SOP LAST REVIEW 2 - VERIFIED

WILL BE REFERRED: Beverage Offenses: All cases where alcoholic beverages are confiscated for beverage violations or as found property.

Supervisors should ensure that officers have completed their reports in a timely manner. Reports that are to be referred should be completed by the end of shift unless approved by a shift commander or higher authority. Under no circumstances will a report be held over the officer’s days off.

Once a supervisor edits a report on the MRE system and the report meets referral guidelines, the supervisor will route an electronic copy of the report to the appropriate latent squad.

When in the judgment of the officer or supervisor, the latent investigation should be initiated as soon as possible, the officer or supervisor should call the appropriate latent investigative sergeant

On recovered stolen vehicles which were originated by the Tampa Police Department, the supervisor editing and approving the Supplement will cause an electronic copy of said supplement to be routed to the appropriate DLIS Sergeant.

All employees who are arrested or who otherwise become aware of criminal charges being filed or brought against them, shall notify their immediate supervisor no later than their next working day.

A guilty verdict or plea, or a plea of nolo contendere, shall constitute grounds for dismissal, notwithstanding suspension of sentence or withholding of adjudication.

SEXUAL HARRASSMENT: Initially, the employee has the option of politely, but firmly, confronting whoever is doing the harassing, stating how the actions are perceived and requesting that the person cease the harassment immediately. As soon as practical, the harassed employee should report the attempts to personally resolve the sexual harassment problem to his or her immediate supervisor, requesting that a written record be made of efforts to solve the problem.

SEXUAL HARRASSMENT STEP 2: If it is believed that some adverse employment consequence might result from a direct confrontation, the immediate supervisor should be consulted. If the circumstances prohibit this action, the behavior should be reported to the division or bureau commander (or in his/her absence, the respective deputy chief).

SEXUAL HARRASSMENT: If after a reasonable length of time, (5-10 calendar days) the employee believes inadequate action is being taken to resolve the complaint, the employee should go directly to the chief of police for resolution of the complaint. The nature and severity of the complaint might readily mandate elevating the complaint in less than 5-10 calendar days.

All managers and supervisors, as part of their job requirements, are responsible for preventing and eliminating sexual harassment in their respective work areas.

Any complaint of sexual harassment will receive the immediate attention of the supervisor or manager to whom it is made. The complaint will be forwarded in writing via confidential mail to the division or bureau commander (or in his/her absence the respective deputy chief of police). The immediate supervisor of the accused employee will explain the nature of the complaint to the employee as soon as possible and take steps to ensure no further incidents occur during the pendency of the investigation.

The division or bureau commander (or deputy chief) to whom the complaint is forwarded will cause the chief of police to be notified of the incident and will forward written details of the complaint (through the appropriate deputy chief ) to the Internal Affairs Unit.

All department social media sites or pages shall be approved by the Chief of Police or his or her designee and shall be administered by the Public Information Office, or as otherwise determined.

SOCIAL MEDIA: Department personnel shall not post, transmit, or otherwise disseminate any information to which they have access as a result of their employment without written permission from the Chief of Police or his or her designee.

Reporting violations—any employee becoming aware of or having knowledge of a posting or of any website or web page in violation of the provision of this policy shall notify his or her supervisor immediately for follow-up action.

Pending Evaluation File: A file designed to store documentation, which may later be used in preparing the performance evaluation (refer to SOP 603.1).

Pending Evaluation File: A file maintained by every supervisor on each employee under his command. Its purpose is to contain pertinent material, which will be considered for inclusion in the employee’s performance evaluation.

Each supervisor will ensure that a file marked “pending evaluation file” is maintained for each employee in a readily accessible location within the division, separate from the personnel service record.

Supervisors should become familiar with the relevant rater’s manual for discussion of pending files and examples of appropriate material.

Non-probationary employees shall be advised in writing whenever their performance is deemed to be unsatisfactory. The written notification shall be given to them at least 90-days prior to the end of the annual rating period.

Prior to placing materials in a pending file, which may warrant either commendation or disciplinary action, the supervisor should consult with his immediate supervisor.

Any material to be placed in the pending file will be reviewed with the employee and the employee will initial it to acknowledge the entry. The material will then be placed in the pending file without further review by the chain of command. Pending files are open, not secret, and can be examined by the employee at any time.

