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Officer Involved Critical Incidents

Policy Number:
6.3.8
Responsible Office:
University Police
Approved Date:
4/8/2022
Approved By:
Tony Decker
Ammendment Details:
Effective 7/21/2015
Revised 5/24/2016, 5/1/2022

Policy Properties

  • Scope: All Employees
  • Chapter: Operations
  • Distribution: Policy Manual
  • Reference: §175.74, 5.1.1 Use of Force, 8.1.1 Media Relations,

Purpose

This policy is mandated by State Statute §175.74.

The purpose of this policy is to establish guidelines for the investigation of an officer involved critical incident involving a department employee.

Policy

It is the policy of the University of Wisconsin Green Bay Police Department that every officer involved critical incident will be thoroughly investigated in a professional and unbiased manner both internally and externally when required by law.

Definitions

  1. Officer Involved Critical Incident: An incident involving the death of an individual that results directly from an action or an omission of a law enforcement officer while the law enforcement officer is on duty or while the law enforcement officer is off duty, but performing activities that are within the scope of his or her law enforcement duties.
  2. Involved Employee: A member of the department who has been involved in an Officer Involved Critical Incident. Involved officer includes anyone having a direct involvement in the action or omission, as well as those who directly witnessed the same.
  3. Support Officer: A member of the department requested by an involved officer to emotionally assist or provide resources to him or her following the incident. The support officer should be someone who can fulfill the responsibilities of the position without an emotional attachment that could increase the stress felt by the involved officer and be approved by the Chief or his/her designee.

Procedure

A. Guidelines

  1. It is understood there are circumstances under which a non-sworn employee of the department could become involved in a critical incident. They will receive the same support opportunities, but may be treated different according to law.
  2. Officers who are provided a critical incident packet are required to return the packet to the maintainer of these documents. This document should be sealed for privacy, and all employees are prohibited from reviewing and/or opening a packet for any reason not clearly detailed in this policy.
    1. The sole requirement of an officer is the return of a sealed packet.
  3. Any critical incident that results in or is likely to result in a line of duty death or great bodily harm to an officer will require immediate notification to the Chief of Police, Chancellor and Office of Human Resources.
    1. The executive leadership of the University will make all decisions regarding the incident, which remain subject to their control, including notifications, offering support services to family/friends/members of the department and community.

B. Duties & Responsibilities of an Involved Officer

  1. Officers involved in a critical incident shall, to the extent reasonably possible, take immediate steps to ensure their safety and the safety of bystanders.
  2. When possible, officers should notify the Communications Center and provide the following information, in an order that is pertinent to the incident.
    1. Officer radio call.
    2. Incident location.
    3. The nature of the critical incident; e.g. shots fired.
    4. The status of the officer; i.e., uninjured, injured, nature of injuries.
    5. The status of any known suspects; e.g., uninjured, injured, physical description, direction of travel, weapons.
    6. Request EMS, if any injuries are suspected, and a supervisor. 
      • The presence of a UW-Green Bay Police Department supervisor is preferred but, in their absence, the temporary use of a supervisor from the Green Bay Police Department or the Brown County Sheriff's Office is acceptable.
  3. Once the circumstances leading to the Critical Incident are no longer present, officers should attempt to identify any injured persons, determine the extent of their injuries and render first aid, as appropriate.
  4. If not protecting life or rendering aid to the injured, while awaiting the arrival of additional police resources include these additional steps that should be taken:
    1. Securing the scene to protect items of evidentiary value.
    2. Locating and identifying witnesses. 
  5. Upon arrival of a supervisor, the involved officer shall provide a brief summary of the incident for the purpose of ensuring public safety, focusing the initial police response and directing the preliminary scene management. The information should include:
    1. The type of force used, if any
    2. The direction and approximate number of any shots fired by officers and/or suspects
    3. The location of any injured persons
    4. Pertinent suspects information
    5. The description and location of any known victims, witnesses and evidence
    6. The description and locations of any known evidence.
  6. These are handled as criminal investigations to protect the integrity of the case, all employees are prohibited from eliciting any information from any other employee regarding the incident unless in the performance of their official duties and with cause, as authorized herein.
    1. No employee shall elicit incident information from any officer involved in a critical incident once they have been relieved from the scene until completion of the investigation.
  7. Supervisors will ensure the major crime scene worksheet has been started and is being worked towards completion.
  8. Involved Officers are not required to complete a narrative (details) in the case, but are required to cooperate any review or investigation. Consistent with all applicable laws and personal rights, this would include interview(s) with criminal investigators as well as agency personnel.

