California cop accused of racist texts and questionable arrest orders

A California police sergeant was placed on administrative leave over racist text messages and questionable on-duty activity.

Berkeley city officials announced they would hire an external investigator to to examine a complaint filed last week against Sgt. Darren Kacalek, a 20-year veteran of the police force, by former officer Corey Shedoudy, who sent an email to the city that included a number of allegations supported by screenshots of the texts, reported KPIX-TV.

In one message Kacalek, a supervisor for the city's downtown task force/bike unit, appears to repost a message from someone selling their "white privilege card," and he jokes that he would accept an even trade for a "race card."

Shedoudy's email claims that Kacelek, who stepped down this week as the department's police union president, ordered the bike unit to make 100 arrests per month, which he said was more than the rest of the police department combined.

IN OTHER NEWS: Trump just ran into 'extremely bad luck' in his lawsuit against Letitia James: legal reporter

"We were ordered to do so using questionable legal tactics that included stop and frisk, probation searches with no reasonable suspicion of a crime, and a very loose interpretation of stay-away orders from UC Berkeley," Shedoudy said.

The allegations delayed the permanent hiring of interim police chief Jennifer Louis, who claims she had no knowledge or oversight of the allegations of Kacalek, but Nathan Mizell, vice chair of the city's police accountability board, maintains that the suspended officer sent her inappropriate messages when she was a police captain and she did nothing about them.

"I was the Captain in charge of the Operations Division until January 2018, which was before any of the incidents in this subunit allegedly occurred," Louis said. "I was appointed as Interim Chief in March 2021, after these alleged incidents occurred."

"[The allegations are] extremely concerning," she added, "and they deserve to be investigated thoroughly."