Thomas Helmann was recently promoted to sergeant with the campus police at Southwest Vermont University. One of his added responsibilities was mentoring Officer Sharon Brand, who had been hired a couple of weeks ago. Newly hired officers were usually given the “paperwork jobs” that the other officers didn’t want to do. One of those jobs was putting together the “Campus Crime Statistics Report” for the Executive Committee. So, it wasn’t a surprise when the captain of the campus police gave Sharon the job of collecting all the statistics and writing the report. At their weekly mentoring session, Thomas advised Sharon, “Just look at last year’s report and include the same kinds of facts and figures. The secretary can give you statistics from this year.” A couple of weeks later, Sharon submitted the report to Thomas. He didn’t have time to read the report closely, but the figures all looked accurate, and it covered the same issues as last year. Sharon also inserted several photographs to add some life and color to the report. Most of the photos showed places where petty crimes had happened, including dorms, bike racks, and parking lots. A couple of pictures showed students drinking beer at a football tailgate party. There were also pictures of students, whom Sharon recruited, pretending to steal bikes, deal drugs, tag walls, and take computers out of dorm rooms. Thomas thought the photos were silly, but he didn’t think they were a problem. He sent a dozen copies to the Executive Committee. A few days later, Thomas was called into the captain’s office. She was really angry. “Sergeant, we have a big problem with the Crime Statistics Report.” A bit surprised, Thomas asked her what the problem was. “Well, a member of the University’s Executive Committee pointed out that all the staged pictures of criminal activities used African Americans and Hispanics as models.” She handed the report to Thomas. Sure enough, all the people pretending to wheel off bicycles, deal drugs, steal computers, and spray paint walls were minorities. Meanwhile, the students drinking at the football tailgater were white. He was shocked he hadn’t noticed the racist tone of the photographs, but now the problem was glaringly obvious. Stunned, he tried to offer an apology. The captain snapped back, “I’m not the person you should be apologizing to, though my butt is in the fire, too. This report makes the campus police look like a bunch of racists.” How do you think Thomas should respond to this issue? What should he tell Sharon? To whom should he and/or Sharon apologize? What else do you think should happen at this point?
#Sales Offer!| Get upto 25% Off: