“Even if there’s not charges, we will still do an internal investigation on this,” Protsman said. “There are no charges at this time. Based on the information that’s been gathered so far from the investigation, yeah, I’m very disappointed in what we’re learning.”
Efforts to reach Meno were unsuccessful.
Meno has been with Kettering's force for 11 years and in 2015 made $96,973, according to the I-Team payroll project. Meno has been a secretary for the Kettering Fraternal Order of Police lodge, according to Kettering FOP president Ryan Vandegrift.
Protsman said Meno has been under investigation for two months and that, as chief, he wanted to be transparent with Kettering residents and will update them when it is appropriate.
“We just wanted to get ahead of it and let people know what was going on,” said Protsman, who was sworn in 13 months ago to lead the 83-officer department. “We want to keep the public informed, we truly do. We’re not trying to hide anything from them.
“Obviously, when there’s an investigation going on like this, you have to kind of figure out what’s going on before you can release things.”
This news organization has requested Meno’s personnel and disciplinary records as well as any publicly-releasable portion of the criminal complaint. The city’s law department said the public records are not yet available.
Vandegrift said an allegation against an officer — especially one who won a prestigious departmental award in 2009 — leads to a difficult time for colleagues.
“It’s difficult for us. It’s very, very tough,” Vandegrift said. “We’re a pretty tight-knit group, so everybody knows each other fairly well. … We hope the best for everybody, not just the detective, but also the alleged victims as well.”
Protsman’s social media post didn’t go into specifics, but said that the “men and women of this police department work very hard to build strong relationships with this community and to protect them.”
Protsman’s post continued: “When someone victimizes or attempts to victimize our citizens we will do everything in our power to bring them to justice, ***No Matter Who They Are!!!***”
Protsman said if anyone residents have information regarding possible wrongdoing by Meno or any other officer, Kettering police want to know.
“If they think that there’s something that’s going on, it gives us a couple things. No. 1, if there’s not anything, we can explain to them why things are done the way that we’re doing it so they have a better understanding,” the chief said. “Two, if there’s officers who are doing something inappropriate, we want to know about it and we’re going to address it.”
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