C. Duties & Responsibilities of Responding Officers

  1. The first responding officer who is not directly involved should serve as incident commander until the arrival of a supervisor and shall broadcast a scene status report upon arrival.
  2. Responding officers will be responsible for stabilizing the crime scene; by ensuring the safety of the all involved individuals, rendering aid and processing/handling suspects.

D. Duties & Responsibilities of the Responding Supervisor

  1. The duties and responsibilities of supervisors not employed by this agency are detailed by their employers' policies and procedures; and they are not subject to any provisions of UW-Green Bay Police department policy.
  2. Upon arrival, the supervisor should immediately establish or take over incident command and assume the role of incident commander.
  3. The supervisor is responsible for further stabilizing the scene, ensuring that aid is being rendered to the injured, medical services have been summoned when necessary and coordinating other support services.
  4. When the scene is stabilized, the supervisor should:
    1. Obtain a briefing from officers on scene, including the incident summary from the involved officer if possible.
    2. If not done by officers, establish a perimeter that protects the scene and known or suspected items of evidentiary value and document the its access.
    3. Ensure all potential witnesses have been identified and separated.
    4. If a suspect is in custody, assign an uninvolved officer to guard the suspect.
    5. If a victim or suspect has been transported for care, assign an officer to accompany them to maintain the chain of custody of any evidence.
  5. As soon as possible, the supervisor should assign an evidence technician or non-support officer to document the condition any involved officer is found in, including their gear status. When possible, the evidence technician will:
    1. Take an overall photo of the officer as found on scene from the front, rear, left and right sides.
    2. Secure the officers duty belt, vest carrier or any item which could reasonably be considered evidentiary; keeping them in the conditions in which they were found. Any inspection or manipulation of the equipment is prohibited and should be done by the outside investigative agency or at their direction.
    3. Evidence technicians will collect items with the utmost dignity, respect and timeliness. Officers involved in critical incidents may have damaged and soiled clothing which present both physical and mental health risks, and thus they should be secured and replaced as soon as practical.
  6. As soon as possible, the supervisor should assign a support officer to the involved officer and relieve the involved officer of any further incident responsibilities.
    1. The involved officer should be allowed to contact his or her family, significant other or person of choice as soon as practical.
    2. In the event multiple officers are involved, if feasible each should be assigned a support officer and all involved officers should be separated.
    3. If the involved officer is transported to the hospital, the supervisor should ensure the support officer goes to the hospital. If at all possible, the involved officer should not be transported to the same hospital as a suspect. 
  7. The supervisor should make the following notifications as soon as possible:
    1. The Chief of Police
    2. The next highest-ranking police officer, if (a) is unavailable
    3. Vice Chancellor of Business and Finance, if (a) & (b) are unavailable
  8. Establish and staff a media staging area.
  9. Brief investigative personnel and command staff responding to the scene.
  10. Formally relinquish the scene to the investigating outside agency as soon as possible.

E. Criminal Investigation

  1. If the officer-involved death being investigated is traffic-related, it is required that the crash investigation uses a crash reconstruction unit from an outside law enforcement agency that is not involved in the officer-involved death.
  2. The Chief of Police or their designee is required by law request the assistance of an outside agency to complete the investigation. The following agencies are acceptable for use as long as they agree to commit the services of one lead investigator, one or more assisting investigators, none of their investigators are employed by UW-Green Bay Police in any capacity and they were not directly involved in the critical incident:
    1. Green Bay Police Department (POC. Cpt. Allen)
    2. Brown County Sheriff's Office (POC Cpt. Poteat)
    3. Department of Criminal Investigations (DCI)
  3. The second highest ranking member of the UW-Green Bay Police department will be assigned as a liaison to the lead investigator of the outside agency, and shall facilitate any reasonable requests made.
  4. Upon acceptance, the outside investigating agency will be provided full command and control of the incident. UW-Green Bay police staff shall be responsive to any reasonable requests made of our department, which may include to perform specific tasks or not perform specific tasks.
    1. All decisions regarding the processing of the scene will be made by the outside investigative agency.
  5. The Chief of Police or his/her designee will be responsible for notifying and providing an initial notice and preliminary briefing to the District Attorney's office.
  6. A critical component of the investigation is the interview with the involved officer(s).
    1. The officer should be cautioned about ingesting any stimulants or depressants, including caffeine or alcohol, after the incident as it can affect their ability to manage stress and trauma associated with a critical incident.
    2. During any subsequent interview, the officer may have a representative of his or her choosing present.
    3. During the course of the interview(s), the officer shall be given all the rights afforded by the U.S. Constitution and the Police Officer Bill of Rights.
  7. Upon conclusion of the investigation, the Chief of Police will confirm that all incident reports pertaining to the officer involved critical incident are submitted to the District Attorney for review by the investigating agency.

