This is a follow-up to the article Qualified Immunity Shields Employer From Liability For Illegal Dropbox Search in the June 2022 issue of Public Safety Labor News. Steven Bowers was a detective sergeant for the Taylor County Sheriff’s Department in Wisconsin. In February 2017, the Department was working with the television program Cold Justice on…
Scott Kilmer was a police officer for Bells Police Department in Texas. On March 11, 2017, Kilmer was working off-duty security at a private wedding venue; he was dressed in his Bells police officer uniform and using his Bells police patrol vehicle. Over the course of the evening, some guests noticed Kilmer placing his foot…
William Owens was the fire chief for the City of Monroe, Georgia. Logan Propes is Monroe’s city administrator, and R.V. Watts is the City’s police chief. Watts and Propes learned that Owens had a “intimate” relationship with a married woman referred to as K.I. Chief Owens and K.I. had regular electronic communications via their personal…
Steven Bowers was a sergeant for the Taylor County Sheriff’s Department in Wisconsin. In 2017, the Department started working with a television show called Cold Justice, a true-crime series that investigated unsolved crimes. The Department gave the crew members access to one case file, but Bowers began sharing other case files with them, even though…
Officer James LaCroix and Detective Renee Payne-Callender are members of the Boston Police Department. On March 6, 2015, LaCroix sustained back and hip injuries while he was on duty. LaCroix was placed on leave due to his injuries and remained out of work until he was cleared to return by his doctors in December 2018,…
Christopher Turiano is a 25-year veteran of the Phoenix Police Department. Until recently, he served as a grenadier in the Department’s Tactical Response Unit (TRU). On August 22, 2017, the TRU, including Turiano, was assigned to oversee ground operations at a large protest in downtown Phoenix. Throughout the course of the evening, the protest devolved…
Andre Anderson is a Corrections Officer with the New York City Department of Corrections (DOC). On July 25, 2020, Anderson was driving home when he was rear-ended by another motorist who fled the accident scene when Anderson insisted that they exchange insurance information. Anderson pursued the occupants of the departing vehicle, first by car and then on foot, eventually drawing his…
A group of 13 Los Angeles Police Department employees sued the City in federal court, contending the City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate violated their federal and state civil rights. The employees sought a preliminary injunction holding the mandate in abeyance pending completion of the litigation. The City responded by filing a motion to dismiss the entire lawsuit. A federal court trial judge agreed with…
A case involving the termination of two Los Angeles Police Department officers contains one of the more unusual fact patterns in any reported police discipline case. Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell were working as partners on Saturday, April 15, 2017, assigned to a foot patrol beat. Their primary responsibilities included providing community services and addressing…
Jennifer Smith was a police officer for the City of Pelham, Alabama. When the police chief became concerned that Smith was excessively using sick time and time off, particularly on Fridays and Mondays, he asked a detective to conduct a forensic analysis of Smith’s work computer. The City has a Computer/Email & Internet Use Policy…
In two separate encounters, crime suspects threatened Tallahassee police officers with violence. Faced with the imminent threat of harm, the officers responded with force, resulting in fatalities. Following the encounters, the City of Tallahassee revealed its intent to disclose the identities of the police officers to the public. The officers and their union, the Florida…
In November 2016, the Grand Rapids Police Department dispatched an officer to a car accident site. The driver of the car, a Kent County assistant prosecutor, drove down a one-way street and struck a parked car. The on-scene officer called Lieutenant Matthew Janiskee on a recorded, public line – Line 3604 – and explained the…
The City of Newton, Massachusetts and the Newton Police Superior Officers Association Coalition of Police, Local 401 are parties to a collective bargaining agreement effective July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2014. In May 2014, the Parties began bargaining for a successor agreement but were unable to reach a settlement. Eventually the matter ended up…
Saintamen Edwards, a Miami-Dade County police officer, was arrested and charged with two counts of official misconduct after an investigation revealed she had falsified police records in an apparent attempt to get her husband, Clyde Edwards, fired from his job at a sports apparel and footwear store. Clyde’s boss, Jose Raij, contacted police after he…
In 2011, police officers arrested four men suspected of robbing a series of Radio Shack and T-Mobile stores in Detroit. One of the men confessed that, over the previous four months, the group (along with a rotating cast of getaway drivers and lookouts) had robbed nine different stores in Michigan and Ohio. The suspect identified…
You know you’re in for a weighty pronouncement when a court begins its opinion in this fashion: “We are confronted in this case with the ongoing and difficult constitutional question of how much control the government can force individuals to cede over their private lives in exchange for the privilege of serving the public by…
Jeremy Goodman is an inmate at California State Prison-Solano. He was involved in an incident with Correctional Officer J. Johnson. During a search, Goodman resisted Johnson. As a result of the incident, Goodman was criminally charged with battery on a non-prisoner, possession of heroin in jail, and resisting an executive officer. In his criminal case,…
Two officers with the Santa Ana, California Police Department were the subjects of an internal affairs investigation based on their conduct during the execution of a search warrant at a marijuana dispensary. The Department initiated the investigation after video recordings of the officers were released to the media. The video recordings were made by the…
A bit of backdrop is necessary to understand an important Brady decision recently issued by the California Court of Appeals. In Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), the United States Supreme Court held that constitutional due process creates an affirmative obligation on the part of the prosecution, whether or not requested by the defense,…
From Florida Question: I’ve often heard from my union’s legal defense plan that we cannot go to arbitration for a written reprimand because the grievant has no “property loss” and that the arbitrator can’t rescind the written reprimand. Often our members feel like this is an excuse by the legal defense plan because the LDP…
Timothy Larios was an officer with the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and was assigned to the Shasta Interagency Narcotics Task Force. He was issued a cell phone by the CHP, and he also had a personal cell phone. In September 2014, CHP removed Larios from his position and told him that he was the subject…
From Washington Question: Are you familiar with cases where IA investigator pre-interviews complainant for two hours before going on tape but makes no reference to the pre-interview or provides any notes on the pre-interview in the IA file? Answer: This is a practice that used to be fairly common, but by now has largely disappeared…
In November 2008, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) submitted 20 separate Freedom Of Information Act requests to the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) for documents generated in connection with internal disciplinary proceedings against officers of specified upper ranks for particular offenses in particular years. For example, one request sought all documents regarding any…
Though the case does not involve public safety officers, a recent decision from an administrative law judge (ALJ) of the California Public Relations Board (PERB) could have significant ramifications in the public safety workplace. In the case, the ALJ ruled that employees filing a complaint against a fellow employee do not have a reasonable expectation…
Janelle Perez was a probationary police officer for the City of Roseville, California. Perez was given a patrol assignment and a few months into the assignment, she and another officer, Shag Begley, initiated a personal relationship. At the time, Perez and Begley were both separated from, but legally married to other individuals. On June 6,…
