Three officers have alleged that the city of Monroe, Police Chief Quentin Holmes and Mayor Jamie Mayo have violated their constitutional rights in a civil lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court on Tuesday.
The suit claims the Monroe Police Department's long-term sick leave policy "subjects police officers to what the policy itself describes as home 'confinement.'"
Officers Thomas Dupree, Alaric Coleman and Joseph Smith, are the plaintiffs in the suit. The filing claims all suffered work-related injuries and are currently employed by the department.
The suit states, "the sick leave policy subjects police officers to 24 hours per day, 7 day per week home 'confinement,' and allows these officers to leave their home only for specified, extraordinarily limited reasons. The city of Monroe, through its police chief, Quentin D. Holmes Sr., decides whose leave is designated 'sick leave,' with no standards, guidance or written policies in place for making such determinations and no review of such decisions."
The current policy only allows officers to leave their homes to obtain medical attention or treatment, purchase medication, purchase groceries, attend church, vote, attend funerals of relatives or close friends and to engage in any limited activity specifically prescribed by an attending physician, according to the suit.
Officers are also required to consent to residence checks used to verify the officer is actually at home, according to the suit.
The officers claim they have been denied the opportunity to attend high school graduations of family members, family gatherings, visiting severely ill residents, weddings of family members and birthday celebrations.
The officers are asking for a jury trial and are seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
Dupree, Coleman and Smith have all been paid their usual salary of forty hours per week, but said that part of the damages are to be considered back pay for the other 128 hours per week they are required to be confined to their homes.
