PURPOSE OF THIS ORDER:
This directive establishes procedures for Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB) Roll-Out team investigators to follow regarding an Inmate Death (natural, accidental, homicide, or suicide).
POLICY:
When the IAB On-Call Lieutenant is notified of an inmate’s death, he/she shall confirm that Homicide Bureau is responding. IAB personnel will only respond if Homicide responds. The IAB Lieutenant shall evaluate the information, determine the appropriate makeup of the responding team, and ensure that those personnel are notified.
Homicide Bureau is the primary investigating unit and is responsible for the criminal and/or death investigation of those inmate deaths to which they respond. At the scene, Homicide Bureau is responsible for sharing preliminary information with the IAB team in the forum of an informational briefing, including a walk-through of the scene.
IAB is responsible for conducting a preliminary administrative review of those inmate deaths to which they respond and complete a brief memorandum addressed to the Division Chief.
If it is determined that there are potential policy violations, the IAB Lieutenant will confer with the concerned Unit Commander about initiating an immediate administrative investigation.
If the concerned Unit Commander requests an immediate administrative investigation, the IAB Lieutenant will consult with the Homicide Lieutenant about the investigation and the need for IAB investigators to interview witnesses, and/or involved employees. Any interviews conducted by the IAB investigators shall be conducted separately after Homicide Bureau’s interviews. Based on the Homicide Lieutenant’s decision, if interviewing a witness or involved employee by the IAB investigator would jeopardize the criminal/death investigation, that interview will be deferred until a later date.
Note: The statute date for all inmate deaths will be calculated based on the date of the incident. The only exception to this is in cases where the Homicide Bureau investigates the death as a criminal investigation. That one-year statute date will be calculated using the date of the District Attorney’s Letter of Opinion,
IAB investigators shall confer with the Homicide investigators before conducting the later interview(s).
Note: If there is a need for the scene to be maintained for the IAB investigators after the Homicide investigators have completed processing the scene for their investigation, the IAB Lieutenant shall consult with the Homicide Lieutenant about turning the scene over to the IAB investigators when Homicide is done.
If an immediate administrative investigation is initiated, the handling IAB investigator will be responsible for obtaining an IV number and ensuring that the request for an IAB investigation memo is obtained from the concerned Unit Commander. All administrative investigations shall include Homicide Bureau’s completed investigation.
If no potential policy violations are identified, the IAB Lieutenant shall notify the concerned Unit Commander, who will be advised that no policy issues were identified and an administrative investigation is not warranted at that time. If documents were collected and/or interviews conducted during the administrative review, the entire package shall be forwarded to Custody Support Services for their disposition.