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dards Board receives an anonymous complaint about a po- lice officer, an investigation is supposed to be opened. That is not a misprint, and our good editors have not duplicated their efforts. Anonymous complaints are allowed. Once the complaint is taken and an investigation is begun, we get a little murky on the rule book as to what happens next. It ap- pears the investigator makes a recommendation to a panel that then can call for an evidentiary hearing on whether or not the panel will make a recommendation to the Standards Board on whether the officer who is the subject of the com- plaint should be decertified. No burdens of proof are man- dated for the actual taking of the complaint (preponderance of the evidence, probable cause), and there is no standard de- termined for what this panel should use to actually proceed to a hearing.
Once it is decided that a hearing must take place, a hearing is held. It appears an administrative law judge is to preside over the hearing, evidence is presented, one would assume the officer can provide a defense and then the panel makes a decision and makes a recommendation to the Standards Board. The one good fact is that the burden of proof is a clear and convincing standard, which means the proof must be evident and the presumption great to sustain the charges. Evidentiary standards? Hearsay allowed? Less than discharge discipline? Appellate rights? Go take the firemen’s test, as those concepts do not apply to police officers. No language in the statute on these pesky due process concerns.
So what type of conduct can get you before this secretive panel? There is a host of infractions that could get you de-
certified. Perjury, domestic battery and many misdemeanor crimes are all fair game. Excessive use of force or failure to intervene when an officer observes misconduct will get you a free pass to the panel. You had better not tamper with your body-worn camera, in-car camera or any evidence, as the panel will request to see you, even if the technology fails and there was no intent. Of course, if your transgressions do not fit into any of these specific crimes, there is an all-encom- passing violation. If you engage in unprofessional, unethical, deceptive or deleterious conduct that is harmful to the pub- lic, you have earned yourself a trip to the panel. I will give you an opportunity to Google what exactly “deleterious conduct” is, as I know I had to.
This new decertification process will and should run afoul of many collective bargaining agreements, but it does not ap- pear the people in Springfield really cared about that. So what will happen if you are one of the lucky ones who wins his or her case at the Police Board? Do long-standing legal concepts like double jeopardy and res judicata apply? Meaning, do the City and COPA gets a second bite at the apple? Speaking of COPA, how quickly will it be that an immediate complaint will be filed with this panel when a CR is opened? The end re- sult is that the new power given to the Standards Board will be yet another obstacle put in place to terminate police officers and another example of the strength of the inertia being used against law enforcement officers.
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