Pursuit of Excellence by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police: Employee Conduct. Investigations and Discipline. A Guidebook for the Public and Our Employees on What We Do and Why We Do It

摘要

This guidebook is intended to help the public, our employees and others interested in policing issues understand how the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) thinks about and handles complaints alleging improper conduct by our sworn or civilian employees. We recognize that some people may be especially interested in police accountability issues and will find the information here of general interest. Many of our employees and much of the public we serve, however, will most likely find this document of most interest only when they or someone they know is involved in a complaint. Following a brief discussion of police-related complaints in comparison to complaints about other public agencies or private companies, the organization of this guidebook is mostly chronological. That is, it begins with the filing of a complaint and tracks the procedures through complaint classification, assignment for investigation, investigation by a supervisor, adjudication of the complaint, imposition of discipline if appropriate, and appeal of findings by the subject employee or the complainant. Also described are the procedures used to review certain types of CMPD employee conduct (such as uses of force and high-speed chases) which the department deems so important that we do not wait for a citizen or police employee to complain in order to investigate whether the rules of our organization were followed. In broad terms, this guidebook tries to do two basic things: (1) describe what happens at each stage of the investigation and review process; and (2) explain why these procedures are used.