Sheffield Lake police chief leaves job after allegation brought against him

SHEFFIELD LAKE — Sheffield Lake police Chief Anthony Campo left work Tuesday after being confronted by Mayor Dennis Bring over an allegation brought against him. Campo said he immediately retired and already has talked with the pension board. Bring said the chief was placed on administrative leave and turned in a retirement letter, although it was not immediately clear if he was officially retired Tuesday. Bring would not elaborate on the allegation when reached by phone Tuesday evening, but said the claim against Campo "took him off guard" and that the city is taking appropriate measures to deal with the situation. "He supposedly did something very, very inappropriate. And if it's true, it's very embarrassing and very disturbing," Bring said. The mayor said he needed to watch video of the alleged incident before he would comment on specifics. Bring also needed to talk with another officer about the situation, but he said he could not get answers from him Tuesday because the officer is on vacation. After being made aware of the allegation in a letter from the Fraternal Order of Police union, Bring said he immediately confronted Campo and gave him 10 minutes to get out of the office. According to Campo, the allegation related to "some off-color comments" and "police station antics" that were observed. "Somebody heard a blowing-off-steam session. Somebody saw and heard some stuff that they reported to the union," he said. He did not say specifically what he was blowing off steam about, but he added the person who was the "brunt of the jokes" was not the person who reported it. Campo had been planning to retire by next July. He has been chief of the Sheffield Lake Police Department for eight years and has been with the department for 33 years total. Now, he said he is going to seek employment elsewhere. "Thirty-three years, unblemished, spotless record," Campo said. "When I was a detective for 16 years, a solvability rate in the 90 percentiles. Nobody had ever seen anything like that before. I brought so much to that department." Bring said this was the first time he had been made aware of this type of allegation against Campo, and he is saddened and embarrassed by the situation. "The thing that he did do, obviously nothing like that was ever brought to my attention (before)," Bring said. Contact Dylan Reynolds at (440) 329-7123 or dreynolds@chroniclet.com. Follow him on Twitter @drey1357.