to put himself in their place. We take the same or similar complaints all day but he needs to remember, for some of them, this is there first time calling for help and they could be having the worst day of their lives when they speak to us.”
This story was originally published November 6, 2019 at 12:00 AM.
