Paul Hardwicke, a “resource officer hero” at Blackfoot High School in Idaho, was caught with his hand in the drug jar in May of 2015. According to the Idaho State Journal, Hardwicke was immediately given a paid vacation after it was determined that he had stolen thousands of prescription pain killers. The drugs were stolen out of the drop boxes that were being used as part of a drug return program at the school.
Originally he was facing two counts of felony possession of a controlled substance, oxycodone and morphine and two counts of misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance, tramadol and a “legend” drug (a “legend” drug is what prescription drugs are called in Idaho). The felonies carry a maximum sentence of seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine each. The misdemeanor charges carry a maximum sentence of one year and a fine of $1,000 each. All told, he was potentially facing up to 16 years in prison.
Hardwicke was eventually sentenced to two days in jail.
Via KTVB.com in Idaho Falls:
A former Blackfoot policeman and high school resource officer will spend two days in jail for stealing thousands of prescription painkillers from a drug drop box.
The Post Register reports that Paul Hardwicke pleaded guilty on Wednesday to misdemeanor counts of possession of a legend drug without a prescription and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was sentenced to 180 days in jail and two years of probation, but 178 days of the sentence were suspended.
Hardwicke’s attorney argued his client should get probation since he already lost his job.
Hardwicke was a school resource officer at Blackfoot High School before he was terminated. He started a drug drop box program when people were encouraged to discard unused prescription medications at the police station. Investigators found he was taking medication from the drop box.
Hardwicke is the one that started the drug drop box program in order to encourage residents to bring their unused prescription drugs to the police station for “disposal.”
School resource officer “hero”, another bad idea that has gone nationwide. Lets give tons of people who would have never had criminal records because they got arrested instead of getting simple school discipline.
A number of years ago, the SRO at my local high school was too lazy to go to the station (or the town provided patrol car, with its laptop) to run people’s arrest records. So he set up one of the school’s computers to be able to access records. The biggest problem was that it was in one of the labs the students had access too, not one like in the teachers lounge or something. So kids being kids discovered it, and the SRO hadn’t done any security of course on it. That SRO was in for a big surprise when the FBI showed up looking to see why so many records were being run on this single computer. So yup, tons of supposed “private” records in the hands of high school kids.
But of course he only got a paid vacation.