By Rick Gautschi
In City of Tulsa, 130 LA 1039 (Arb. 2012), a police officer responded to an incident involving an intoxicated person in a parking lot on the Tulsa campus of Oklahoma State University. During the ensuing incident, the officer handcuffed the intoxicated person, and because he was not cooperating, the officer dragged him to a police vehicle. At some point, prior to being placed in the vehicle, the intoxicated person fell and hit either the concrete, or a bumper on the police vehicle.
As a result of the fall, the intoxicated person sustained injuries to his face and lost a tooth. Subsequent to the incident, the officer filed a report of the incident but did not mention the intoxicated person’s injuries in the report. The officer also neglected to file a required Use of Force Report. Following an investigation by an Internal Affairs officer the employer issued a letter of reprimand and suspended the officer for 20 hours. In a subsequent grievance the officer and the union contended that the discipline was too severe because he did not believe that he had injured the intoxicated person.
In assessing the grievance, the arbitrator explained that under the collective bargaining agreement, the employer had discretion to mete out discipline if just cause for doing so existed.
In assessing whether the employer had just cause in this case, the arbitrator found that prior to the incident the officer had notice of the consequences of a failure to file a Use of Force Report, that the discipline meted out was reasonably related to the safe and efficient operations of the police department, that the employer conducted a fair and thorough investigation of the incident, that there was no evidence the discipline meted out was inconsistent with the employer’s disciplinary practices, and that the letter of reprimand and the 20 hour suspension were a reasonable exercise of the employer’s discretion to award appropriate discipline given the intoxicated person’s documented injuries and the potential for legal action against the employer arising out of those injuries. Consequently, the arbitrator ruled that the employer had established just cause to issue the letter of reprimand and to suspend the officer for 20 hours.
