Delvin White, a Black Tampa, Florida police officer was fired for using the N-word while on duty.
White, who worked as a school resource officer at Middleton High School, was captured on his body cam using the racial slur twice, according to a report by The Grio.
White has been with Tampa police for eight years and a student resource officer at Middleton High School since 2018. The Tampa Police Benevolent Association, White’s union, says it will fight to get his job back.
Said union spokesperson, Danny Alvarez, “We, including Officer White, believe he should have been punished because we all agree no officer should speak that way, but the punishment does not fit the allegations. Officer White has an incredible record of contributing not only to his community but to the TPD, and to lose him over this would be a travesty.”
White used the slur while arresting a student. Half of the students at the school where White worked are Black compared to the entire district which is just one in five.
Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan said the support for White has been overwhelming and people want him to remain on the job. Still, Dugan finds it “troubling” that a school resource officer used such language with a student when the same wouldn’t be tolerated by any other school staff.
“I look at a school resource officer as equivalent to a teacher. Would you want a teacher to talk to your son in that manner?”
In another instance captured on body cam, White reportedly used the n-word in reference to himself, and about his students – in general – while on the phone with his wife. He was heard calling the students, “ghetto n-words.”
In his defense, White told his superior officer that his use of the word wasn’t derogatory, but “commonly used in today’s society as a means of shared culture and experiences among the African American community.”