F. Assignment & Responsibilities of the Support Officer

  1. A support officer in a critical incident should be assigned as soon as practicable following the event.
    1. The involved officer should be afforded the opportunity to select his or her support officer before such an assignment is made by supervisory personnel. Any employee may fill this role and in the event the employee is off duty, they will be compensated for their hours of service as a support officer.
    2. In the event an involved officer requests a support officer from another department, every reasonable effort will be made to accommodate the request. The Brown County Sheriff's Office as well as the City of Green Bay Police Department have extended an open invitation to use their POST staff as needed, and are an acceptable resource. No compensation is available for non-UW-Green Bay employees.
    3. The support officer cannot be someone who had direct involvement with the critical incident and should not be someone with a significant emotional attachment to the involved officer.
  2. Once assigned, the support officer should ensure the involved officer is located in a quiet area away from police activities and radio chatter, particularly those associated with the critical incident. Police radios should be turned off. The support officer should also limit access to the involved officer to protect the officer's privacy and allow time to mentally decompress and process the event.
  3. The support officer should not initiate discussion regarding the critical incident and should attempt to divert conversation away from the topic.
  4. If the involved officer has not contacted his or her family, the support officer should facilitate that process.
  5. While with the involved officer, the support officer should monitor the involved officer's condition and summon assistance, if necessary

G. Welfare of Involved Officer(s)

  1. The welfare of an officer involved in a critical incident shall be paramount and reasonably supported.
  2. In the event an officer is seriously injured or incapacitated, a member of the command staff should retrieve the UW-Green Bay Police Department Emergency Contact Information packet from the officer's personnel file as soon as practicable.
    1. Any information contained in the Emergency Contact Information packet will be utilized to determine the officer's wishes regarding notification of family.
    2. Notification will be made by a supervisory member of the department, unless the involved officer has expressed a preference for notification.
    3. Every effort shall be made to conduct notifications in person. If distance precludes a member of the UW-Green Bay Police Department from making the notification, local law enforcement should be contacted to ensure respectful in-person notification

  1. H. Information Release

  2. Information regarding an officer involved critical incident will generally follow guidelines established in the 8.1.1 Media Relations policy.
  3. When practicable, department personnel will be briefed regarding an officer involved critical incident to ensure all employees have a factual understanding of the incident and the involved officer is protected from the spread of misinformation.
  4. Unauthorized employees are prohibited from sharing any case information about the incident; inclusive of the involved officer(s) or offender(s) identity, weapon use or presence, injuries or any involved individuals' demographic information inclusive of age, race, gender, etc.

I. Duty Status Following an Officer Involved Critical Incident

  1. Any officer whose actions or use of force results in death or great bodily harm to another person, shall be assigned to administrative duties or placed on paid administrative leave, at the discretion of the Chief of Police and Office of Human Resources.
  2. The aforementioned duty status shall continue until modified by the Chief, or by written order of the Office of Human Resources.

J. Professional Standards Review

  1. A use of force review will be conducted internally, as detailed in policy 5.1.1 Use of Force.

K. Critical Incident Stress Management

  1. Within 72 hours of an officer involved critical incident, arrangements will be made for the involved officer to meet with a critical incident stress management professional as soon as practical based on the officer's status.
    1. Participation in this meeting is mandatory and may be used as a factor in the Chiefs decision to modify duty status.
    2. Depending upon the needs or desire of the involved officer, additional mandatory or elective appointments can be scheduled, as deemed necessary.
  2. In addition to the steps taken on behalf of the involved officer, a determination will be made regarding the need for a Critical Incident Stress Debriefing for other employees.
    1. In the event a group debriefing is considered appropriate, additional resources will be brought in to facilitate the debriefing.
    2. A debriefing facilitator will evaluate the request and determine what type of debriefing is appropriate, and how to facilitate it.
    3. Employees will be invited to attend the debriefing; however, the department reserves the right to require attendance in situations where an employee had any involvement in the critical incident.
  3. The Employee Assistance Program provided by the University of Wisconsin Green Bay serves as another resource to assist any employee or family member in coping with the emotional impact of an officer involved shooting/critical incident.

L. Internal Investigations

  1. Internal investigations may not interfere with the criminal investigation of the office involved critical incident.
  2. Internal Investigations will be conducted in accordance with the law and departmental policy.