Being relieved of duty after a deadly force incident is hardly a free vacation. Whether his actions are ultimately ruled justified or not what the officer goes through during that period is nothing anyone would submit to voluntarily.locke_n_load wrote:It would nice for them to stay paid until they are found guilty, then that amount is immediately revoked from their account. Or something similar. Currently, even if found guilty, they keep that money from their free vacation.Excaliber wrote:Being involved in a deadly force incident with rounds fired is a bit different than mouthing off to a customer or making an inappropriate comment on Facebook. The psychological and emotional impact can be quite severe.Javier730 wrote:locke_n_load wrote:Yeah, but for almost any other job, it does not work that way.Dave2 wrote:"Innocent until proven guilty"locke_n_load wrote:And the paid leave thing bothers me every time...
Officers are placed on leave so they don't bring those thoughts and emotions into the interactions and decisions they have to make on duty. The "paid" part is to maintain the neutrality of the investigation, which is not developed enough initially to make a solid judgment of whether officers' actions were justified or not. It is also to be fair to the officer, who may have been fully justified but it may take weeks or months to definitively sort that out.
If officers were routinely suspended without pay in these circumstances, there would be a lot of badges on chiefs' desks and we'd have a pretty hard time filling the ranks with folks smart enough to do the work because they all know that they could be involved in one of these incidents at any time through absolutely no fault of their own.
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Return to “FL: Dispatcher sends police to wrong home 9 rounds fired”
- Fri Feb 12, 2016 1:23 pm
- Forum: The Crime Blotter
- Topic: FL: Dispatcher sends police to wrong home 9 rounds fired
- Replies: 32
- Views: 6324
Re: FL: Dispatcher sends police to wrong home 9 rounds fired
- Thu Feb 11, 2016 1:14 pm
- Forum: The Crime Blotter
- Topic: FL: Dispatcher sends police to wrong home 9 rounds fired
- Replies: 32
- Views: 6324
Re: FL: Dispatcher sends police to wrong home 9 rounds fired
Being involved in a deadly force incident with rounds fired is a bit different than mouthing off to a customer or making an inappropriate comment on Facebook. The psychological and emotional impact can be quite severe.Javier730 wrote:locke_n_load wrote:Yeah, but for almost any other job, it does not work that way.Dave2 wrote:"Innocent until proven guilty"locke_n_load wrote:And the paid leave thing bothers me every time...
Officers are placed on leave so they don't bring those thoughts and emotions into the interactions and decisions they have to make on duty. The "paid" part is to maintain the neutrality of the investigation, which is not developed enough initially to make a solid judgment of whether officers' actions were justified or not. It is also to be fair to the officer, who may have been fully justified but it may take weeks or months to definitively sort that out.
If officers were routinely suspended without pay in these circumstances, there would be a lot of badges on chiefs' desks and we'd have a pretty hard time filling the ranks with folks smart enough to do the work because they all know that they could be involved in one of these incidents at any time through absolutely no fault of their own.