A civilian employee of the Anne Arundel County Sheriff’s Office has been fired after he interfered with a police call for service in Arnold.
On Thursday, January 16, 2020 the Sheriff’s Office learned of an incident which occurred that day at approximately 4:15 p.m. in Arnold, MD involving one of its part-time security guards identified as Harry Neisser.
Neisser was in possession of a Sheriff’s Office radio and interjected during a police call for service at the Arnold Post Office. The call was to check a vehicle on the parking lot. Neisser got on the radio, identified himself as a Sheriff’s unit, and stated that he was on the scene and that the vehicle had left the scene.
A county police officer continued the response and arrived at the post office and determined that the vehicle was still on the scene and had not left. The lone occupant of the vehicle needed brief medical attention, and was subsequently arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia.
The Sheriff’s Office has seven part-time, temporary employee positions. They are, four cadets, two unarmed civilian security guards, and one fill-in dispatcher. All of the temporary employees utilize the radio system while at work at the Circuit Courthouse; however, they may only remove the equipment when authorized and those employees are not authorized to use the radios off-duty to insert themselves into police calls for service.
Sheriff Jim Fredericks stated, “The actions of the employee were unauthorized and could have jeopardized the police investigation, and that is unacceptable.”
Neisser was terminated on Friday, January 17, 2020.
