Court Says No Rights of Free Speech
A Washington, D.C., police officer who was also chair of the union wasn’t protected by either the First Amendment or the city’s whistle-blower law when he was suspended for three days for providing reporters with a recording of radio communications during an emergency response incident, a federal appeals court ruled Aug. 4.
Affirming summary judgment for the city, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the police department’s “interests in non-disclosure outweigh [Kristopher] Baumann’s and the public’s interests in releasing the recording at the time he did.”
The emergency workers were responding to a barricade situation and exchanged gunfire with a suspect. Baumann contended he provided the recording in response to news reports that higher-ranking officials, including the mayor, urged personnel to employ tear gas, despite their lack of training for its use in barricade situations.
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