Avon D.A.R.E. Officer Todd Akerley Was Fired Over Inappropriate Communications With Children.

 

Avon Police Officer Todd Akerley Was Fired After Inappropriate Communications With Children in His D.A.R.E. Program

Todd Akerley spent a decade with the Avon Police Department in Connecticut.

He was also the department's D.A.R.E. officer, teaching drug-prevention classes to elementary school children.

Then a doctor at Connecticut Children's Medical Center raised an urgent concern about disturbing text messages between Akerley and an 11-year-old girl who had been in his D.A.R.E. program.

The department opened an internal investigation.

What investigators found went far beyond one child.

Akerley had reportedly been frequently texting and communicating online with at least eight to eleven students, along with dozens of preteens through social media. Some conversations happened late at night or while he was off duty.

Students described his behavior as “creepy.” Investigators concluded that he sometimes behaved more like an adolescent peer than a police officer, including exposing children to inappropriate adult material through social-media posts.

Avon police placed him on administrative leave and ultimately fired him on October 3, 2013.

The distinction here matters: Connecticut's Department of Children and Families and police reviewed the conduct, but a separate criminal investigation determined that it did not involve sexual contact or criminal wrongdoing. Akerley was not convicted of a sex crime based on the conduct described here.

But something does not have to result in criminal charges to represent a serious failure of professional boundaries.

He was the D.A.R.E. officer. Parents and schools trusted him with children. An 11-year-old should never have needed a fucking doctor to raise the alarm about the police officer who came into her classroom