Officers deserve cooling-off period
When a crime occurs, our Constitution protects the rights of the accused no matter what their profession.
When an officer or other public employees face accusations of misconduct that are non-criminal, it is a very different set of circumstances than a criminal investigation, and it requires a different set of protections.
The right to due process and the right to a fair hearing are tightly woven into the fabric of American society, so it should be no surprise that these due process rights are protected in non-criminal investigations. No public employee should be forced to waive his rights to keep his job.
Law enforcement is our members’ profession, and policing is their job. Just as states protect the rights of other employees, public and private, many states have enacted a “bill of rights” for police and others to protect their right to due process. In some jurisdictions, those protections are a result of collective bargaining and embedded in negotiated contracts.
These laws were not enacted and these contracts were not negotiated to protect the jobs of “bad cops” or officers unfit for duty. Nor do they afford police any greater rights than those possessed by other citizens or public employees. The laws and contracts simply reaffirm the existence of those rights in the unique context of the law enforcement community.
The workplace protections provided by a “bill of rights” for police officers range from the very basic right of due process to more specific protections.
Those include the right to be notified when they are subject to an administrative investigation, reasonable accommodation for any interview, and a cooling-off period before any questioning — which can be especially important after a critical incident such as an officerinvolved shooting.
These requirements not only help to protect the officer as a public employee but also ensure the integrity of the investigative process.
Public employees must look to their own state law or work contract to ensure that their rights and interests are protected. Police officers should never be reluctant to assert these rights, which are well-earned and well-deserved.