The mayor's announcement immediately drew skeptical comment from civil liberties lawyers and protests from students who complained of draconian security measures enforced by overzealous officers.

At Piedmont College, where Mr. Jewell worked as a security guard in 1995 and 1996, school administrators described him as an overzealous officer.

Police officials later said an apparently overzealous officer had taken the action on his own, without permission from his supervisors, and had been "corrected."

Protest organizers said their rights had been trampled by overzealous officers - that groups of demonstrators had been held for more than 30 hours without food and water.

But then I'll be only an overzealous officer helping some enthusiastic patriots catch a dirty collaborationist.

Chinese officials readily admitted that some overzealous local officers went off the deep end and practiced coercion when the one child policy was first implemented, in 1980.

On the other, he "had a reputation as a stubborn, overzealous, impulsive, and sometimes insubordinate officer."

The F.B.I. became suspicious of Mr. Jewell later that day, after learning that he had a reputation as an overzealous officer who had difficulty holding a job.

Mr. Jewell went on to dispute the media portrayal of him as a "frustrated police wannabe" and "an overzealous officer."