[url]http://dailynews.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20020812/ap_on_fe_st/c__o_kane_1&e=1[/url]

Cop In Trouble Over Name
Mon Aug 12, 7:51 AM ET

EL PASO, Texas (AP) - A police officer's name nearly cost her her job.

 

The problem was the way El Paso officer Christine Lynn O'Kane's name appeared on her identification tag and e-mails: C. O'KANE.

"When you put it together, it spells 'cocaine,'" said police spokesman Al Velarde.

O'Kane resigned from the El Paso Police Department on April 6, 2000, to take care of her ailing mother, the El Paso Times reported. She had a good service record, and her work file included a recommendation that she be reinstated if she reapplied in the future.

But when O'Kane reapplied with the department months later, she found it no longer supported her reinstatement.

Police management cited the "inappropriate" use of her name as the basis for their denial.

O'Kane had been using "C. O'Kane" in e-mails including a goodbye message to co-workers she sent in April 2000.

"In reading the (e-mail) header, it is clear that the intention was to refer to the drug cocaine," states an April 2, 2001, e-mail from Assistant Police Chief Richard Wiles to the department's personnel director.

It later continues: "It placed the department in a position of being subjected to public ridicule and disrespect."

O'Kane appealed her case to the Civil Service Commission on May 24, 2001, and the commission supported her position.

She was rehired in September 2001 and now works as a police officer in El Paso's Lower Valley.

Since being rehired, O'Kane switched to her maiden name, Whitaker.

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fckin stupid buracratic BS! C. O'Kane.... sheesh proof that even highups can be stupid.

While I think it's moronic for the department not to hire her because of her name, she could have just signed her e-mails, Christine O'Kane. That seems like it would have been easier than going back to her maiden name.

It was also on her uniform nametag, which is what most citizens would use as a primary source of ID for an officer in uniform.

Remember the Alamo, and God Bless Texas...

I'm sorry, but this is RIDICULOUS!.



Really? So the police department hired Miss Cleao to read O'Kane's mind, eh?



Oh, yeah. Like being this stupid is going to pole-vault your credibility straight into the stratosphere...



Too bad. Would've been great to have her spit in their eye. I really thought the police were better than this. Guess the old "O-4 Lobotomy" rule applies equally to the police as it does to the armed forces.

Edited to add:

[sarcasm]You know, Whitaker isn't any good, either, because if you take out the hate-filled, gun-nut reference "AK" from her name, you end up with "WHITER", which obviously proves she a racist bitch...[/sarcasm]

Jesus, WHAT IDIOTS!

"When the party is done, and you wanna ride on - C. O'Kane"


Na-na na na, na-na-na.

[BD]

She could have always signed with her initials. I do. My e-mails simply end with "-JRH". Hers: "-COK".

I need to ask the HR department if that would have been considered sexual harassment.

BTW, I think it really sucks that she had to go through that simply because of her name. What a bunch of morons.

Unbelievable!

Don't they have better things to worry about than this?

I was a police officer for 25 years and retired in 97.  My theory for a long time was as follows:  You make Sgt., you get a lobotomy, by the time you make chief, they take the entire brain.  The higher up in rank you go, the dumber you become and the less common sense you have.

Doesn't anyone know how to spell in that PD?

Hi, I'm Matt N. Hokane. Please don't confuse my name with pot and cocaine. It gives me a bad rep. Ta ta for now.

reminds me of my high school teacher
Anita Dewbey

I wonder how T. J. Hooker managed to keep his job. [;)]