SAPD officer who gave feces sandwich to homeless man loses job after arbitration on second offense

SAN ANTONIO  (KTSA News) – A San Antonio Police officer who was reinstated after being fired for giving a homeless man a feces sandwich has lost his job after a second offense.  An arbitrator has upheld the second termination of former SAPD Officer Matthew Luckhurst.

He was initially fired, or indefinitely suspended, for placing a feces sandwich in a food container and giving it to a homeless man.  Luckhurst appealed to an arbitrator, and under a provision in the Collective Bargaining Agreement with the San Antonio Police Officers Association,  He was reinstated by claiming that the incident occurred after the 180-day period, which is stipulated Olin the union union agreement.

Luckhurst received a second suspension for a separate incident when he purposely failed to flush feces in the toilet in the Downtown Bike Patrol women’s restroom and spread a brown tapioca-like substance on the toilet seat to give the appearance of feces. He admitted he did i it because a female officer had placed a sign in the room requesting that it be kept clean.

The hearing examiner found that Chief McManus’ decision to terminate Luckhurst’s employment was warranted due to the egregious nature of Luckhurst’s conduct aimed at women.

“This individual clearly has no business wearing an SAPD uniform, and it should never have been this hard to fire him,” said City Manager Erik Walsh. “I am pleased that this is behind us, but the contract provision that gave him more chances than he deserved remains an obstacle to the Chief’s ability to discipline officers who fail to live up to SAPD’s standards.”

Police Chief William McManus says the “vast majority of SAPD officers respect their oaths to serve the community, and they resent it when individuals like Luckhurst discredit the badge.

“For both the department and the community, it was critically important that he not be allowed to have his job back,” said McManus. “Although the limits imposed on me by the Collective Bargaining Agreement made firing him more difficult than it should have been, justice was finally served in this case.”

Activists are calling for the repeal of chapters 143 and 174 of the Texas local government code, which make it difficult to fire officers for misconduct.