Internal Affairs, Discipline, and Risk Management
Internal Affairs, Discipline, and Risk Management
This domain tests complaint intake, investigation, employee rights, discipline, and risk control. Lieutenant questions often ask what rights attach in an administrative investigation and how to avoid tainting a criminal case.
Core rules
- Intake and classification: log complaints, assess seriousness, assign to internal affairs or supervisor, and preserve evidence.
- Garrity: a public employee may be compelled to give a statement for administrative purposes, but the statement cannot be used against the employee in a criminal case; the employee must be advised.
- Loudermill: before discipline that deprives an employee of a property interest, provide notice of the charges, the evidence, and an opportunity to respond.
- Weingarten: union-represented employees may request representation in an investigatory interview that they reasonably believe could lead to discipline.
- Discipline: use a matrix, consider aggravating and mitigating factors, and document the rationale. Track patterns through early intervention.
Worked example
A citizen alleges excessive force. The lieutenant separates the criminal investigation from the administrative investigation, ensures the officer receives Garrity warnings before a compelled statement, preserves video and medical records, and prepares a Loudermill notice before imposing a suspension. The officer’s compelled statement is not shared with prosecutors. The discipline follows the matrix and documents the basis.
Traps
Using a Garrity statement in a criminal case; imposing discipline before Loudermill notice; failing to preserve video; retaliating against a complainant; and ignoring a pattern of minor complaints that signals risk.