Recently-appointed N.C. Highway Patrol Commander Walter J. Wilson Jr. has made two changes in his command structure.

Maj. Gregory Hayes is shifting from Troop Operations, which oversees much of the patrol's day-to-day duties, to lead the Technical Support Unit, which handles information technology and troop logistics, reports Dan Kane.

Capt. Mike T. James, who leads Troop G based in Asheville, is being promoted to major and will replace Hayes on Sept. 8.

Patrol spokesman Lt. Everett Clendenin said in an e-mail message that Wilson made the change to allow Hayes and James "to grow as managers by expanding their knowledge in other patrol sections."

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Gov. Mike Easley vetoed a bill that would allow wider boats and trailers on state roads.

Here is the statement issued by Easley's office today on the veto:

House Bill 2167, allows extremely large boats as wide as 9-1/2 feet to be towed on any state road at anytime, including night time, any day of the week, without a permit as required by all other states from Texas to Virginia.  This bill would also allow a blood alcohol level of .08, double that allowed by commercial vehicles of smaller size.

I sincerely believe that this bill puts families at a risk on the highways and would result in death or serious injury.  North Carolina has 60,000 miles of narrow two lane roads that cannot accommodate the 9-1/2 foot width and maintains roughly 1,000 bridges 18-feet wide or less, which would require a 9-1/2 foot boat to cross the center line in violation of N.C.G.S. 20-146, and into oncoming traffic.  Further, if two 9-1/2 foot boats were to meet on an 18-foot strip of road or bridge it would be physically impossible to escape a collision.

I am deeply concerned about 9-1/2 foot boats meeting a school bus.  The buses travel primarily on rural roads and often in the dark during early morning and early evening hours.

I encourage the General Assembly to let boat haulers use the current law of permitting for the rest of this season and then have the legislature take up this issue in January when there is time to thoughtfully avoid the consequences of this bill.

Therefore, I veto the bill.

An administrative law judge has determined that an N.C. Highway Patrol captain never intended to make a racial remark that came out inadvertently and therefore should not have been suspended for five days.

Capt. Norman Goering was disciplined after a photo shoot of troopers in July 2007 in which he had said "black in back." He immediately apologized for the remark, saying that he had intended to say "tall in back" but tripped over his words, Dan Kane reports.

A lieutenant heard the remark and reported it, leading to an internal investigation. The investigation initially led to Goering's demotion to lieutenant, but then he was reinstated with the five-day suspension.

Administrative Law Judge Shannon Joseph determined after a hearing that no one had found Goering's remark to be intentional, and that the captain had an "exemplary" 26-year-history with the patrol. She said he should receive pay or benefits that were lost as a result of the suspension, and reasonable legal fees.

The State Personnel Commission will decide whether to accept the judge's findings.

The House voted 108-5 this morning to send Gov. Mike Easley a bill he has threatened to veto because it would allow wider boats and trailers to travel on narrow state roads at night. (The Senate voted likewise Wednesday by 43-0).

The legislation would relax state limits on the width of boats that fishermen and other recreational boaters can haul on state roads. It would allow boats up to 9.5 feet wide, day or night — and up to 10 feet wide during daylight hours only, Bruce Siceloff reports.

Current law OKs boats up to 8.5 feet wide, day or night, without  permits. Motorists now can get permits to haul boats up to 10 feet wide — but not on holidays or Sundays or at night.

The Highway Patrol warned that wider boats would cause more crashes and injuries at night because oncoming drivers would not see the danger of boats that might hang over the center line. A legislative aide and other boater backers disputed the warnings and countered that nighttime boat-towing would be safer.

An Easley aide said earlier this week that the governor would consider vetoing the measure if it allowed boats wider than 8.5 feet at night. There was no immediate comment from the governor’s office after the House gave final legislative approval to the bill this morning.

Crossposted from Crosstown Traffic blog. 

A state administrative law judge today called for the reinstatement of a state trooper who was videotaped kicking his dog while it was suspended from a deck.

Judge Fred Morrison concluded that state officials short circuited disciplinary procedures in firing Sgt. Charles Jones over his treatment of the dog, reports Jane Ruffin.

Jones was fired in September, a month after a trooper used a cell phone to record footage of Jones suspending his dog, Ricoh, from a railing, then kicking him at least five times. Jones insisted that what he did was not abusive and that trainers had used several other rough methods.

Ricoh, a 7-year-old Belgian Malinois, was not seriously hurt. He has since been retired from the patrol.

Morrison also said the state should not use dogs such as Ricoh for law enforcement purposes unless it purchases fully-trained canines to be handed by trained troopers who receive specific written techniques for compliance.

The N.C. Highway Patrol suspended its canine program last month until a review determines if dogs were regularly mistreated.

The Humane Society of the United States supports N.C. Crime Control and Public Safety Secretary Bryan Beatty's suspension of the N.C. Highway Patrol's canine program until a review determines if dogs were regularly mistreated.

"Secretary Beatty has done the right thing by suspending North Carolina's K9 program while a full review is pending," said Ann Church, HSUS regional director for the Eastern mountain states, in a news release. "He deserves great credit for making a politically difficult decision to step in before a dog is killed. Taxpayers deserve greater transparency of K9 training protocols, and the dogs who serve the people of  North Carolina deserve to be treated humanely."

Beatty ordered the suspension after canine handlers and trainers testified in the personnel hearing of fired Sgt. Charles L. Jones that police dogs had been subjected to rough obedience techniques such as suspending them by their leashes, twirling them until they are disoriented and shocking them, Dan Kane reports.

Jones, who is trying to get his job back, was shown on a cellphone video kicking his police dog Ricoh after suspending him from a loading dock rail. Ricoh was not seriously hurt and has been retired from the force.

The Humane Society said it strongly supports canine law enforcement work and believes that the vast majority of canine officers in the nation treat their assigned animals with love and respect. The Humane Society also said there is a need for humane training protocols for canine units across the nation.

The N.C. Police Benevolent Association is raising objections to a four-month review of the N.C. Highway Patrol's hiring, training and supervision policies.

John Midgette, the association's executive director, said the review was a "manipulated fraud" because it did not look into pressing issues inside the 1,800-member force, particularly the handling of disciplinary cases, Dan Kane reports.

"It was destined to be a fraud because of the fact that (patrol Commander Fletcher Clay and N.C. Crime Control and Public Safety Secretary Bryan Beatty) had defined the scope of the survey and they selected the so-called consultant," Midgette said.

He also said that the consultant, Kroll of New York City, did not base its findings on "traditional methodology" such as interviews under oath or written surveys.

Kroll said in its report that it interviewed troopers throughout the ranks of the force as well as officials with affiliated groups, including the N.C. PBA.

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The N.C. Highway Patrol has pulled its 10 police dogs off duty indefinitely after several troopers testified in a personnel hearing this week to several rough training methods that involved shocking, kicking and suspending the dogs.

Patrol spokesman Lt. Everett Clendenin said that Bryan Beatty, the N.C. Crime Control and Public Safety secretary who oversees the patrol, ordered the suspension so that a review can be conducted of training techniques, Dan Kane reports.

"We can't run the risk of one of our dogs being injured or somebody in the public being injured because of the training," Clendenin said. "We're not sure what's taking place, so that's what we are going to do."

Over the course of three days of hearings into the firing of Sgt. Charles Jones, who is trying to win his job back, troopers in the canine program have said that dogs have been shocked with a stun gun, kicked, and suspended until they are nearly unconscious.

They also have acknowledged throwing plastic bottles filled with stones at the dogs and twirling them around in a technique known as "helicoptering," sometimes releasing them in midair.

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