He quickly received promotions to sergeant and lieutenant, received commendations and "outstanding" evaluations, placed first on the civil service captain's list, and was made a temporary captain for six months.
In January 1996, on promotion to lieutenant, Kirby was removed from the Clandestine Lab Team (CLT). Another officer, Sergeant Ramsdell, was allowed to remain on the CLT when he was promoted to lieutenant, because the team did not have another officer certified as a team leader. When another certified officer became available, Ramsdell was also removed from the CLT.
On March 4, 1997, Kirby became involved in police union activities. On September 15, 1998, he was diagnosed with a work-related stress disorder, about which he notified the City on July 31, 1998. His private physician provided psychiatric treatment from Septemberfor failure to inform the chief of police immediately. Kirby later testified that he did not tell the chief because he believed that the chief was likely to engage in a cover-up. No formal disciplinary action was taken against the officer allegedly involved in the bribery allegations.
On November 3, 1999, Kirby was orally reprimanded again, this time for having failed to support a superior officer's policies by expressing his (Kirby's) own opinion about the TPD's decision to transfer a secretary out of his division in October.
According to Kirby, TPD Chief Philip Arreola exhibited age discrimination when he (1) once referred to Kirby as the "old guard"; and (2) again, during a command staff meeting, said, "Now if I can just get some of these gray-haired old captains to