Location: Florida
I work at a hotel that updates staff daily about any VIP guests coming to stay at the hotel. When I came in this morning, a security officer showed me a picture of a VIP guest on our list (he’s considered VIP because he booked our penthouse) and then showed me a picture of a man on his phone, asking me if they looked like the same person. I said yes, and he told me the man is on the FBI most wanted list. The name he booked the room with was a shorter version of his full name on the FBI website.
I called the manager on duty to inform him, and he didn’t really seem to care much besides saying “wow that’s crazy.” I asked if we should report a tip to the FBI, and was essentially told that it wasn’t our business. I asked my own manager about it, who had a similar reaction and didn’t seem at all concerned about reporting it. Nobody else in management seems to care at all.
I would like to call in a tip on this guy, but I’m worried that it could cost me my job if it somehow got back to the hotel that I reported it. I know that the Whistleblower Protection Act protects employees that report crime in the workplace, but does it also protect reporting a known criminal with active federal warrants that is simply staying at the hotel?
Comments
Seems like something the security officer would/should handle. What are they planning to do about it, any idea?
AFAIK the WPA covers Federal employees from retaliation against reporting criminal acts or wrongdoing by the government. It does not apply to reporting a known fugitive. Happy to be wrong on this, but I don’t think it applies.
EDIT: I see now that you meant the Florida Whistleblower Act and not the Whistleblower Protection Act, which are two different things.
Florida law usually doesn’t require people to report crimes (including knowing the location of a fugitive) unless they are a “mandatory reporter” or are actively concealing a felony.
If an employee discovers a fugitive within their workplace and their employer is aware of the fugitive’s presence and actively shielding or concealing them from law enforcement, then reporting this to authorities could potentially fall under the Whistleblower Act’s protections if it is viewed as reporting a violation of law by the employer.
So the question would be whether you are a mandatory reporter, whether there is a crime being committed, or whether there is an FBI agent at your door asking whether the fugitive is present. I don’t know enough to say whether any of these are true, but I suspect not.
If it were me, I’d call in the tip regardless.
It seems suspiciously unlikely that a fugitive on the FBI’s most wanted list would be staying at a public hotel at all, and then under their actual name. But if I were sure of it, I would report it, job be damned. I would like to think this would fall under a public policy exemption to at-will employment, but the practical answer is that if they fired you, determining whether or not that was legal might not be a quick process.
The Whistleblower Protection Act only applies to federal employees. There is no general protection for employees for reporting crimes to the police.
Honestly, I would call because no one on that list is someone I want near me, my family, my friends or my coworkers. When you call in the tip say you’re a guest at the hotel and saw this person in the lobby at xxx time and are 100% positive you saw them. Those calls are recorded and if you’re job does fire you for calling, you’ll have a case for lawyer. Ask them to provide you the reason for your firing in writing
What’s the reward for helping to capture him?
If he is on the FBIs most wanted list he is a really bad guy and you should inform the FBI.
If hotel employees knowingly let the fugitive stay in the hotel, I wonder if they could be charged with harboring a fugitive?
Can’t you call a private hotline like crime stoppers or something? This won’t necessarily come back on you if you do it anonymously. You could also win an award possibly too, a lot of those criminals have an award if they are found. I personally think it’s your duty to call.
You would fall under the Florida whistleblower act by reporting a fugitive. Plus you saying something to two managers would make it very clear who did it. This isn’t something you should really involve yourself in.
I don’t believe you :}