Principles for Public Safety Employment

seemingly ignored Labor Code § 220, which expressly states Labor Code §§ 200 through 211 and 215 through 219 do not apply to public agencies. Therefore, because §§212 through 214 and 220 through 243 were not expressly excluded, a court would likely find that these sections apply to public agencies. Had the legislature intended that these provisions not apply to public agencies, it could have said so in Section 220. Further, it appears the push for this type of legislation started in 2011 when the Maryland Department of Corrections asked an individual for his username and password during an interview. The ACLU got involved and Maryland then passed a law prohibiting this practice. Other states like California are following suit. Interestingly, this Maryland incident is also referenced in some of the bill analysis associated with AB 1844. Therefore, because the California Legislature was made aware of the Maryland incident which involved a public employer, this is another factor that suggests the law is meant to apply to public employers. Section 3 A DMINISTRATIVE I NVESTIGATIONS The starting point for any public safety administrative investigation should be a thorough review and understanding of the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act (“POBR”) or, for firefighters, the Firefighters Procedural Bill of Rights Act (“FBOR”) (collectively, the “Acts”). 85 Although the FBOR was modeled in large part on the POBR, there are some significant differences. In addition, although the principal sections of the POBR and FBOR (Government Code sections 3303 and 3253, respectively) concern the method and manner of interrogating (as opposed to the method of “investigating”) a public safety employee under investigation, other sections of the Acts affect the manner in which an administrative investigation must be conducted and under what circumstances discipline can be imposed. Familiarity with the entire relevant Act’s various rights and protections will lead to more success in the investigation and prosecution of meritorious disciplinary actions. A. O VERVIEW OF THE POBR AND THE FBOR 1. T HE POBR The POBR was enacted by the California Legislature in 1976 as a “labor relations statute.” 86 It “provides a catalog of basic rights and protections that must be afforded all peace officers by the public entities which employ them” and applies to the majority of peace officers employed by the State of California, its counties, cities, and other local agencies. 87 The POBR is codified in Government Code sections 3300 through 3313. Below is a brief summary of each section of the POBR. Please refer to the Government Code for the full text of each section. Section 3300: This section identifies the short title of the POBR.

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