Salary Reductions
One of the most common forms of disciplinary action taken against public safety employees is a reduction in pay for a period of months. Generally this reduction will take the form of a 5 or 10 percent reduction for however many months are imposed. There are both some key pros ...Read More
Response to Adverse Comments in Personnel File
Response to Adverse Comments in Personnel File Disciplinary action can take many forms when it comes to public safety employees. Sometimes it is not as heavy as a suspension without pay or a demotion. Often correction may come in the form of a counseling memo or a “documentation of verbal ...Read More
Removal from Specialty Pay Assignments
Many public safety employers have jobs that are “special assignments” and often require additional training or skills from the employee. To “reward” these extra demands, they will generally also be accompanied by a pay incentive which is generally around 5%. Most employees feel that being assigned to such positions is a ...Read More
Not Following Orders? Could Result in Insubordination Allegation
Most people would agree that any form of law enforcement is considered a para-military organization. This is to include all aspects of custody and control wheather it be at the county jail or a state prison. Within such organizations the chain of command is the back bone of operations, with ...Read More
Know your Audience: a Key to Skelly Success
Recently Sgt. Butler* received word that his rank as a correctional sergeant was being taken away and he was to be demoted to a correctional officer position. As anyone who has attained a supervisory rank knows, getting your stripes is generally a product of years of hard work. Not only ...Read More
Allegation of Untruthfulness Leads to Termination
In this case, a city police officer was terminated for allegations of untruthfulness related to a use of force incident where he and fellow officers were required to use force to arrest a fleeing felon suspect. In the course of the altercation four different officers applied various levels of force ...Read More
POBR Vioalations
A woman filed a complaint against a sheriff’s deputy for various allegations of misconduct while off duty. The woman and the deputy are next door neighbors and have a fairly typical neighbor feud going between them. The woman filed the complaint with a sergeant who happened to be working as ...Read More
G&A HELPS CERES POA PREVAIL- Officers Receive Pay for Exam Time
Recently, Ceres POA filed a grievance with the city of Ceres after the Finance Department refused to pay officers who took approximately six hours for a promotional exam while they were on-duty. The officers pointed to uncontested twenty year old language in their Memorandum of Understanding which states: Section 7.5 ...Read More
Giving Voluntary Statements After An Officer Involved Shooting.
After an officer involved shooting there are generally two investigations which are conducted. An internal department or administrative investigation and an investigation conducted by the District Attorney Office or other outside agency to determine any criminal misconduct by the officers. Though officers cannot refuse to give a statement to their ...Read More
Who Is Watching the Watchdog?
Not the Courts. On the night of April 9, 2007, a Lieutenant received a phone call at home from his employer, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (“CDCR”), informing him that he would be interrogated the very next morning by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), an agency ...Read More