You keep forgetting a crucial part -- that being, they offered to sell her continued employment. If she actually had this history and was a problem to the company, (a) why would they offer to ignore it for a price, and (b) why did Corporate come out and publicly apologize and acknowledge it was handled stupidly? That sort of undermines the whole story.
And you seem to be mixing two different topics after that -- I don't know what the "police policy" thing is all about but diga me this -- if a policy goes into effect, is it not in effect when it starts? Nine days later, ninety days later, or nine minutes later, it's still the policy, is it not? When does compliance begin? Ten days? Thirty? A year?
So you haven't read anything about the Baltimore police Gray incident? Go look up the Baltimore riot posts and shit, it's all over the news and there's at least 10 threads on this site alone... If you really can't see the similarity between the prosecutor in that incident throwing out murder charges to appease the rioter and Popeye's corporate hiring this girl back to stop the bad publicity then I'm not sure what to say... I see a hell of a lot of PR reaction in both.
The "pay back" thing, if it even actually happened (remember corporate said they knew nothing about it,) appears to stem from another policy that requires employees to be financially responsible for any shortages in their till. Nearly every bar I've been around has a policy that bartenders and waitresses are responsible for shortages in the till at the end of the night - some would give a "bank" to the waitress bartender that has to be paid back at the end of the night + whatever drinks they sold (a very un-gangly system pre-computers, but much easier these days.) I've personally never worked with fast food so I can't speak from personal experience, but the reporters were saying that fast food joints have that policy - I do personally know that bars, a lot of small business, and smaller grocery stores (Safeway and Fred Meyer's did not, but they fire people if their tills are off more than once or twice,) have similar policies in place to deter employee theft.
I am mixing two incidents, but not two topics - I don't understand how the "following policies" argument isn't being applied "fairly" between the two incidents. It was argued in this thread that the moving cash from the registers policy was not a big deal and should be some-how "excused" from having to do it because she "just hadn't had time." On the flip side the seat belt policy had only been in effect for 9 days so it is not unreasonable that they hadn't gotten into the swing of doing it, especially if, as was implied, it was sent out in an email that not all officers had read, it was also implied that it wasn't safe for them to buckle him up because he was "irate" and combative (aka it wasn't safe for the officers.)
Finally, no I think policies should go into effect as soon as they are instated and all the employees are made aware of it. In my book, it's on the superiors to ensure that all employees are made aware of policy changes, and said changes go into effect immediately - breaking policy is grounds for firing, her and the police officers. However, that's not really the disconnect I'm having between the two instances. My issue is that if we're going to be "reasonable" that this woman was "too busy" to move the cash from the registers so it's not a big deal, then it's also "reasonable" to say that the officers not following a 9 day old policy they may or may not have known about isn't a big deal either. (I mean kids don't buckle up on the school bus, mailmen and delivery drivers don't have to buckle up, etc. etc.)
Because you don't fire someone who has been, while in your employ, held at gunpoint and forced to give over money. It is not her fault the store was robbed. She didn't instigate the robbery. She didn't invite the robber to rob her. Her life was put at risk. You don't fire an employee whose life has been at risk while in your employ. Period.
Does this apply to anyone who puts their life at risk at work; like firemen, fishermen, loggers, and construction workers? (Some of the most fatal jobs in the US.) Or does it only apply to those who face a gun; like convenience store employees, fast food workers, and police officers?