INGLEWOOD — A former Inglewood Unified School District Police chief appears headed back to the district, promising to pick up where he left off in ridding the department of what he saw as widescale “corruption.”

Kevin Scroggins, who resigned last March as the district’s director of safety, security and emergency management, is likely to be re-appointed to the vacant position following the IUSD governing board’s Wednesday night meeting.

Scroggins, who left Inglewood to become the first Black police captain in the Palos Verdes Police Department, believes he has the support of enough board members to return to the job. He left the department under something of a cloud, after he accused several officers he was investigating of spreading a malicious — and he says, false — rumor that he himself was under investigation for an alleged improper relationship with a minor.

Scroggins, 48, was initially appointed in May 2006, after 16 years with the Los Angeles Police Department. While in the post, he had catalogued a long list of police and security department issues, including:

• Narcotics seizures on campuses being mysteriously lost or misplaced.
• Security officers coming to work under the influence of alcohol and narcotics.
• School police officers moonlighting at other jobs but claiming they were working overtime for the district — sometimes netting an extra $25,000 a year.
• Security officers involved in inappropriate relations with female students.
• School police officers taking police vehicles for use on weekends.
• Both police and security officers coming to work in their street clothes, making it difficult to distinguish between them and undesirable elements on campus.

“When I interviewed with the then-superintendent [Pamela Short-Powell] she indicated serious challenges and problems with the police and security department,” said Scroggins in an interview last week at The Wave offices.

“Once hired, I conducted a monthlong audit of the police and security departments so I could determine what was really going on. I would get addresses from personnel and go by people’s houses and job sites if you had claimed overtime. I would sit at locations all night if need be and provide photo proof.”

He continued: “What I observed knocked me out. A lot of the officers had been grandfathered in and had been working for the district for 20, 25 years. But I knew I had to take on the challenge.”

Scroggins said he presented his audit to Short-Powell with the understanding that dramatic measures would have to be taken. “I told her that she had to understand that there are some people who will need to be fired and demoted and that would result in some serious conflicts,” he said. “She said I had her 100 percent support on this.”

At the time, according to Scroggins, the IUSD Police Department had a budget of $134 million, and consisted of 5 permanent police officers, 16 substitutes or daily reserves, and six resource officers with limited authority on campus.

“I started with the police department, wrote policies on strict uniform codes, start/ending times and assigned officers to different schools on foot patrol, no more just riding around in the patrol cars,” said Scroggins. “Then I went after the security department and it was like pulling teeth — they fought me tooth and nail. I also started recommending terminations, and we got rid of six or seven officers in six months.”

Then, recalled Scroggins, things began to turn ugly, sparked by a terminated 12-year security officer who he says was falsely claiming overtime. “He started a rumor that in 2005 I was under investigation with the LAPD that I had a dating relationship with a 17-year-old minor,” said Scroggins. “Then it went to someone in the community, and it just spread like wildfire. But there’s not a shred of truth in it. They did background checks when I was hired and I was interviewed by the local police department, a panel of sheriffs, the superintendent, the chief financial officer and the district’s governing board.”
In response, an upset Scroggins said he went to Short-Powell, who told him there was no evidence and “it wasn’t a big deal.”

However, the district’s former legal counsel, Adrienne Konigar-Macklin, contacted the LAPD and the board hired a law firm from Orange County to do a background investigation. “Both came up with no evidence,” said Scroggins.

After busting another security officer who had claimed 230 hours of overtime, Scroggins said that employee retaliated by accusing him of threatening an assault.

“I was also investigating the $15,000 theft of speaker equipment at Morningside High,” recalled Scroggins. “The superintendent told me to stop what I was doing until they looked into the charge against me. I kind of knew the writing was on the wall. I was bringing too many cases and people were complaining.”

Soon after, Scroggins said he received a letter of “vague” reprimand in his mailbox. “It wasn’t even served to me, and suggested that, ‘We think you did, but can’t be sure,’” said Scroggins. “I told the superintendent I am not accepting it. If she wants to serve me, then do it properly so I can have the chance of rebuttal. She wouldn’t actually take the letter until she consulted with counsel.”
Both Short-Powell, who was herself effectively terminated by the board in September, and Konigar-Macklin, who is now a board member with the Pomona School District, did not return calls at press time.

“If I come back, I’ll restart my investigations [on] Thursday morning,” promised Scroggins. “I am going to continue to root out corruption and I am confident that I’ll have the backing I need from the board.”