The Flagler County Sheriff today fired first-year deputy Kaleem Suhail Chohan following his arrest Sunday on a battery charge involving his sister, a correctional officer in Volusia County.
The charge is a first-degree misdemeanor. Chohan was booked at the Volusia County jail on $100 bond after his arrest by the South Daytona Police Department and was released this afternoon at 5 p.m. A no-contact order is in place, but he is allowed to have “peaceful, non-violent contact” with his sister, who is 26.
Sheriff’s employees facing misdemeanor charges are typically suspended without pay pending the resolution of their case and an internal affairs investigation. Chohan, 24, a South Daytona resident, was three days short of his one-year anniversary with the Sheriff’s Office, where he was a road patrol deputy. He was still a probationary employee, when various performances on and off the job may be evaluated before a final determination to hire (or, in this case, to fire). The agency referred to his firing as both a “termination” and a “revocation” of his employment.
“His failure to de-escalate as he had been trained reflects a serious lapse in judgment that falls far below the standards expected of an employee,” Chief of Staff Mark Strobridge was quoted as saying in a release issued by the agency today. “This kind of behavior will not be tolerated and erodes public confidence. Deputies are expected to exercise sound judgment, self-control, and professionalism on and off duty.” Strobridge oversees internal affairs, among other matters. De-escalation is a central tent of Flagler County Sheriff’s policy and practice. The sheriff has also placed particular emphasis on addressing domestic violence at large.
In January, Chohan was the recipient of a Life-Saving Award after helping a non-responsive individual regain consciousness by administering a dose of Narcan, the neutralizing agent. Chohan was part of a team of three who helped the individual. The following month Chohan was driving his patrol vehicle on N. Ocean Shore Boulevard when a driver failed to yield while turning south from Shady Lane North, crashing into the front of Chohan’s vehicle and causing damage severe enough to total both cars. Chohan had minor injuries, was briefly hospitalized then returned to work.
Domestic violence in law enforcement families is more prevalent than domestic violence among the general population, research consistently finds, though numbers vary greatly, and the disclosure of violence in law enforcement families is rare. The National Center for Women Policing cites two findings–one of them drawn from a 1991 congressional hearing on the subject–that at least 40 percent of officer families experienced domestic violence, as opposed to 10 percent in the general population.
“Regardless of national data,” Cathy Riggs, a former police officer at the Santa Rosa Police Department and the spouse of a member of Congress, testified, “it is disturbing to note that 40 percent of the officers stated that in the last six months prior to the survey they had gotten out of control and behaved violently against their spouse and children.” The 40 percent figure is often cited, but it may be inflated (Riggs’s testimony did not disclose the method of the survey).
A University of South Florida paper found the incidence at 28 percent among law enforcement families against 16 percent in families at large. Some police departments have specialized units to deal with family violence involving their employees. For the past several years the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office has brought in speakers to address employees about wellness, mental health, stress and domestic violence, among other matters. The agency provides several avenues–discreet, anonymous, non-judgmental–for deputies and other staffers to seek help if needed through the Employee Assistance Program, which provides a plethora of resources.
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