Rachel Scattergood — one of four Overland Park Police officers who resigned last year amid questions about their handling of funds for a charitable foundation – has been hired by another metro area police department.
The Gladstone, Missouri, Police Department announced Scattergood’s hiring late last week, posting a video of her swearing-in on the department’s Facebook page on Thursday, Feb. 8.
Gladstone Chief Fred Farris cited Scattergood’s experience in his brief introduction on the video.
“Pretty excited to get her on board,” he said.
Scattergood worked in the Overland Park police department for 12 years, and lives in Missouri, he said.
“She comes to us with a great deal of experience,” he added.
There was no mention of the circumstances that prompted Scattergood and the other three officers to leave the Overland Park department late last year.
Scattergood, others earned scrutiny over roles at police charity
Scattergood, Sgt. Brandon Faber, Officer Brad Heater and Sgt. Tim Tinnin were placed on administrative leave in May of 2022 after questions arose about their administration of funds in the Overland Park Police Officers Foundation, a charitable arm of the Overland Park Fraternal Order of Police.
The charity raised funds to help the families of fallen police officers as well as make other educational and charitable outreach to the community.
According to an audit conducted by the foundation, evidence suggested the four misappropriated roughly $27,000 in funds.
The four were listed as officers for the foundation from 2016 to 2020.
JoCo DA did not press charges
Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe declined to press criminal charges, saying the officers’ poor record keeping and handling of funds may have violated the foundation’s bylaws but did not rise to the level of criminal conduct.
“We don’t like the result. We don’t like how the foundation conducted themselves,” Howe said at the time.
All four resigned from the Overland Park force in December.
Scattergood resigned “under questionable circumstances,” city says
Kansas law enforcement agencies are required to notify the state Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training when an officer leaves the force.
As a part of that, a form is filled out giving a description of the circumstances of an officers’ departure.
In this case, the officers resigned while still under the city’s investigation, said Overland Park spokesperson Meg Ralph. She said their forms were filled out as resignations “under questionable circumstances,” which includes resignations while an investigation is ongoing or being contemplated.
According to the standards commission’s procedures, the forms are then reviewed to determine if there’s a chance the officer could have violated the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Act.
If so, CPOST conducts its own investigation and decides if the resigning officer’s certification should be revoked.
None of the four has been listed on the Kansas CPOST web page’s list of completed certification actions.
However revocation can take months. In the meantime, other agencies looking to hire officers can ask for the paperwork on a resignation, which is not available to the public, for more information.
It was not immediately clear whether officials from Gladstone had done that. They did not immediately return a phone call seeking an explanation Monday.
