Earlier this month, Police Chief Francisco Ortiz suspended Officer Dave Rivera for one day for conduct unbecoming an officer.

The union has since filed a grievance to overturn the penalty.

"I don’t think it was ‘conduct unbecoming,’ " said Sgt. Louis G. Cavalier, the union president. "I thanked him for actually retrieving that sticker for us. I wouldn’t want to see any Local 530 sticker on the back of a car that may be used in any kind of criminal activity."

But the chief asserted Rivera didn’t have the authority to go into the car to remove the sticker.

The decal debate started last year. According to an internal affairs complaint, Rivera had approached the car owner, Graydon Myers, about removing the sticker last May. Myers refused.

In July, Rivera pulled over Myers’ son, Garrett, driving the car. It was then that the officer scraped the sticker off.

"Though Officer Rivera articulated reasons for his decision to remove the sticker," Ortiz wrote in an April 12 personnel memorandum, "I must note that this department has neither a policy nor a practice of confiscating stickers from ‘unauthorized parties.’"

Graydon and Garrett Myers filed complaints in October, two days after Rivera arrested the younger Myers in an unrelated case. Other police officers have described Rivera as a "hard worker" and "outstanding" officer.

The 1-square-inch decals allow officers to park in lots near police headquarters, Cavalier said.

In reality, they also are provided to family and friends of officers as a way to identify them as associated with police, similar to the small shields police departments issue for license plates.

While police said the decal doesn’t amount to a get-out-of-jail-free pass, some officers readily acknowledge they’d be more likely to overlook a moving violation by a motorist with one in the window.

That’s a courtesy police say they don’t want to give to a suspected drug dealer.

Graydon Myers, a clerk with the U.S. Postal Service, admitted that his son might have sold drugs once, "but that has nothing to do with taking the sticker out."

Garrett Myers has two pending drug cases in Superior Court, including a case in which he is accused of selling crack cocaine to an undercover police officer with the statewide narcotics task force.

Myers is due in court today.

According to the father, Rivera "must have something against my son for whatever reason," adding that he was satisfied with the outcome.

"I don’t give a damn about the sticker anyway," said Graydon Myers. "It’s just principal."

In his complaint, he asked the department to replace the property that was taken — namely the Local 530 sticker.

The police union said that wouldn’t happen.

"If Mr. Graydon (Myers) were to present himself at the union office requesting another Local 530 decal," Cavalier wrote in a memo, "he would be escorted out posthaste."