News Release
Lt. Matt Gard
Administrative Services
Lafayette Police Department
(765) 807-1223 mjgard@lafayette.in.gov
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 17th, 2020
Investigation Leads to Termination of Officer
LAFAYETTE, INDIANA – October 17th, 2020
Late Friday evening the Lafayette Police Department was “tagged” in a tweet on our official Twitter page. It contained information specifically identifying a recruit officer, Joseph Zacharek, as a person who participated in a Neo-Nazi internet chat forum known as Iron March in 2016.
Our Internal Affairs Division opened an immediate investigation to determine if this report was credible. The investigation has determined that Zacharek did participate in this online forum and that the information that was provided to LPD was accurate and credible. Officer Zacharek’s comments were not in harmony with the spirit of cooperation and inclusion in the community that the Lafayette Police Department values.
Officer Zacharek was hired in June of 2020 and to this point has been working solely in a training environment and has no exposure to the public. As a result of this investigation Officer Zacharek’s employment with the Lafayette Police Department has been terminated.
The Lafayette Police Department conducts very thorough and complete background investigations on all potential employees, which includes a complete review of personal social media accounts. While this information may not have been accessible through our investigative processes, we are appreciative that it was brought to our attention. We take great pride in our investigations and are extremely disappointed that we were not able to uncover this information in that process. We endeavor to learn from this investigation to ensure it never happens again.
Chief Patrick Flannelly