A SWAT officer, part of the Jacksonville Sheriff Department, who was fired last year for driving drunk to a gun range, was reinstated this week with the department at his old salary... the law enforcement dept with it's own zero-tolerance policy for on-duty officers being under the influence of alcohol

Gifford’s intoxicated condition was initially discovered Oct. 13 by fellow officers who saw him “swerving back and forth” while driving his city-issued car to the JSO Firing Range, some 30 miles from his home.

Gifford admitted to his inebriated state when the officers confiscated his gun belt.

 

“I’m drunk,” he told them, according to an Internal Affairs report.

A series of breathalyzer tests taken more than three hours later confirmed it. Gifford blew a .316

https://jalopnik.com/cop-who-drank-fifth-of-vodka-then-drove-to-the-gun-rang-1848482073

but the drunk, is back on the job... with a badge. Who arrives at a gun range drunk. Not a little drunk, a lot drunk

Gifford admitted he’d consumed a fifth of vodka before falling asleep around 3:30 a.m. – 4 ½ hours before his shift. He acknowledged having a serious drinking problem and reporting for work impaired previously, “probably five, 10 times.”

So, how did he get back on the $71,000 job? 

The police union had his back, and WANT drunk cops on the job. 

Do you know how so many people say "a few bad apples" is all that the unlimited number of corrupt cops amounts too? Well, this is why they keep their jobs. The corrupt and unethical police union that wants even the alcoholic and drunk on the job cops back at work.

Fraternal Order of Police attorney Phil Vogelsang, who represented Gifford, didn’t dispute the facts of the case. But he noted the officer had no prior discipline. And he argued the firing was unfair since “multiple” off-duty officers have gotten DUIs over the past year and received only suspensions. 

“It is 'manifestly unjust' to treat an officer who gets a DUI in his personal car differently than an officer who ... is charged with administrative DUI in his JSO vehicle,” Vogelsang said. “They are the exact same thing. On or off duty does not matter.”

https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/crime/2022/02/03/jacksonville-police-officer-fired-being-drunk-return-work/6652683001/

Fraternal Order of Police attorney Phil Vogelsang brought up a 1999 case in which a top Sheriff's Office official — Assistant Chief Bobby Deal — actually crashed his police car while drunk and was allowed to remain on the job, following a suspension. Court records confirm Deal pleaded guilty to DUI, but the case file itself has been destroyed. The Sheriff's Office has been unable to locate the arrest report.

huh. Imagine that, the official record of a cop goes missing, for drunk driving, on the job.