I. PURPOSE

To establish an Investigative Review Committee (IRC) whose responsibility shall be to:

1. Review and evaluate on-duty accidents involving county-owned or subsidized motor vehicles.

2. Review and evaluate all incident reports of theft, damage, or loss of county-owned equipment or property.

II. DEFINITIONS

A. On-Duty Accidents

An accident involving a police employee operating a county-owned or subsidized motor vehicle while on duty, or while traveling to and from work, or while on official duty, sanctioned by the police department, operating other than a county-owned or subsidized vehicle.

B. Incident

Any on-duty vehicle accident involving police employees, or the theft, damage, or loss of county-owned equipment or property.

1. Avoidable Incident

a. An incident in which the employee did not take every reasonable precaution to prevent the incident from occurring.

2. Unavoidable Incident

a. An incident which occurred in spite of reasonable precautions taken by the employee.

III. COMMITTEE

A. The Investigative Review Committee shall be composed of the following board members:

Major, Technical Services Division - Chairman; three members selected by the Chief of Police holding the rank of Captain or above - Vice Chairman and members; and Deputy Corporation Counsel - Adviser.r

IV. COMMITTEE RESPONSIBILITIES

A. The committee shall review all on-duty accidents involving county-owned or subsidized motor vehicles and review all incident reports of thefts, damages, or loss of county-owned equipment or property in which the replacement value is in excess of $150.00, and of any incident whereby the employee's badge was stolen, damaged, or lost.

B. The committee shall determine whether that incident was avoidable or unavoidable and report their findings and recommendations to the Chief of Police for approval.

C. A simple majority of board members will constitute a quorum. The Chairman will vote only in the case of a tie, in which case he/she shall cast the deciding vote.

D. If the committee determines an incident to be avoidable, they shall recommend appropriate action as specified under Section V (D).

V. PROCEDURES

A. The Division or District Commander shall review each on-duty accident or incident report and submit a complete copy of the report with a recommendation to the Investigative Review Committe on all on-duty motor vehicle accidents involving police employees; all thefts, damages or loss of county-owned equipment or property which replacement value is in excess of $150.00 and/or any incident whereby the employee's badge was stolen, damaged, or lost. In incidents whereby the replacement value is $150.00 or less, the Division or District Commander of the personnel involved shall determine the final action upon approval of the Chief of Police.

B. The chairman of the committee shall forward to the Traffic Services Section Commander all on-duty motor vehicle accidents for review. If warranted, additional investigation shall be conducted by the Traffic Services Section. The Traffic Services Section Commander, upon completion of the review, shall submit a recommendation to the Investigative Review Committee

C. The committee shall be convened by the chairman. They will review all cases and submit its findings and recommendations to the Chief of Police for corrective action.

1. If the incident is found to be unavoidable, the case will be closed.

2. If preliminary findings determine an incident to be avoidable, the committee shall submit a notification memorandum to the commander of the affected employee informing him/her of the right to appear before the committee.

3. If a hearing is desired, the employee shall respond within 14 calendar days upon notification. If a request for hearing is not received within 14 calendar days of notification and the committee determines that it was an avoidable incident, the report, with recommendations, shall be forwarded to the Chief of Police for final decision.

4. Upon receipt of a request for hearing, the IRC Chairman shall notify the employee of the date, time, and location that this case will be heard. The hearing will be held during normal business hours and the requesting employee will not be entitled to overtime credit for attendance.

5. If the employee is unable to attend due to illness, court appearance or emergency assignment, a written request for a new hearing shall be made to the committee chairman within 48 hours of the scheduled hearing.

If the employee fails to appear at the scheduled hearing without prior approval of the chairman, the right to appear is forfeited.

6. The employee may have a union representative or legal counsel present during the hearing; however, all statements to the committee shall be made to the employee. The Chairman may allow the employee's representative, upon request, to make brief statements.

D. The recommendation, upon approval by the Chief of Police, shall be a final decision and will be forwarded to the employee.

1. If the action requires reimbursement to the County, the chairman will notify the Business Manager for appropriate payroll deductions.

2. If Driver Training is necessary, the Chairman will notify the Training Section for scheduling of driver education classes.

3. If more stringent action is to be taken, (Oral Reprimand, Written Reprimand, Suspension, Dismissal) the chairman shall prepare the required disciplinary action recommendation to be submitted to the Chief of Police for his final approval. This action shall be exempt from the Administrative Review Board's process.

4. The committee may use the employee's prior driving record, number of prior incidents and degree of negligence involved in the incident under investigation in determining its recommendation.

E. Cases determined to be "avoidable" will be retained in the employee's personnel file.

WAYNE G. CARVALHO
CHIEF OF POLICE

(Revised: 04-02-98)