ELGIN, Ill. (STMW) — Police officials said Wednesday that policies already had been in place but simply were not followed when a northwest suburban Elgin police officer released a cat into the cold in December after it was brought into the station by a family seeking help for the animal.
Elgin police Lt. Bill Wolf said Sgt. John Demmin, the officer involved in the incident, had been suspended for one day without pay after a disciplinary inquiry found him at fault.
“We already had policies in place that we think would dictate how an officer would handle that,” Wolf said. “And obviously there was some indication that it was not handled properly.”
The incident occurred Dec. 8, 2009. when Elgin residents Wilmarie Cancel and her husband, Edmund Rosado, brought a cat in a cage to the police station after finding it on the front steps of their apartment building.
It was at the station, the couple claimed, that an officer threatened to arrest them for abandoning an animal, then suggested they release the cat in a rural area — or just outside the police station.
When the couple refused, Demmin reportedly opened the cage on the front steps of the police station and let the cat run off into the snow.
The cat was found by officers a day later and taken to Golf Rose Animal Hospital in Schaumburg, where it was adopted within a week amid interest by more than 15 people.
Wolf said officers are regularly trained in department policies and that those will continue to be reviewed to avoid a similar incident in the future.
Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.
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