A former Youngstown Police Department Lieutenant who was previously accused of dereliction of duties is now working as a police officer in another community.

According to a post on Poland Village's Facebook page, former YPD Lieutenant Brian Flynn was hired as a Poland Schools resource officer on September 26.

However, Poland Local Schools Superintendent Craig Hocknberry says the Poland Village Police Department has since reconsidered this decision in response to concerns and questions from the public instead reassigning him to road patrol.

Hockenberry went on to say that it's very important to make sure those applying to be a school resource officer are fit to handle the job.

"Any time you're dealing with school resource officers, you've got to make sure they're the right fit. Not every police officer is a good school officer," Hockenberry said.

Hockenberry says that Flynn was "very forthcoming" about his past accusations, and adds that he sees no evidence of any wrongdoings from Flynn.

Hockenberry tells 21 News Poland Local Schools itself does not hire resource officers, but says two are hired from Poland Township and two more are hired from Poland Village with one being in each building.

In October of 2022, Flynn was charged with 14 counts of dereliction of duty when it was alleged that he had failed investigate numerous cases of child sex abuse or child pornography.

He was placed on paid leave in March of 2021, where he remained until December of 2022 when he was eventually fired from the department.

All charges against Flynn were dropped in June of 2023 due to Garrity rights, which protect public employees from incriminating themselves and allows for them to have a union representative with them during questioning.

In late September, a notice of appeal was filed by Youngstown Law Director, Jeff Limbian, requesting the charges be reinstated claiming that a detective with YPD conducted his own investigation independent from the department's internal investigation, which all material from is protected under Garrity law.

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