A former officer of the Johnson County Sherriff’s office in Kansas has had his police license revoked after he was caught attempting to short-change a store out of nearly $400 value of Pokémon cards.
As this disciplinary filing (via The Kansas City Star) states, the person—identified as William Knight—had been serving as a “full-time law enforcement officer” with the Sherriff’s Office since March 2019. In May this yr, while in uniform, he was “shopping in a retail store” when he “aroused the suspicions of an Asset Protection Investigator.”
Seems Knight had been caught taking “several barcodes off inexpensive items he had at home,” had stuck them on the back of 12 whole boxes of Pokémon cards, and thought he could get away with buying them at a greatly reduced price.
The cashier immediately noticed something was up, though, and after alerting the “Asset Protection Investigator,” Knight pretended that he had just received a call, and had to right away leave the shop. He was quickly identified, nonetheless, and later had to confess that he had indeed tried to scam them, which resulted in his being criminally charged with one count of “illegal acts involved in theft detection.”
While Knight escaped a criminal case, his actions were also brought before the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training, the federal government body overseeing the appointment of cops within the state. They determined that because Knight “lacks the non-public qualities of integrity” required, he was unfit to proceed serving, and so last month revoked his license to function an officer. Knight had already left his role on the Johnson County Sherriff’s office three days after the incident, so this wasn’t a firing, more of a prevention of him getting police work elsewhere within the State.
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“Unfortunately, in a time of severe stress and anxiety, he exercised poor judgment, resulting in this arrest and charge,” Knight’s lawyer said in an announcement sent to The Kansas City Star. “Despite his discharge from the JCSO, Mr. Knight is gainfully employed, supporting his family and attempting to make amends to the victim, his community and his family through the DA’s diversion program.”
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