A rare public view of a fired officer’s attempt to keep his job may motivate other officers in trouble to open their appeal hearings, the president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Fraternal Order of Police tells the Charlotte Observer. Last week, the Charlotte Civil Service Board upheld the police department’s decision to fire Chuck Adkins, a former captain who had worked in Internal Affairs, Communications and in the watch commander’s office. Stories about the hearing were broadcast on TV and written about in the paper, and watched closely by the department’s nearly 1,800 sworn officers. The department said Adkins broke department policy by failing to alert law enforcement officers immediately about his Sept. 19 conversation with a woman who came to his home while he was in his garage, with his marked cruiser parked outside. Adkins took the unusual step of asking that his hearing be open to the public. Sgt. Todd Walther, FOP president, said Adkins’ case could motivate other officers to elect to have open hearings. “It allows the community to see them as a real human being instead of just a uniform,” Walther said. “It’s not a secret. We make mistakes just like anyone. I think in an open forum, it could be positive to show that we’re not just a badge and a gun.”