Case Study: Police Tort

• The peace officer was wearing a distinctive uniform

Dossey himself admitted after viewing the Watch Guard Video during our interview that both the lights nor siren were on during the incident and the above was criteria was not met. Dosseys’ statement that he cannot hear the sirens of a police car during a pursuit due to the high level of stress he experiences, make his decision not to review MVS footage to ensure the criteria of the vehicle code is met irresponsible and negligent on his part on his part.

Therefore, based upon the 2800.2(a) VC, Dossey should have activated an overhead red lamp and his vehicle siren as necessary of which he did neither.

Dossey was provided notice on 2-8-17 regarding a violation of 340.5.8(a) “PERFORMANCE”
During this shift Martinez was assigned as S5 and held over from his swing shift to cover the graveyard field supervisor position. This was necessary so Hess could be the Watch Commander. Martinez was not directly involved in the pursuit but monitored its progress over the radio. When Martinez arrived on the scene he went to the location where the suspect was taken into custody. Martinez then went to where Dossey’s unit had been parked.
As part of his supervisory responsibilities, Martinez checked Dossey’s MVS to review the pursuit. Martinez noticed that there was no recording of the incident even though it would activate automatically when the lights were engaged. Because of the lack of recording, Martinez believed based upon speaking with Dossey that the system had malfunctioned. Martinez went into the system and used the “record after the fact” function. This enabled the system to go back and retrieve the video even though it was not initially recorded. As a result, the system created an incident and stored the
Hess agreed that Martinez made the appropriate inquires to include notifications to the on-duty Watch Commander. Additionally, Martinez ordered that Unit #28 be taken out of service out of concern that the system was not operating properly.

Martinez attempted to complete his supervisory responsibilities during this incident. There were no discrepancies noted in Martinez’ Blue Team entry and post pursuit paperwork. The only issue is whether an average supervisor would have noticed that Dossey failed to use his lights in the video that was observed on the screen in the patrol unit. Based upon the facts given to Martinez by Dossey and the circumstances of the events, it does not appear that Martinez failed to meet his supervisory duties.

Based upon the facts known to Martinez and the facts discovered during my investigation analyzed by a preponderance of the evidence, I find this allegation to be;