Officer in Rap Flap Case Retires

A Tempe police sergeant who told two black men they could rap their way out of a littering ticket last August has retired from the force rather than face allegations he wasn't honest about a complaint he made against the department.

Sgt. Chuck Schoville, a 25-year department veteran, had filed a complaint accusing the Tempe Police Department of racially discriminating against him.

Schoville stopped the two men in a mall parking lot after seeing a motorist toss a paper bag from his window.

The stop appeared on a segment of "StreetBeat," which showed Schoville talking to the driver about the consequences of a littering ticket and asking the passenger to pick up the litter.

Schoville said on air, "No littering if the two of you just do a little rap about ... what do you want to rap about? Littering? About the dangers of littering."

The two men then performed a short rap.

Schoville also discussed football with the men in the cable segment, predicting that the Oakland Raiders would be in the Super Bowl, with the driver agreeing. Then Schoville said, "You know why you say I'm right? Because I've got a gun and badge. I'm always right. That's the way it works, right?" and the three men laughed and shook hands.

An administrative review by the police department said six minutes of unedited footage of the stop put the conversation in more context, showing that Schoville, a former gang unit supervisor, talked to the men first about football, where they had lived and "the consequences of driving on a suspended license" -- all before any comments about rapping or the Raiders.

In a subsequent interview, the driver, identified as Louis Baker, said Schoville told him there would be no ticket if the litter was retrieved. But according to the report, Baker also said the exchange "made him feel violated, categorized and confused."

The passenger, Robert Tarvin, reportedly "felt embarrassed at the time and felt much more embarrassed after the segment aired."

The police review concluded that Schoville failed to make clear that the rap request was separate from enforcement, and the televised segment "gives the distinct appearance that Mr. Tarvin and Mr. Baker had to perform to avoid a citation," which led the men and some community members to find the segment "inappropriate and offensive."

It said Schoville's statements were not race-based, but that the edited segment left out much of the context of the traffic stop, leading to misperceptions that fueled the controversy.

"Sgt. Schoville bears responsibility for his statements" and "failed to recognize how his statements may be interpreted," the report said.

Officer Brandon Banks, the "StreetBeat" director who filmed the segment, also "failed to recognize the potential misperception of the request to rap," it said.

A citizen review panel recommended that the raw footage and the edited version be used in police training.

"What was aired on that particular segment is not representative of the values of the Tempe Police Department," Chief Tom Ryff said in a statement last year.