- Michael Resckhe was fired from the Lockland Police Department in August 2023
- Leaked Snapchat photo showed him with the Balaclava Lens filter
- Mayor Mark Mason fired him despite Resckhe’s lawyer claiming the image was “a joke”
An Ohio police officer was fired for posting a Snapchat photo using a ‘balaclava’ filter that the mayor said had ‘troubling racial overtones.’
Michael Resckhe was placed in administrative leave after complaint on August 23, 2023 after ten months in office.
He was fired two days later by Lockland Mayor Mark Mason, who reprimanded him for taking the photo while in uniform.
“The Village Police Department has no place for conduct that is racist or even creates the appearance of racism or poor judgment,” Mason said. WAFB as he redoubled his decision.
“This conduct does not meet the standard of conduct expected of its officials and will not be tolerated.”
Ohio police officer Michael Resckhe was fired for posting a Snapchat photo using a ‘balaclava’ filter that the mayor said had ‘troubling racial overtones.’
Lockland Mayor Mark Mason said the police department “has no place for conduct that is racist or even creates the appearance of racism or poor judgment.”
Resckhe sent the image, which was taken at the police station, to a ‘closed group’ but it was leaked to the authorities.
He seemed to acknowledge that it could be compromising in a series of texts about the incident.
Resckhe stated that he believed he could “trust my friends on Snapchat with a filter that seemed racist and should not be taken as anything more than a joke” after a friend suggested he was aware the image could be considered “extremely offensive.”
When the friend told him that “some things shouldn’t be joked about,” Resckhe responded that people shouldn’t have been recording on his Snapchat, according to messages obtained by WAFB.
A few weeks after the incident, Resckhe was hired by the North College Hill Police Department, but claims he was “terminated” for a letter he allegedly sent to Lockland officials that “violated North College Hill’s standards of conduct policy.” .
Mason raised the letter with North College Hill Mayor Tracie Nichols, describing it as “very concerning and certainly unbecoming of any police officer representing a municipality.”
Resckhe claims he wrote the letter but did not distribute it, noting that it was drafted 63 days before it was sent to Lockland officials.
The image was taken at the Lockland police station and showed Resckhe in uniform using this Snapchat filter.
Resckhe’s lawyer attributed the incident to a “joke” and called his dismissal a “travesty of justice.”
It alleges that North College Principal Ryan Schrand acknowledged that “what happened in Lockland was not fair.”
He complained that Schrand had hired him “secretly” to fill gaps due to recent layoffs and had “no intention of keeping me long-term.”
“I just want to do what I was born to do… serve and protect people with the skills I am fortunate to possess,” Resckhe said in the complaint.
‘I am a good officer who just wants the opportunity to do his job without vendetta politics. I would be honored if you would give me just five minutes of your time to discuss the real truth about the people of Lockland.
“What Lockland did to Michael is a grotesque disgrace and a travesty of justice,” Resckhe’s lawyer Steve Imm told DailyMail.com.
‘The city should be ashamed of what it has done to this good and decent public servant. Michael is not racist. He is not even 1000 miles away from being racist.
The worst part is that Lockland KNEW that Michael is not racist, but they chose to be cowards instead of conducting a reasonable and rational investigation.
‘All Michael did was make a harmless joke that no reasonable person would have considered racist in any way, shape or form. What Lockland did and continues to do with Michael is simply disgusting.