A: Yes. Anytime a police officer’s conduct is called into question, the City must conduct an administrative investigation, also referred to as an Internal Affairs investigation (“IA”). In order to legally issue any disciplinary action against an officer, the City must first follow a process set by law, known as the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights (POBR). Under POBR, a claim of officer misconduct triggers a police disciplinary process, which begins with an IA investigation. To ensure a fair and impartially performed investigation, the City has hired an independent outside investigator to conduct the administrative investigation in the case related to the July 27th incident in the Canal neighborhood.
Separately, District Attorney Lori Fragoli has announced that her office has initiated its own criminal investigation of the incident. The city is not conducting this investigation; the two investigations are completely separate and unrelated.