Chief asks FBI to investigate harassment claim

Hoover said the officer who reported a racist exchange between a colleague and a suspect later found the word "rat" spray-painted on his department locker.

"I consider it an attempt to intimidate a witness," the chief said. "Our whole justice system is based on the principals of due process ... Anybody who interferes in that needs to be prosecuted."

Police union president Ron Dreher said Hoover overreacted and has "blown the whole thing out of proportion."

Hoover would not release the names of the officers involved, calling it a personnel matter. But he confirmed the incident was sparked by a recent arrest of a black suspect by two police officers.

The suspect allegedly became belligerent, repeatedly shouting a racial epithet. One of the officers reportedly yelled back at the suspect, using the same slur.

Hoover said the suspect has filed an internal affairs complaint against the officer. The witnessing officer then described the incident to department investigators, leading to the "rat" tag on his locker.

Dreher said other departmental issues are more worthy of investigation, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported on Tuesday.

"Somebody's out of whack here," Dreher said. "These kinds of things do happen, and they'll happen again."

But Dreher said the union does support the officer who reported the racist exchange.

"Someone is putting pressure on him. That's not right," he said. "We have all taken an oath. We are police officers and should be held to a higher standard. You have a duty to say what you saw."

The union also is supporting the officer who made the alleged racial slur, Dreher said, because "there are two sides to every story."

He said that although the union doesn't know who spray-painted the locker, he did send an e-mail to union members asking them to leave the officer alone.

Hoover called the officer's alleged harassment a "single, isolated" incident.

"This involved just one officer," he said. "It is not indicative of our entire department."

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