JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — (Note: The video above is from a previous, related report.)
A SWAT officer fired for reporting for duty drunk on multiple occasions returns to work at the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office this week – without a badge, a gun or a police car.
Officer Nicholas Gifford is scheduled to resume work Wednesday, having served a 90-day suspension ordered by the city’s Civil Service Board. The board reinstated Gifford after he was fired by JSO for an October incident in which he reported for weapons training with a blood alcohol level four times the legal limit.
According to JSO officials, Gifford will not have police powers when he returns. Instead, he will work in Tele-serv, which is a light duty assignment, typically for officers who are injured, in trouble or under investigation. Although some light duty officers retain their police powers, Gifford returns to work “defrocked.”
"Ofc. Gifford will not immediately have police powers upon his return,” JSO Public Information Officer Christian Hancock said in an email, “and as such would not carry a gun and badge.” He also will not be given a police vehicle.
As First Coast News was the first to report, Gifford admitted drinking a fifth of vodka just hours before driving his police car to the city gun range – a distance of about 30 miles. A Breathalyzer test three hours after he came to work showed a BAC of .316 -- which correlates to acute intoxication and "stupor, blackout, and total loss of consciousness," according to medical guidelines.
Gifford was fired immediately for violating JSO’s zero tolerance policy, which prohibits officers from reporting to work with a BAC of anything exceeding .00. But two months later, the non-elected Civil Service Board ordered JSO to reinstate him, saying the firing was “manifestly unjust.” (JSO is fighting the reinstatement in civil court.)
As a result, Gifford will retain his $71,000-a-year job as long as he continues to work at JSO. As a condition of his employment, he must also undergo three random breathalyzer tests per work cycle for a year, something Hancock says, “will be administratively monitored for compliance.”
Hancock added, “outside of additional conditions which apply to all other employees, we have not been made aware of further stipulations [of Gifford’s employment].”
Gifford declined previous requests for comment, but his attorney sent this statement in January:
“Our member served his country and served the City of Jacksonville without any prior discipline in his career. He was entitled to a hearing in front of the neutral Civil Service Board as part of his due process. The Board after hearing all of the facts decided that termination was manifestly unjust and gave Mr. Gifford a lengthy suspension. We appreciate the Board’s willingness to allow this officer to continue to serve this community and the opportunity to present this case before them.”