The police officer in a small Arkansas town who used a stun gun on an unruly 10-year-old girl has been fired for violating department policy — not for using the Taser itself but for failing to use the camera attached to it, according to the town's mayor.
Ozark Mayor Vernon McDaniel said he received notice of Officer Dustin Bradshaw's firing on Monday morning. Bradshaw previously was suspended for seven days with pay. His termination was effective Friday.
"The policy that Officer Bradshaw failed to obey is failure to have his camera placed on his Taser," police Chief Jim Noggle wrote in a memo to McDaniel. "It is the officer's duty to insure all of his equipment is present and in working order."
A phone listing for Bradshaw couldn't immediately be found Monday. The mayor said Bradshaw would receive unpaid vacation and holiday time.
Police were called to the home Nov. 11 after the girl's mother couldn't get her to take a shower.
Bradshaw's report says the girl was "violently kicking and verbally combative" when Bradshaw tried to take her into custody, and she kicked him in the groin. He said he delivered "a very brief drive stun to her back."
'Tase her'
"Her mother told me to tase her if I needed to," Bradshaw wrote.
The girl, who hasn't been identified, wasn't injured. She was taken to the Western Arkansas Youth Shelter in Cecil.
The police chief's memo said Bradshaw had been warned earlier to turn on the Taser's camera and to wear his lapel microphone.
"When talking to another employee Officer Bradshaw stated that it is worth a 5 point deduction just so he would not have to carry the cameras," Noggle wrote. "In the past he had been told to wear and use his cameras by me on several occasions."
McDaniel said Monday that the camera requirement "has been a very consistent policy ever since the Tasers were obtained roughly two years ago."
The FBI and Arkansas State Police are investigating the incident at the request of McDaniel and Noggle.