CHAPTER 12: THE POLICE LEADER AS A COMPLAINANT PROCESSOR Flashcards
THE POLICE LEADER AS A COMPLAINT PROCESSOR
In yet another scenario, a final resolution of a particularly sticky
employee/management tiff may see the supervisor giving testimony before a formal grievance hearing board or similar body. Both his memory and his sense for ______ will be called upon at such times.
fair play
ALLEGATIONS OF MISCONDUCT
Police agencies receive and process complaints against their personnel, procedures, and policies for several good reasons:
(1) to protect the public from actual police misconduct;
(2) to protect police employees from unjust accusations and the undeserved reputations that can go with them;
(3) to detect and correct improper or inadequate operating procedures or policies; and
(4) to protect the credi-bility and integrity of the police agency.
ALLEGATIONS OF MISCONDUCT
Good employee selection and training can do much to prevent many of the problems and abuses often connected with police corruption, incompetency, or misuse of authority. Intelligent, ______, and fair first-line supervisors can do much to arrest such difficulties, too
ethical
ALLEGATIONS OF MISCONDUCT
Any corrective action, such as employee counseling, is also handled by the line supervisor. Whether the complaint is serious or ______, the complainant must be notified of the results of the inquiry or investigation.
trivial
ALLEGATIONS OF MISCONDUCT
It should be kept in mind, however, that more _______ handling of such incidents is also possible and may be preferable in many instances.
informal
MEMO ON CITIZEN INQUIRY
A partial listing of suggested topics to be handled by the line-level boss might include the following:
- General questions on departmental policies
- General questions on departmental procedures
- Questions on police authority and responsibility
- Questions on police tactics and practices
- Questions on traffic law enforcement guidelines
- Inquiries on ________
- Inquiries on booking and release procedures
- Inquiries regarding use of force guidelines
- Inquiries regarding search and seizure policies
- Inquiries about seized evidence/property disposition.
handcuff use
MEMO ON CITIZEN INQUIRY
A listing of such topics requiring extensive investigation might include the following:
- Complaints of police _________.
- Complaints of criminal acts by police employees
- Complaints of immoral or unethical conduct by police
- Complaints of false arrest
- Complaints of civil rights violations and abuse.
excessive force
MEMO ON CITIZEN INQUIRY
Common sense in making a decision on how to proceed should include an initial evaluation by the receiving supervisor of both the complaint and the complainant. The attitude, apparent sincerity, and general ___________ of the complainant would be among the factors noted by the alert supervisor.
emotional stability
MEMO ON CITIZEN INQUIRY
Garrity v. New Jersey
On such an assignment the police leader can rely on his usual ___ for obtaining facts from victims, witnesses, and assorted others who may have details to bring to bear on the case. It is in the supervisor’s handling of the accused police employee that a different approach will be required. It all comes about because of a court case entitled Garrity v. New Jersey.
skill
Garrity v. New Jersey.
In Garrity, a representative of the Attorney General’s Office interviewed several officers about their participation in an alleged ticket “fixing” scam. Prior to interview, the officers were told, in effect:
• That anything they said could be used against them in criminal proceedings.
• That they had the right to refuse to answer questions if doing so would incriminate them.
• That the failure to answer the questions would subject them to being fired.
The officers were thus put in the position of either answering the questions and possibly being prosecuted or refusing to answer and being terminated from employment. Several officers answered the questions and were subsequently convicted. The officers appealed their convictions on the grounds that they were coerced by threat of termination into answering the questions. The Supreme Court agreed that the information provided by the officers was indeed coerced under the threat of firing.
Garrity v. New Jersey.
Since Garrity, public employers, including police agencies, have
realized that self-incriminating statements obtained from employees who have been “ordered to talk” cannot subsequently be used against those employees in criminal proceedings. That is why an officer ac-cused of misconduct that may also be a crime often will find himself the subject of two, separate investigations: one conducted by internal affairs investigators and a second carried out by criminal squad detec-tives. While the criminal detectives may share their information with internal affairs, the opposite does not hold true for information learned by internal affairs investigators from a “forced” interview with the employee.
Officers in this situation will often find themselves in the middle to two separate investigations
Garrity v. New Jersey.
What all of this means to the supervisor-turned-investigator is that
he must __________ to help assure that all interests, including those of the accused employee, are respected.
proceed carefully
Garrity v. New Jersey.
If what the supervisor knows about the incident or accusation includes even the slightest hint that _______ conduct has occurred, he is obligated to give the employee what has come to be termed the Garrity advisement.
Most police agencies prefer to give an employee the Garrity
advisement in writing and obtain the employee’s signature indicating that it has been received. The advisement is often provided on a preprinted form and may look something like this:
criminal
When the need for Garrity arises, the smart first-line leader will seek the play-by-play _______ of his boss, his department legal advisor or attorney, and/or the Internal Affairs specialists in his organization. When Garrity issues are involved, it is worth slowing things down to be sure everything is done correctly. The welfare of the employee, the public, and the law enforcement organization itself demand no less.
guidance
When all the facts on a given incident are in, the supervisor must
put this information together in a format that can be easily read and worked with by those in the chain of command who must review and act upon the findings. One useful format divides the presentation into several segments:
1) Specific complaints
2) Background Information
3) Investigation
4)
5) recommendations
6) Attachments
finding of facts
