04-25-13 Meet and Confer Committee Meeting minutes

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Specifically mentioned were item (F) on the second page of the Bill of Rights regarding to anonymous complaints. It was discussed that Chapter 614 of the Local Government Code addresses that all complaints must be in writing. However, the Chapter does address exceptions regarding anonymous complaints. The Police Department already follows procedures in policy and existing civil service law very closely. Mr. Alexander and Chief Adcox mentioned that there are a few items in the Bill of Rights that would be of a concern to the City. Mr. Alexander and Chief Adcox discussed that there were various items In the Bill or Rights that did not make sense for a City of our size and that is why State law only makes this particular Bill of Rights applicable to cities of 1.5 million or more, not smaller cities like La Porte with a population of only 36,000 citizens. Examples were that the Bill of Rights states that internal affairs interviews can only be done during the involved officer's shift. While this works for very large police departments that have whole shifts of internal affairs investigators scheduled around the clock, due to its small size, La Porte only has one part-time investigator who is responsible for investigating any and all internal complains department -wide. If the Bill of Rights were implemented in La Porte, it would require that this one investigator to come in during graveyards, etc. several times a month; resulting in a great deal of overtime pay for the investigator and likely a great deal of fatigue. It was also noted that our investigator currently works well with the employee to make it as practical and convenient as possible when scheduling internal affairs interviews (example: 7:00 a.m. meeting for a graveyard shift person who get off at 7:00 AM). Persons called into internal affairs are always paid overtime should their interview stretches beyond their assigned shift. Another concern mentioned by the Chief was the stipulation in the Bill of Rights that states that if you are the complainant you cannot do any part of the internal investigation. This would literally mean that, since first line supervisors are typically the complainant relating to internal policy violations, the employee's supervisors could not do any investigations for even the most minor infractions such as missing court, being tardy, etc. All policy violations would have to be handled formally through Internal Affairs. Our current practice allows most minor violations to go to the supervisor or the Assistant Chief and be handled at the Division level without the need for a formal internal affairs investigation and formal discipline. Chief Adcox reiterated that stipulations such as this don't work well for small police departments where internal affairs operations are small. He added that this particular stipulation does not seem to be in the best Interest of the individual LPPOA member, much -less the Department as a whole. Mr. Huckabee asked about when an officer receives notice of an investigation. Chief indicated that is specifically addressed in current law and that, without knowing the exact words, the current law says something to the effect of officers are to be provided a copy of the complaint as soon as practical. Mr. Huckabee advised that the Bill of Rights speaks to at least 48 hours before the employee is interviewed. Chief Adcox advised that he felt that the Department likely already substantially does this as employees are most often notified of a complaint and provided a copy of the complaint as "first notice" long before they are interviewed. In conclusion, Mr. Novosad advised that they would look further into the idea of a Bill of Rights.