Entry of an item into the pending files is not a negative action. The pending file is neutral; it should contain information that provides an accurate picture of an employee’s actual job behavior.

Employees may request that certain items or information be included in the pending file.

At the time the employee’s performance evaluation is to be written, the supervisor will review the material in the pending file as an aid in determining ratings. The supervisor is not required to document all pending file items in the evaluation but only those items the supervisor determines to be relevant to the overall job performance.

After pending file material has been reviewed for use in the employee’s annual evaluation, it may be purged.

If an employee’s performance is at a less than satisfactory level, then all information in the pending file will continue to be maintained even though it has been entered in the performance evaluation. Upon the completion of a satisfactory, meets expectations, or higher evaluation, the file may then be purged; or at the discretion of the division commander, it may be retained.

Notation as to letters of counseling and written reprimands will be purged in accordance with the City of Tampa Personnel Manual or union contract, whichever is appropriate.

Use of Business Cards:

1. Employees shall carry or otherwise have readily available a sufficient supply of either generic or personalized business cards while on-duty.
2. Employees shall provide business cards upon request.
3. Employees whose personalized business cards do not contain a link to the citizen survey must also provide a generic business card with the survey’s link.

The video evidence captured by the in-car video system will be in conjunction with body worn camera footage documenting the same event. Consequently, no additional random supervisory checks are required beyond the quantity automatically assigned through the Axon Performance tool.

Officers who discover their issued body worn camera is not operating correctly must notify their shift commander immediately and arrange for a replacement device through the Body Worn Camera Unit as soon as possible and document this action.

The body worn camera may not be manually powered off until an officer’s shift or assignment is complete.

Unless approved by a supervisor for a compelling reason, the body worn camera must remain secured with the officer if removed from the chest mount and should be immediately returned to the chest mount when the justification for the removal no longer exists.

Unless otherwise provided herein, all body worn camera users shall activate their BWC and enter Recording mode provided it does not compromise their safety or the safety of others, prior to engaging in law enforcement activity with the public.

Officers will only deactivate a recording once they arrive inside central booking, when they have cleared a call, or as outlined in this policy. BWC users are not expected to record casual interactions with the public, such as exchanging pleasantries, providing directions, or while attending community meetings.

Prior to exiting Recording mode (deactivating), users shall make a recorded announcement as to the reason the device is being deactivated. After a body worn camera is deactivated, it is the user’s responsibility to ensure the body worn camera is again activated and placed in Recording mode should the circumstances require it. When in doubt, activate the body worn camera.

A victim or witness may be informed that the interview will be recorded. If the victim or witness objects to the recording of the interview, a refusal should be stated on the video by the victim or witness and only with supervisor approval should the Recording mode be deactivated. Any deactivation due to victim or witness refusal to consent should be documented in the report.

In the event Restricted Case Evidence is determined by a supervisor as inappropriate for storage on the cloud, the Body Worn Camera Unit may remove the video from the cloud once a copy of the recording has been digitally captured in a manner that it can then be physically entered into evidence section and marked as restricted.

In order to avoid unintentional activations in areas where the body worn camera should not be activated, Officers may utilize the Sleep mode when the officer is not conducting an official investigation and is:

The Body Worn Camera Unit may be contacted when sensitive information unrelated to law enforcement activity was accidentally captured as a result of an unintentional activation. Unless otherwise required by law, unintentional activations capturing non-law enforcement activities may be deleted by the Body Worn Camera Unit.

If a body worn camera fails to activate or record the entire event required to be recorded, officers shall notify their shift commander and document the lack of any recording.

When video is recorded during an incident requiring a report, the study field box on the MRE report should be tagged as Body Camera Video Available. The case summary and initial report should articulate that a body worn camera was used during this incident.

Supervisory video reviews will not include body worn camera functionality equipment testing performed by the officer. The affected district lieutenant will ensure the reviews were completed and an associated police report or street check, if required, was written.

All complaints on officers and all response to resistance situations ranging from incidents in which the level of force used to gain compliance was “E” (physical blows struck by hands or feet) or above, as indicated in the Response to Resistance detail page, will be reviewed by a supervisor.

If a body worn camera system is found inoperable and the officer did not notify his/her supervisor, then the supervisor will investigate and report the findings. The inspection will include a review of the video stored on Evidence.com to ensure the video processes and procedures are being done correctly. The supervisor will notate the inspection in the Inspection Log.