Apparatus Accidents

[rlewis]

What discipline is handed out when an apparatus is involved in in accident in your dept?

As of late my department has started a policy of not letting acting officers work in that capacity in the vehicle they are working on is involved in an accident, but a regular officer gets no discipline if the vehicle they are on is in an accident.

Case in point: A vehicle left the building with a door open subsequently ripping the door off. The driver was taken off driving for 3 months and the acting officer is not allowed to work as an acting officer for 3 months. 1 hour later a truck backs into the building and the driver loses their privilege and nothing happens to the officer (even though we have a general order that says the officer and anybody elae on the truck will act as spotters).

I think that something should be done if an accident occurs and you are found at fault, but it should be an equal punishment for all involved.

Any suggestions?

[FWDbuff]

Are you a career dept? If so, get your Union on it......definetly sounds like descrimination and grounds to file a ULP claim.

[Fokker416]

That does sound rather shady that an out of class member will be disciplined more harshly than a member working in their rank.

From a disciplinary standpoint, an out of class member is looked at as if they are promoted to that rank. I agree with this perspective. When you ride up you get all of the benefits of the rank so you should have the same responsibility. It would be interesting to see what event brought out this policy. This also may help you when you fight it.

Specifically to drivers, discipline is handed out to whoever broke the rules. We had a backing incident where the entire crew was written up because there were no backers. I was involved in a fender bender that PD determined to not be my fault and no discipline was handed out. We had an incident involving an out of class driver forget the parking brake. He was written up and prohibited from riding up until he completed remedial training. His officer was out of class as well and he was written up for failure to supervise.