Will The REAL Inspector Clouseau Please Stand Up.

Recently, a training module was introduced at the California Institution for Men in Chino regarding the implementation of CalDORC's Administrative Bulletin 05/03¹ which facilitates the "PROCESSING OF ADULT INMATE/PAROLEE APPEALS, CDC FORM 602, WHICH ALLEGE STAFF MISCONDUCT.".

This one hour module is, allegedly, a training module which provides sufficient training for a new generation of employee misconduct investigators. Unfortunately, CalDORC has glossed over one, very important, piece of information in this training module.

At the successful completion, those receiving only this training alone will still be unqualified to conduct Employee Misconduct Investigations/Inquiries as per §31140.5.2 of the Department's Operation Manual (DOM) which states:

§31140.5.2 Required Training for Staff Assigned to Conduct Employee Misconduct Investigations/ Inquiries

The Assistant Director, OIA, shall establish training programs for staff assigned to conduct employee misconduct investigations/inquiries. Appropriate notice regarding the available dates for such training shall be given to all units within CDC. Prior to conducting any employee misconduct investigation/inquiry, staff are required to complete the CDC Internal Affairs Investigation Course.

Investigator training shall include the following areas:

• Role of internal affairs.
• Policy and ethics.
• Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights.
• SPB Rule 61 (SKELLY).
• Complaint process, including citizens' complaints.
• Internal affairs policies and procedures.
• Internal affairs investigation processes.
• Legal constraints.
• Courtroom and administrative hearing procedures.
• Interrogation/interview techniques.
• Investigative security.
• Information practices constraints.
• Public record constraints.
• Media practices.
• Miranda requirements.
• Rules of evidence.
• Investigative techniques and report writing.
• Labor relations considerations.
• Employee representation.
• Public relations practices.
• Other training required in the performance of assigned duties.

The cursory one hour module that is currently in circulation, to be completed as an OJT module, contains little, if any, of the requisite course material and is, clearly, deficient in scope and content and is not sufficient, by itself, to qualify an investigator to conduct Employee Misconduct Investigations/Inquiries - even those initiated by inmate/parolee appeals/602s, a distinction which is not made in the DOM.

CalDORC will, undoubtedly, mount their defensive ruse that both Administrative Bulletin 05/03 and the implementational lesson plan are nothing more than investigations into an inmate/parolee generated 602/appeal, however, this is dishonest on its face because the core of both AB 05/03 and the lesson plan involves inmate/parolee allegations of employee misconduct, nothing else. Therefore, the investigation/inquiry commences as an investigation into allegations of employee misconduct and nothing more.

Apparently, those in Sacramento's Office Of Training And Professional Development are unaware that the DOM supersedes Administrative Bulletins and is the controlling body of policy in CalDORC. In other words, Administrative Bulletins must conform to the Department's Operational Manual, not the other way around.

I have consulted with one who is versed in labor law, as it relates to the Operating Policy of CalDORC and he suggests that shop stewards that represent staff members in investigatory interviews, whether the staff member is either a witness or the subject of the investigation, establish the investigator's/interviewer's credentials and qualification to conduct Employee Misconduct Investigations, at the time of the interview.

The question asked of the investigator/interviewer by the employee representative, spoken onto the tape, asked after the preliminaries such as the identification of those present and the Lybarger advisement, and after presenting the investigator/interviewer with a printed copy of the DOM section as displayed above, should be phrased thusly:

"As cited on the handout I have just given you, have you received and passed the course requirements prescribed in §31140.5.2 of the Departmental Operations Manual?"

If the answer is "NO", then the following phrase should be read onto the tape:

"Let the record show that (name and rank of investigator), in accordance with the Departmental Operations Manual, is not qualified to conduct this Employee Misconduct Investigation."

However, at no time during the course of the interview should the individual being interviewed refuse to cooperate. While CalDORC will forgive itself its own mistakes, they will waste no time making you pay for yours. Like all other blunders that CalDORC makes in their inquisitions, if the investigator/interviewer is not qualified to conduct the investigation there will be more than ample opportunity to serve up some cold crow to them in the appeal process.

Since CalDORC has chosen to turn their back on their own Operating Policy in favor of a cheap and expedient army of Clouseaus (Clousi?), this may be a fair procedure to follow in ALL Employee Misconduct Investigations, whether or not it is generated by a 602. This lesson plan, together with Administrative Bulletin 05/03 and the fraudulent investigative practices they represent, places a cloud over ALL Departmental Investigators and their credentials and qualifications to conduct employee misconduct investigations, a doubt which, in the absence of credible documentation to the contrary, could fairly be raised at each and every step of the due process until the question is answered through credible documentation.

Will The REAL Inspector Clouseau Please Stand Up.

Lorraine Bradley

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¹ Scanned PDF file (2.3 Mb). Broadband connection recommended.