Oregon State Police leaders have quietly rehired a retired supervisor who was demoted as a SWAT sergeant for drinking while driving a police truck off duty and for firing his gun behind the head of a fellow tactical team officer as a joke.
Joey D. Pollard, 56, began work in May as a full-time patrol trooper assigned to the state police office in Ontario after retiring two years earlier. He makes an annual salary of $108,425 and lives in Idaho.
State police declined to directly address Pollard’s rehiring, instead pointing to the agency’s public posting for lateral and entry-level hires.
The posting says the agency seeks “motivated and trustworthy” people “dedicated to upholding the vision and mission of the Oregon State Police.”
Pollard did not return phone or email messages seeking comment.
State police spokesperson Capt. Kyle Kennedy wouldn’t say how state police leaders considered Pollard’s prior misconduct, noting only that state police do required background checks for applicants and comply with state and federal labor laws, including those against age discrimination.
A state regulation says personnel records are to be considered during background investigations and that law enforcement officers “hold a unique position in our community and must demonstrate principles of equity, transparency, honesty and trust with all members of society.”
Pollard is one of two retirees rehired by state police this year. The other is also a former longtime SWAT member.
“Every employee hired by the Oregon State Police has met the eligibility requirements and successfully passed the selection process,” Kennedy said.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reported last summer that Pollard admitted to taking a swig of alcohol out of a flask while he was driving and sharing it with other SWAT troopers in a police pickup during an off-duty ski trip to Mount Hood in 2013. The news organization’s investigation provided the first public account of the misconduct and ensuing discipline.
Casey Codding, the current state police superintendent, was a fellow SWAT sergeant at the time and remained silent as he sat in the back seat while Pollard and other SWAT members beside him drank on the ride to the mountain. Codding, who wasn’t drinking, said he got a verbal reprimand.
Prosecutors pursued no charges against Pollard or the others after state police conducted a criminal investigation.
The investigation also revealed that Pollard, as a rank-and-file SWAT member in 2010, had fired his gun behind the head of a new SWAT trooper to startle him in what was dubbed a “SWAT pop.” It also found that he shot at a coyote and other animals from the side of the road beside his stopped police truck or from state police vehicles.
Pollard was demoted to trooper in May 2013 after a subsequent internal investigation.
“Casey (Codding) and I both should’ve, you know, not allowed it,” Pollard said of the drinking in the car, records show. “We both felt kinda this peer pressure, I guess, if you will, to not say anything. Do I regret that? Absolutely.”
In a farewell email to the agency when he retired in June 2023, Pollard called Codding an “Amazing SWAT member! Great leader! True friend.”
Pollard signed his email using his SWAT nickname, “Puma out!”
By then, Pollard had been promoted to lieutenant. Codding was named to lead state police in February 2023 and now also chairs Oregon’s Board on Public Safety Standards & Training, which sets rules for law enforcement training and certification and decides whether to revoke or suspend individual police certifications.
Pollard’s salary before retirement was $176,5783 and his pension is slightly over half of that at $94,382 annually. He will collect his pension in addition to his new salary as a patrol officer, which is about $5,000 less than the base salary for a trooper with six years of experience.
Mark Banks, a former state police union president and a retired sergeant, said rehiring Pollard is more of the same. Banks has criticized state police for failing to hold officers accountable for alleged misconduct.
“It all comes down to relationships with the people at the top,” Banks said. “If you have a good relationship, they’ll cover for you. That’s what I witnessed throughout my whole career.”
The state police job posting lists the skills preferred for applicants, including the abilities to apply critical thinking in stressful situations, perform under pressure and maintain composure in a position “highly subject to public scrutiny” as well as having “demonstrated integrity and ethics along with responsibility and accountability in all professional and personal interactions.”
Those eligible for hiring must be “of good moral character,” defined by attributes of empathy, courage, fortitude, honesty and loyalty, according to the posting. Automatic disqualifiers include conduct that would cause a “reasonable person to have substantial doubts” about the individual’s “respect for the rights of others, or for the laws of the state and/or the nation.”
In the state police investigation in 2013, Codding acknowledged that the drinking by his colleagues while traveling in a state-owned vehicle violated Oregon law.
Last year in response to The Oregonian/OregonLive’s report, Codding said he learned from his mistake and recognized that if he planned to “build an agency that has a culture of accountability and excellence, that starts with me.” He declined then to discuss the investigation’s findings about the drinking by Pollard and his subordinates.
Codding last year described Pollard’s “SWAT pop” and firing at animals as “clearly inappropriate.” He added then that the agency had changed its policies to prohibit officers from firing their duty guns outside of their official duties.
As Pollard headed into retirement, he not only praised Codding but singled out SWAT Sgt. Jamin VanMeter for particular praise.
VanMeter earlier this year faced minor discipline for sending out a recruitment email to all sworn troopers that glorified firing less-lethal and gas munitions and touted the police fatal shootings of suspects. The Oregonian/OregonLive obtained an unredacted copy of the email only after the state attorney general’s office ordered its release.
State police declined to say how they disciplined VanMeter, but VanMeter said a major gave him a “talking to.” He remains working as a SWAT sergeant.
In his 2023 retirement email, Pollard referred to VanMeter as “Baby J” and described him as a “brilliant tactical mind” while urging him to “continue to teach and pass on all you know.”
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