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A veteran police officer in Illinois resigned Tuesday after researchers connected him to a deluge of violent and bigoted social media posts that glorified Adolf Hitler and hate crimes.

The resignation of Springfield Police Department Officer Aaron Paul Nichols, 46, came shortly after his department announced an investigation into the posts, first surfaced by Anonymous Comrades Collective (ACC), a group of anti-fascist researchers.

“If I found a genie and I had one wish? The Jews would be a distant memory in 72 hours,” one of the posts allegedly written by Nichols reads.

The Springfield Police Department said on Friday that it had launched an investigation into Nichols’ “racist comments,” and that his “police powers had been removed.” On Tuesday, the department told HuffPost in a statement that Nichols, who joined the department in 2004, resigned instead of meeting with investigators.

* Washington Post reporter Hannah Allam followed up…

After the meeting, [Springfield Police Chief Ken Scarlette] said it was frustrating that he could not yet deliver an ending for the saga. His biggest play was decertification, a formal request for the revocation of Nichols’s ability to work elsewhere as a law enforcement officer, an option that had not been available in Illinois until the governor introduced it as part of recent criminal justice reforms.

The process was so new, Scarlette said, that when he sent the request — just four days after learning of Nichols’s online posts — his contact at the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board, known as ILETSB, told him there were no personnel to consider the issue and likened the office to “flying a plane in the air that has not been put together.”

Twelve months later, ILETSB still had not officially ruled on the matter. Officials there did not respond to a phone message or email seeking comment.

The move might not be monumental, Scarlette said, but it would be an answer to the question that still comes up in every meeting, one concrete win in his year-long fight against hate.

“You don’t get to just resign and this whole thing goes away,” he said. “Because it’s not going away for me as chief. It’s not going away for this agency. It’s not going away for the city.”

The whole thing is worth a read, but the WaPo reporter wasn’t able to reach the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board for whatever reason [Adding: An ILETSB official says the board never received a call or message from anyone at the Washington Post].

I contacted the ILETSB today and was told that because the resignation happened before July 1 of last year, when the decertification statute took effect, the board had no legal means of proceeding with a discretionary decertification.

But, I was told, former officer Nichols is now in a state database, so if he applies for another police job in Illinois, he’ll be flagged as having a misconduct violation when another police agency contacts the ILETSB as required. Also, it will now be essentially impossible for Nichols to be recertified by the ILETSB.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, May 8, 23 @ 2:38 pm

Comments

Eighteen years on the job…and no one knew…incredible… as in lacking any credit…as to honesty.

Comment by Dotnonymous Monday, May 8, 23 @ 2:49 pm
Aaron Paul Nichols…remember his name…when people say they fear the police.

Sociopaths like Nichols are able to (temporarily) assume the mask of sanity…beware.

Comment by Dotnonymous Monday, May 8, 23 @ 3:09 pm
I hope it’s true that he can’t be recertified by ILETSB. I bet there’s some PD’s in Illinois that would hire him without a second thought.

Comment by Sir Reel Monday, May 8, 23 @ 3:23 pm
I would not call it far right policies or opinions the man is insane and crazy. Hard for me to even imagine there are people like this in the world. 18 years fell through the cracks.

Comment by clec dcn Monday, May 8, 23 @ 3:36 pm
===I would not call it far right policies or opinions the man is insane and crazy===

Thanks, Dr. Freud. How about sticking to what you know?

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, May 8, 23 @ 3:43 pm
Interesting that the ILETSB claims they received no call from the Washington Post.

Comment by Friendly Bob Adams Monday, May 8, 23 @ 4:48 pm
Follow-up is always a good thing.

Comment by Just a Citizen Monday, May 8, 23 @ 5:02 pm
===I hope it’s true that he can’t be recertified by ILETSB. I bet there’s some PD’s in Illinois that would hire him without a second thought.===

The issue of department-hopping, where an officer who was fired/voluntarily resigned/etc. was hired by another agency that was happy not to have to pay for the basic training & certification was addressed in the 2015 Police Reform bill spearheaded by then Senator Raoul and then Representative Sims. It was important an important step. Hopefully it will help keep this person out of law enforcement.

Comment by Leslie K Monday, May 8, 23 @ 6:56 pm
These comments were made by Nichols as a private citizen and he has every right to express them. I bet all of you critics live in glass houses. Taking joy in ruining a persons career is sick and disgusting.

Comment by Nichols Monday, May 8, 23 @ 7:13 pm
===I bet all of you critics live in glass houses===

Yeah, we’re all secret anti-Semites, racists, Nazis, you name it, bub. Go crawl back into your dark hole.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, May 8, 23 @ 7:18 pm
===These comments were made by Nichols as a private citizen and he has every right to express them===

He does indeed have every right to express them and every right to face the consequences of those words. Get bent, Nazi sympathizer.

Comment by A-Man Tuesday, May 9, 23 @ 11:12 am