Hill Out As Whitko SRO, Whitley Officer After Risque Facebook Post
Hill Out As Whitko SRO, Whitley Officer After Risque Facebook Post
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Hill Out As Whitko SRO, Whitley Officer After Risque Facebook PostShortly after being hired by South Whitley Police Department to serve as the school resource officer for Whitko School Corp., Chad Hill has resigned.
South Whitley Town Marshal Mike VanDevender confirmed Tuesday afternoon that Hill resigned.
“As to why, I can’t go into that. It’s a personnel matter,” he said.
While officials would not comment on the reason for Hill’s departure, Hill had been the target of a recent critical social media post.
A Facebook post that included a semi-nude photo of Hill appeared Saturday morning, but was removed in less than an hour. The post included allegations of improper conduct and a claim that it was brought to the attention of the sheriff’s department.
Sheriff Rocky Goshert confirmed Tuesday to WSBT that the department has been investigating the matter since 2017. Exactly what they are looking into was unclear.
Nick Eccles, Whitko School Corp. interim superintendent, said Whitko had an opening for a school resource officer. It had an agreement with South Whitley Police Department to provide an SRO.
“In light of the situation, we requested that individual not be our SRO and that they get us another SRO,” Eccles said.
The SRO is not a Whitko employee, and Eccles said the school corporation is in need of a replacement.
“We requested they find a new one for us,” he said.
In June, Hill, of Larwill, was hired as the SRO with the South Whitley Police Department.
Hill, a 27-year veteran of the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department, retired in July 2017. He was to start working at the SWPD in June and take SRO training this month, according to a June 20 Times-Union article.
“The person in question has never been our SRO and around kids in that position,” Eccles said. “We’ve been in contact with the South Whitley Police Department. They’ve been understanding of the situation. We expect to have a different SRO.”
Eccles said whoever becomes Whitko’s SRO will receive the proper training and screening, whoever it is. He said they want their SRO to model the proper behavior at all times.
A previous SRO with the district lost his job earlier this year after allegations of wrongdoing.
In April, a former South Whitley Police Department officer was arrested for failing to report a rape, according to an April 30 WPTA channel 21 news story. The Indiana State Police said the arrest came after an investigation into a complaint alleging officer Matthew Gilbert received information from a then-16-year-old girl who claimed to have been a rape victim but he didn’t investigate.
The Whitley County prosecutor then charged Gilbert with failure to report a sexual assault.
Gilbert was then removed from his SRO duties and is no longer with the police department.
