Video Spying by Pasadena School Police Chief Alleged

The top police officer for the Pasadena Unified School District has been placed on paid leave pending an investigation into allegations that he placed a video camera in a storage room where employees change their clothes, school officials said Friday.

Police Chief Jarado L. Blue, 47, was taken off active duty Thursday after officials received two anonymous tips about the alleged electronic spying in an area where police employees regularly undress, said district spokesman Chuck Champlin.

“Although the charge is circumstantial, it is serious,” said Champlin.

Until his leave, Blue supervised a department of 11 sworn and armed police officers who patrol the public schools in Pasadena, Altadena and Sierra Madre.

Champlin said Blue has acknowledged testing the video camera on one occasion for 20 minutes in the room. “[Blue] said the test was done during a portion of the day when no one was undressing,” he added.

Blue could not be reached for comment.

School board member Alex P. Aghajanian said Friday that he had not been informed of the allegations. Blue’s leave, he said, “is the best step for Jarado and everybody involved until it’s determined what is going on here.”

District officials said the remote video camera, which sends a picture to a separate monitor, was purchased by the school police after a series of break-ins. Before its installation, it was kept in the storage room in plain sight, district officials said.

The police supply room, Champlin said, is a lockable multipurpose room where a microwave oven, a small refrigerator and photocopier paper are kept.

“Over time it has become a place used by both male and female employees as a locker room,” he said. At the time the allegations were made, the camera already had been moved to monitor a school for break-ins, Champlin said.

The district has not alerted the Pasadena Police Department because it wants to handle the matter itself, Champlin said. It is setting up a five-member panel to investigate the allegations.

Blue joined the Pasadena school police force in 1992 and was appointed its chief a year later. Born and raised in Pasadena, Blue was a Pasadena city police officer for 13 years, leaving in 1983 to run his own car detailing business and act as a security consultant for Super Shuttle International.