FREEPORT — An independent investigator retained by the city of Freeport found no evidence of misconduct on the part of Freeport police in the June 9 arrest of a 24-year-old man outside FHN Memorial Hospital.

The report, compiled by Hazel Crest Police Chief Mitch Davis, does recommend that the Freeport Police Department examine its policies for handling incidents involving hospitalized individuals or those requiring medical attention.

“While the independent investigation made no findings of misconduct regarding this incident, that doesn’t mean we can’t learn something from it and as a community, we will,” Freeport City Manager Lowell Crow said in a news release.

Shaquille Dukes, who was a patient at FHN Memorial Hospital, was arrested outside the hospital while dressed in a hospital gown and attached to an IV stand.

Dukes said he had been hospitalized for two days with pneumonia when his doctor cleared him to go for a walk outside, as long as he didn’t leave hospital property.

Dukes said previously that a hospital security guard had accused him of attempting to steal the hospital equipment as he walked through the parking lot.

He was charged with disorderly conduct after the security guard called police. Two other men with Dukes at the time of the incident, Marqwandrick Morrison and Credale Miles, also were charged with disorderly conduct.

Dukes, who is black, alleged in a complaint filed with the city of Freeport that he had been racially profiled by white security guards and police officers. He also claimed that officers seized his inhaler and wouldn’t give it to him until paramedics arrived.

Davis, the investigator, said he was unable to substantiate the racial profiling accusation and was unable to find anyone from the hospital to confirm that Dukes had permission to go outside. In addition, Davis said he also was unable to confirm whether a security officer asked Dukes if he was stealing hospital equipment to sell on eBay, as Dukes alleged.

Davis also concluded that the security officer who initially questioned Dukes and his companions outside of the hospital called police out of fear that the interaction was escalating and that the officer might be harmed.

The independent investigator based his findings on interviews with five Freeport police officers and two FHN security officers.

Davis said that Dukes, Morrison and Miles failed to show up for two scheduled appointments to give Davis their personal versions of the incident.

Davis did suggest that Freeport police should have considered removing the handcuffs on Dukes while he was in distress during a medical episode. The report notes that police did not initially respond to Dukes’ complaint that he couldn’t breathe and should have given Dukes his inhaler back sooner.

This, the report states, should serve as a teachable moment.

Upon reviewing the report, Freeport Police Chief Todd Barkalow recommended that it be shared with the Freeport Fire and Police Commission.

“An incident of this scale deserves one more layer of review before we take any final action,” Barkalow said. “That’s why I decided to forward the report to the Freeport fire and police commissioners. We owe it to both the complainants and the officers to be as thorough as we can be when gathering all the information related to this event.”

The commissioners can accept the findings of the Davis report and take no action, or they can hold a hearing to gather additional information.

Ken DeCoster: 815-987-1391; kdecoster@rrstar.com; @DeCosterKen