He didn't kill Caylee !!
A screw up on a job is not even close to a murder of your own 34 month old baby.
No he isn't accused of killing Caylee. But that wasn't what he was fired for. He was fired for dereliction of duty. When a police officer is derelict in his duty, he can possibly endanger his fellow officers as well as the citizens he is sworn to protect. That is why he was fired.
Sad? Yes. To prevent his firing all he had to do was walk into the woods a few yards and look into a bag. But he didn't want to do that. Was it because he didn't believe the tip was valid, because he feared the danger of a rattlesnake, or because he didn't want to get his pants dirty? Doesn't matter. But it is an indicator that he couldn't be counted on to do his duty in an emergency. The rest of the team traced down sightings, followed up on psychic tips and otherwise followed up on faint possibilities- even if they didn't believe in them. The rest of the team went on searches, braved snakes and alligators- without complaint. The rest of the team got dirty, and hot and sweaty. But they had a job to do and they did it. And when the first search was fruitless, they did it again.
Let's say that they keep him on. And what happens when the situation comes up again. He is faced with a situation where he might get dirty, or be in danger or doesn't believe. Or maybe just because he didn't want to write up the report. Who is to say that he won't do the same thing and blow it off- like he has before? Instead of leaving a baby's corpse in the elements, it could result in some one's loss of life.
Much of a cop's authority is also based on their integrity. That yes, they might make mistakes, but they must own up to them. That their word is true. They write reports on actions, they take witness testimony, they testify in court. And if their word cannot be trusted, then their ability to do their job is seriously undermined. What if the next arrest he made, the arrestee banged his head. But later claimed that the deputy did it. Could you really trust the deputy when he denied doing it? The weird thing about this is, that if he had gone into this and said "hey yeah, I made a mistake, we were busy or I was tired and didn't do what I knew I should have". He most likely would have been disciplined, but still have a job. But just like the other deputy, he made a decision to roll the dice and see if he could get by with it. He tried to hide the truth, and got caught.
Not to mention the PR aspect of this. What he did reflected badly on the PD. And could result in a public loss of faith in the PD. And that faith in the PD is very necessary. Without faith that the PD will investigate tips and complaints, the public quits reporting. The crime increases. Fewer criminals are taken off the street, and the better a criminal career looks and the more crime escalates.
Yes, I feel sorry for his family. He is or may be without a job. If he doesn't win this appeal and that will be as hard on his family as any other family whose parent went to work and didn't do their job and got fired. I wish he had considered that before he made the decision to blow Kronk and his tip off. Or blow off the tip about the bag of stuffed animals that were found during a search. Or any other duty he may have shirked for whatever reason.
Due process, yes he is entitled to it and he will get it. But in the meantime the public can at least feel that their police department is trying to do the right thing. And if they have dotted all their I's and crossed all of their T's properly, then maybe they will get rid of him.