A 12-year veteran of the Paducah Police Department has been terminated following a City Council hearing into an accusation of excessive use of force.
The Paducah City Commission moved to dismiss Michael R. Redmon last night.
The use-of-force complaint stems from a June incident in which Redmon is said to have used excessive force in restraining an already handcuffed prisoner.
Instead of resigning in the wake of the ensuing investigation, Redmon requested a trial before the City Commission.
Last night, the commission interviewed several witnesses, experts and fellow PPD officers and ultimately found Redmon in violation of several use-of-force continuum violations "by using a restraint or choke hold on the arrestee's neck as there was no need to cause serious physical injury or death to the officer or another person and the officer had available means to control the individual."
At the trial, Redmon's attorney Jeremy Ian Smith said that punishing the officer would be to give a blank check to any suspect resisting arrest.
"If we don’t back up our officer then every other officer out there is going to be hesitant to put their hands on someone resisting their arrest, that’s the simple truth," said Smith.
But PPD Chief Brandon Barnhill arrived at his determination that Redmon's actions did not meet the level of officers' professionalism and recommended to dismiss Redmon from the force.
“We must be justified in situations where force is used in order to maintain integrity within our agency, the profession, and our community,” he said.
The PPD is making no further statements on the matter at this time.