New Officer-Involved Shooting Drug/Alcohol Testing Law
A recent amendment to the Illinois
Police and Community Relations Act is drawing attention from municipalities and
police unions alike. Effective August
25, 2017, the new law provides that every law enforcement agency must adopt and
follow a written policy regarding drug and alcohol testing for police officers
involved in officer-involved shootings. As
defined by the statute, an “officer-involved shooting” encompasses any case in
which “a law enforcement officer discharges his or her firearm, causing injury
or death to a person or persons, during the performance of his or her official
duties or in the line of duty.” The amended
legislation requires every police department to prepare and enforce a written drug
testing policy for instances of officer-involved shootings. Additionally, the amended
statute provides that “drug and alcohol testing must be completed as soon as
practicable after the officer-involved shooting but no later than the end of
the involved officer’s shift or tour of duty.”
The good
news is that, other than adopting a policy that states that every officer
involved in an officer-involved shooting is to be tested for drugs and alcohol
and that such testing must be completed no later than the end of the officer’s
shift, there are no other requirements for the policy. Police departments with current drug and
alcohol testing policies should add post-shooting situations to the list of
events that trigger additional
testing.
Municipalities
without police unions can adopt these policies unilaterally. However, if your municipality has a union,
the union may be sending you a request to bargain over the new policy
language. The Illinois Public Labor
Relations Act requires employers to bargain with respect to “wages, hours, and
other conditions of employment.” This
duty would usually preclude unilateral action by an employer with respect to
mandatory subjects of bargaining, including drug and alcohol testing. Since the new law requires the adoption of a drug and
alcohol testing policy to apply to cases of officer-involved shootings, no
police union can prevent an employer from adopting an officer-involved shooting
policy, or incorporating that component into an existing policy. However, it may be beneficial to have a
meeting with the police union to discuss this even though union demands cannot
interfere with compliance of the law.
On the
other hand, municipalities have the obligation to bargain over the effects or
impact of this legislation. As our clients may know, this limits their
bargaining obligation to simply the effects of the requirement to create the
policy. Some effects or impact issues that police unions will likely raise are
the categories and level of drug presence in a sample that is considered to be
a positive result (the legislation is silent as to these issues); what kind of
test is performed; what to do if the officer is unable due to injury of his own
medical condition to report for testing before the end of his or her shift;
disciplinary action resulting from positive results; and release of those test
results to a defendant, the state, an investigatory agency or board, or the
press.
If you
already have a drug and alcohol testing policy, this new law may require you to
change it. If you are unsure whether you
need additional language or whether your current language is sufficient,
contact us.
Law
enforcement agencies can best minimize any possible adverse consequences of
this new law by enforcing its existing general drug and alcohol testing policy
strictly and vigorously. Because an
on-duty officer under the influence of illegal (or even legal) drugs or alcohol
is a liability risk, lax enforcement of the policy or disciplinary rules
relating to the policy cannot be tolerated.
We are able to assist in ensuring that both the general and
officer-involved shooting testing policies are as thorough and sound as
possible. The new statute virtually
mandates that law enforcement agencies take a new look at their policies, even
policies that have created no problems in the past, to be sure that they are
adequate to deal with this new challenge.
Also, check out Ancel Glink's labor & employment blog, the Workplace Report where you can read an FAQ about this new law. New Officer-Involved Shooting Drug and Alcohol Testing Statute Raises More Questions Than It Answers
Post Authored by Don Anderson & Margaret Kostopulos, Ancel Glink
Post Authored by Don Anderson & Margaret Kostopulos, Ancel Glink
0 comments:
Post a Comment