Booted Gilbert police recruit gets a second chance

Dec. 2—A recruit booted out of the Gilbert Police academy for cheating just days before graduating will get a second shot at becoming a cop.

The Arizona Peace Officers Standards and Training Board recently voted to deny a police officer certification to Colton Bussen for 12 months, ending Aug. 8, 2024. Afterwards, he can reapply for certified status.

"I'm not here to make an excuse for what I did," Bussen told the board at a Nov. 15 hearing. "I know what I did was wrong."

Bussen said he was taking a test on first aid and second-guessed himself on a question. So, he opened a second window on his department-issued laptop to check his notes. He said he had no intention of changing his answer.

"It was just a second for my own curiosity to do it," he said. "All the questions were already answered."

After checking his notes, he said he submitted his test and thought nothing of it until he was confronted later that day by the training staff and has told another recruit saw what Bussen did and reported it.

"I know they put a lot of trust in me," Bussen continued. "I was also squad leader of my squad at the time. This was during week 21 of 22, this was like four working days shy of graduation."

Bussen told the board that he had graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science from Arizona State University and worked in the paralegal field for about seven years before deciding to become a police officer.

"To be fair there is not a day that goes by that I don't constantly feel the embarrassment that I proposed on myself for doing this," he said.

"All of my family had flights and tickets to come down and visit and they had to cancel. I let my family down."

He said that he deserved punishment but pleaded for the board to reconsider any sort of a permanent ban.

"Really the only reason why I'm here is just because I know what was proposed was a permanent suspension," Bussen said.

"I just am really hoping that this mistake that I made in a really quick whim it's not something that ruins my chance to be able to serve my community as a police officer, which is something I always wanted to do my entire life.

"I've wanted to be a police officer in Arizona since I moved here."

Compliance Specialist Richard Bradshaw said staff did not make a recommendation in Bussen's case.

Director Matt Giordano said that before the board was allowed to issue temporary suspensions, it historically permanently suspended or denied certification to most, if not all, recruits who cheated in the academy.

But, Giordano said that in cases where recruits had lied but confessed, the board has given temporary suspensions or temporary denials, normally for two years. Recruits who continued to lie before admitting their deed were permanently denied certification.

Noting in every case "there are nuances...different facts," Giordano said, "We're looking at the person, we are looking at the facts and we just can't put everything in one simple box. And that's why we didn't provide a recommendation on this one."

He noted that Bussen opened the extra window on his computer but "he didn't make any changes to his exam."

Board member Leesa Weisz, representing the public, said that even if the answer was not changed, it's still cheating.

"If a person knew that you weren't supposed to open Notepad and you open Notepad when you're on your test, it's cheating," she said, adding:

"Taking no action allows somebody to have redemption in the future and allows that agency to make a decision as opposed to the board making a permanent denial."

Giordano reminded the board it could approve a temporary denial, "putting time and distance between the act and then coming back to this profession as well as the ability to gain maturity."

"Sometimes these, when we read some of these cases, that it was based on an immature decision," he said.

"So again, putting time and distance, allowing someone to gain more maturity would make them a valuable candidate as a future police recruit."