North Carolina Police Chief is suspended for providing officers with information on how to obtain fake COVID vaccine cards

North Carolina Police Chief is suspended for providing officers with information on how to obtain fake COVID vaccine cards

"A self-vaccination clinic" in North Carolina, where COVID-19 vaccine cards were allegedly distributed to unvaccinated individuals, was the subject of a police chief's suspension this week in the state.

T.J. Smith, the chief of police in Oakboro, has been placed on unpaid administrative leave for two weeks and has been placed on a six-month probationary term.

When Smith learned about the clinic, he admitted that he did not "sit back and digest the information, ruminate on it, or otherwise give it much thought." As I stated in a statement to the Stanly News & Press on Wednesday, "I simply passed it on."

"I made a clerical error. Several weeks ago, a friend called to tell me about a mobile vaccination clinic that was coming to my area. It was another hectic morning, as they all seem to be these days. After I got off the phone with that friend, I called two additional officers (who were not from my department) and relayed information about a "self-vaccination" clinic that was being held nearby. As he put it, "I received one phone call, hung up, and immediately placed two more."

According to a letter addressed to Smith by OakBoro Administrator Doug Burgess, Smith's recommendation of the "self-vaccination clinic" to other officers violated several personnel policies, including fraud, willful acts endangering the property of others, and serving a conflict of interest.

"After carefully reviewing all of the information that has been made available to me and provided to me regarding your personnel conduct failures, I have decided to place you on unpaid leave for two calendar weeks, beginning December 21, 2021. It is decided that you will be on probation for six months." The letter went on from there.

For the violations to be investigated independently, Burgess stated to CNN that the town hired private investigators Blue Chameleon Investigations to conduct an investigation into the matter that resulted in them.

"I'm just trying to help people," Smith said in the statement, claiming to have received his COVID-19 vaccinations and to be doing his best to "help people."

"I received my own Covid vaccines from the Salisbury Veterans Affairs hospital this spring. It was just a matter of trying to help people in whatever way I could, and in hindsight, I should not have given something away," Smith explained.

That is something for which I accept responsibility. "I made a clerical error, and I spread false information," he explained.