On Monday, October 8th, a Detective with the Grants Pass Department of Public Safety was involved in an incident that occurred at a local T-Mobile Franchise store in Grants Pass on Terry Lane. The Detective was using personal time while attempting to resolve an issue with his cellular account at the business. The detective was still in department clothing, displaying his department badge and had his department owned firearm, handcuffs and other equipment in plain view.
As the detective was speaking with one of the employees about his account, he was approached by another employee who stated the detective would need to leave the business due to his display of a firearm. There was an attempt to explain to the employee that the detective was still subject to response/callback should he be needed to respond to an emergency.
The employee, who later stated he was the store manager, advised the detective it was T-Mobile policy to not allow firearms in the business and he needed to leave the business. The detective left as he was asked to do so.
Police Chief Bill Landis has spoken with corporate and local T-Mobile Management, and it was conveyed to him that the employee did not act appropriately nor represent T-Mobile and their policies regarding law enforcement. T-Mobile does allow armed sworn police officers in their stores. T-Mobile management has since taken steps to ensure this doesn’t happen to our police officers or any police officers in any of their stores now or in the future and apologized to the Detective personally for the way he was treated.