Omaha Police Investigate Their Own With Marijuana Planting Charge

The Omaha police have been investigating their own officers in a marijuana case for over six months now with seemingly, no movement in the case. The allegations are that two officers had planned to plant marijuana in the trash of a targeted gang member. Six months ago, the two offices were placed on leave while the internal investigation was launched by Omaha police. One of the officers retired from the force three months ago. The other officer under investigation, has been on leave collecting her salary and not being allowed to work. Between the two officers, the city of Omaha has paid them $51,000 in a salary for not working.

There are several drug possession cases that have stalled in court while the attorneys wait for reports on the internal affairs investigation. Officer Kara Hindman and her boyfriend, now retired, Frank Platt a former gang unit officer turned patrol officer have both been on paid administrative leave while they are being investigated for planning to plant marijuana.

Platt’s former partner, Steve Kult alleged that he overheard Platt talking on the phone with Hindman about planting a small amount of marijuana in the in the trash can of a gang member. Then he says his partner asked him to stow away a small amount of marijuana from a traffic stop or a confidential informant. Police often do trash pulls trying to find drug residue in people’s garbage to establish probable cause to search a home. The police officers were immediately pulled from duty on suspicion back in May. Attorney’s and other police wonder why the police leaders didn’t conduct surveillance of the officers to see if they would have actually followed through with their purported plan. Now, it is one officers word against two other officers, delaying the outcome of the case.

Omaha Police Chief Alex Hayes, although will not comment on an on-going case, says that he has a moral duty to stop any kind of impropriety and that he would be remiss to let something go on that he knew was wrong. Police spokesman Lt. Darci Tierney said that investigations take time for them to be thorough and objective. For her part, Officer Hindman was cooperated and maintained that she has done nothing wrong and is eager to return to duty. Platt, 39, applied for a service-related disability pension for post traumatic stress disorder related to shooting three men and killing two during his career. He was awarded the disability and allowed to retire. He also maintains he did nothing wrong in the case. Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine, will decide whether charges will be filed, but so far has said he has not received any police reports on the matter.