AMERICAN FORK — American Fork's police department has launched an internal investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by one or more city police officers.
Police Chief Terry Fox said he learned of the allegations Thursday and that after a meeting with American Fork Mayor Ted Barratt, he agreed to start a formal probe.
"Some of these allegations are 10 years old, and if they did happen, they didn't happen on my watch," Fox told the Deseret Morning News.
"A lot of this is locker-room or bathroom innuendo," he said. "Let's just say they are sexual issues. That's fair enough."
Barratt said the allegations come from a police officer who no longer works for the department and, if they are true, happened years ago. He said he was frustrated that the former city officer never complained to a supervisor before leaving the police force.
"This officer had plenty of opportunities to come talk to me," Barratt said. "For him to just drop a bombshell like this, it's very difficult."
Barratt said that, according to the former officer, other officers also knew of the alleged misconduct but didn't say anything about it.
Neither Barratt nor Fox would elaborate on the allegations.
Controversy has dogged the American Fork police force for years. In 1997, a group of vocal residents called for a complete overhaul of the department after complaints of police misconduct and abuse, including allegations of sexual harassment.
A subsequent review by the Utah Attorney General's Office cleared the department of wrongdoing.
Amid the complaints, former Mayor Jess Green tried to fire then-Police Chief John Durrant twice. Both times Durrant was reinstated by the City Council.
Durrant and 14 other officers then sued Green and other city officials, claiming they had violated their free-speech rights when they were ordered to not talk about the resignation of another officer. Four other officers later filed a separate lawsuit claiming Green and others had intimidated and harassed them.
When Barratt took office in 1997, he vowed to clean up the police department. Before long, he was the subject of a lawsuit filed by Durrant and 17 other officers, claiming he had threatened to retaliate against any officers who had sued the city.
Barratt said he thought things had changed with Fox, who became police chief in October 1998 after Durrant retired.
"I thought things were going well," he said. "I thought I had got things under control since taking office."
He said the most recent allegations "blindsided" him.
"We wanted to make sure this isn't just somebody saying something and leaving it hanging out there. We wanted to have somebody come in and look at this," he said. "It's not something to play games with."
Fox and Barratt said the state's Peace Officer Standards and Training — the governing body for the state's police academy — is handling the investigation.
However, POST spokesman Doug McLeve said an internal investigation of the city police department must happen first.
"Hopefully we can come to the bottom of this," Fox said.
E-mail: jhyde@desnews.com