An LA parking officer who challenged his dismissal for appearing in a porn movie while on duty has lost his appeal and will not be permitted to return to his job with the city.
The Los Angeles Board of Civil Service Commissioners voted on Thursday 4-0 to uphold the termination of Officer John Dancler, who was fired in July of 2011 after the NBC4 I-Team reported on his appearance in a pornographic video while in uniform.
The board upheld the recommendation of a hearing officer who found Dancler’s termination “appropriate.”
In supporting Dancler’s dismissal, Comissioner Paul Sweeney Jr. said “it is entirely inapproriate for an officer in the city of LA to be engaged in that behavior,” referring to Dancler’s participation in the movie.
During the half-hour proceeding at the city’s personnel department in downtown LA, Dancler made an emotional last-ditch appeal to save his job. Dancler worked as an LA parking officer for 24 years before his dismissal in July of 2011.
“It was a mistake I made and I’m very sorry for it and it would never happen again,” Dancler told the board.
“I’d like to apologize to the city for my actions,” Dancler said. “It was never my intent to embarrass the city, my family, my friends.”
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At a hearing in January, Dancler acknowledged "bad judgment" for his participation in the video.
In the wake of the NBC4 I-Team investigation, last June Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa asked Los Angeles Police Department Commander Michael Williams to come over temporarily from the LAPD to shake up the Bureau of Parking Enforcement.
Insiders told NBC4 last spring that then-Parking Enforcement Chief Jimmy Price rarely disciplined officers who got in trouble, especially if he held them in favor. Price was forced to retire in June of 2011.
One of two deputy chiefs was asked to leave, and the other was reassigned to a job outside of Parking Enforcement.
In the six months following the NBC4 Investigation, 20 traffic officers were disciplined and four of them fired for various kinds of misconduct.
In January the city hired fomer Hermosa Beach Police Chief Gregory Savelli to lead the agency.
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