turns out the chief likes to golf. and he likes to drink. and he likes to combine those activities. in the clubhouse lounge at the timbergate golf course in nearby edinburgh, they know him by name.
there's nothing wrong with drinking & golfing. but unfortunately for the chief, wthr caught him on film—on a number of occasions—drinking and then driving his government-issued car. now you and i know that a person could have a drink or two over the course of an afternoon and still be plenty sober enough to drive. so nobody knows whether he was actually drunk. but the columbus police department has a "zero tolerance" policy regarding drinking before driving:
No officer shall operate a police vehicle after consuming alcohol and while the consumed alcohol is still present in any measurable quantity in the officer's bloodstream.
that, and he was sometimes golfing on the clock:
McCord apologized for violating the driving policy, but not for golfing during the week.
"All those times I took off to play golf was on my own time," he said.
But work records just released to Eyewitness News show he took time off for only nine of the 16 days we saw him on the golf course. Latimer recorded no time off for the four days he was with the chief.
once the news hit, chief mccord didn't even wait for wthr's special report to air before announcing his resignation. he exited gracefully; i'll give him that. once he was caught, he quit. some other scandal-ridden public officials could take a lesson from former chief mccord.¶
