INGLEWOOD — Former Inglewood School District Police Chief Kevin Scroggins is criticizing his former employers again after the district sought to dismiss his lawsuit by claiming that it doesn’t technically have a police department.

Scroggins, 49, who resigned in March 2007 as the district’s director of safety, security and emergency management amid claims of “widespread corruption,” filed a lawsuit against his former employers earlier this month in the Southwest District Superior Court.

In a telephone interview Wednesday night, Scroggins said he is seeking “re-instatement, compensation and a legal directive that board members Arnold Butler and Johnny Young will not have authority over his decisions.”

However, according to Scroggins’ lawyer Katrina Foley, of the Foley Group, his defense team has just filed its third amended complaint against a defense motion.

The Los Angeles-based law firm of Gibeaut, Mahan & Briscoe, which is acting on behalf of the district, is seeking to dismiss the case, claiming that the Inglewood School District Police Department is merely a public safety organization and not sanctioned under legal police authority.

Lead attorney Gary Robert Gibeaut was unavailable for comment.

“I don’t think I’ve come across a more dysfunctional body,” Foley said. “We’ve obtained documents that show they do have a school police department that is subject to the Police Bill of Rights.”

She added: “The next hearing is set for Oct. 1, but it’s been very difficult getting documents out of them because they have a problem complying with public requests for information.”

Back in January, Scroggins told The Wave he was close to returning to the district after believing he had the support of enough board members to return to the job.

Initially appointed in May 2006 after 16 years with the LAPD, he left under a cloud after he accused several officers he was investigating of spreading a malicious — and he says, false — rumor he was under investigation for an alleged improper relationship with a minor.

In January he claimed to have catalogued a long list of police and security department violations by personnel “grandfathered in” under the tenure of school board members Butler and Young.

Those included school police officers moonlighting at other jobs but claiming they were working for the district, officers taking police vehicles for use on the weekends, police and security personnel coming to work in their street clothes and drug seizures on campuses being mysteriously lost or misplaced.

In the interview then and now, he accuses Butler and Young of orchestrating the relationship rumor and forcing him out.

“It’s just amazing what’s going on,” he said.

“Since 1985 the Inglewood School Police department has been sanctioned by POST, the California Commission on Police Officer Standards & Training.”

He added: “We did our own investigations, sent our own files to the district attorney’s office. We rode in black and white police cars, not public safety cars. If we were public safety officers only, we would have not had the power to arrest people. We would have had to call in the Inglewood Police Department when we detained suspects.

“These are just the same gangsta tactics Butler and Young have been employing forever because they want to do things their way. This all stems from the fact that I wouldn’t let anybody tell me who I could hire and fire.”

Contacted by The Wave, POST spokesman Bob Stresak confirmed the Inglewood School Police department is currently certified under the agency.

“They have actually been active participants since 2000,” said Stresak. “POST is a voluntary body that has been in existence since 1959 and covers 600 law enforcement agencies. Participating agencies have to comply with the selection, hiring and training standards established by POST.”

As for Butler, he declined to respond to any of the allegations.

“I have no comment at all,” he said.