Page 15 - FOP JUNE Newsletter

Deconstructing Garrity
As we all know, the city and the Department have vowed to have every police-involved shooting vetted for criminal charges. This presents a number of issues for our officers, including questions of self-interest such as, “At what point should I be concerned about my criminal interests, and how do I protect myself from criminal prosecution?”
tutional rights.
• An officer can be substantially disciplined or fired
for refusing to cooperate and provide statements in an internal administrative investigation after a Gar- rity warning.
Though these legal terms are having a greater effect on us more than ever before, the good news is we at the Union have highly confident people looking out for our best interest.
Hear no evil see no evil
THOMAS
THOMAS
MCDONAGH
MCDONAGH
Thankfully, Mayor Emanuel has eliminated any ambiguity about the correlation between adminis- trative vs. criminal investigations. Any statements made concerning the events of the shooting or the subsequent investigation will be submitted and analyzed by a prosecuting agency, FBI or CCSAO,
for criminal charges against the declarant of the statement.
In short, we need to invoke a more detailed dis- claimer to utilize in situations where we never have done so before – i.e. statements to the OCIC, detectives, essentially anyone other than FOP reps and lawyers. We are in unchartered territory and therefore will be working with our attorneys at the law offices of Dan Herbert to re- vise the current Garrity warning statement.
Garrity protection generally refers to the government’s inability to use a police officer’s compelled statements against him/her in a criminal prosecution; howev- er, there are nuances to this general rule. The Supreme Court’s holding in Garrity pertained specifically to wheth- er or not statements obtained under threat of removal from office could be used in subsequent criminal pro- ceedings against the accused. The Court held that such statements were coerced, and under the protections of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, prohibited from being used in subsequent criminal proceedings. Garrity warnings reveal that officers are faced with the option of either incriminating themselves or losing their means of livelihood.
The Garrity doctrine also includes what is called “re- verse Garrity” which states that whenever questioning might lead to possible criminal charges, an employ- er must give an affirmative guarantee of immunity and warn the officer that failure to respond to questioning could lead to disciplinary action for insubordination.
The basic rules arising from Garrity are fairly straight- forward:
• An officer can be ordered to cooperate in an internal administrative investigation to provide statements regarding matters that are specifically, directly and narrowly related to the officer’s official conduct.
• Statements made pursuant to an order to coop- erate in an internal administrative investigation cannot be used against the officer in any criminal proceeding.
• An officer may not refuse to answer specific, direct and narrow job-related questions, as long as the agency does not seek to compel a waiver of consti-
Recently, a highly decorated detective resigned from the Department. He was to appear before the Chicago Police Board and decided that it would be in his best interest to resign, rather than face a board whose president recently had led the Police Accountability Task Force witch hunt that generat- ed an unsubstantiated report portraying the Chicago Police as a bunch of racist, gun-slinging cowboys. This is the same board tasked with determining an officer’s inno- cence or – as the recent track record reflects – guilt. We do not stand a chance in front of this Police Board with Lori Lightfoot at the helm. Lightfoot has shown her cards and, as far as I am concerned, cannot be considered fair and
impartial.
As the news of the detective’s resignation continued
to stir up controversy, the angriest man in the Catholic Church chimed in and shared his opinion on the collec- tive bargaining agreement between the Lodge and the city. The one and only Father Pfleger – a man who clearly uses the Church to spearhead a political agenda – is the only priest in the Archdiocese of Chicago who has been allowed to remain at St. Sabina while other parishes have seen their beloved priests sent away after their term lim- its.
Father Pfleger was quoted as stating, “The best union to be in this country is the Fraternal Order of Police be- cause you can get away with murder and still get paid. He should’ve been fired and instead he can resign and make money, and that’s an insult”.
Give me a minute while I take in these comments... methinks the best union in this country is the Catholic Priest union. It’s a union that destroyed young parishio- ners’ innocence and minds. It’s a union that allowed sex offenders to roam from parish to parish and state to state with impunity. No, Father Pfleger, your union is the best in the country. It’s your union that turned a blind eye for decades and has allowed many a retired member to sail off into the sunset. Stick with your Sunday sermons and keep ignoring the violence plaguing this city. It’s not members of the Chicago Police Department who’re per- petuating this epidemic.
As someone who has grown up Catholic, I find these words from this so-called man of the cloth to be down- right alarming. I was always taught about the great divide between church and state. It’s a shame this divide is no longer respected. d
Field Representative
REPORT
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