DA force policy cleared by county administrator
The county administrative office has reviewed and approved an updated use of force policy drawn up by District Attorney Paul Gallegos' office, and will leave a decision to purchase eight assault rifles up to him.
County Administrative Officer Loretta Nickolaus said she returned the policy to the district attorney Friday afternoon. Nickolaus had asked Gallegos in May to provide a revised policy before she approved the purchase of the AR-15 rifles for DA investigators.
She said, however, that she remains concerned that use of the rifles could increase the liability exposure for the county. But the money for the weapons is in the district attorney's budget, Nickolaus said.
”The rest is a judgment call on his part,” Nickolaus said.
Nickolaus had questioned Gallegos' stance that district attorney investigators act like other police officers, and need the weapons for operations in remote areas. Nickolaus said that her opinion is that the district attorney's authority is best applied independent of other law enforcement agencies. A conflict of interest could arise if one of Gallegos' investigators is involved in a shooting incident that the district attorney's office would normally investigate, she said.
Gallegos and chief investigator Mike Hislop were out of town Friday afternoon, according to the office. Assistant District Attorney Wes Keat said he was not intimately involved in the issues, but said in an e-mail that there is a protocol for handling conflict of interest.
”The usual legal remedy when a DA has a conflict is that the matter is handled by the state DOJ-- the Office of the Attorney General,” Keat wrote.
Gallegos is expected in the office Tuesday, Keat wrote.
The DA's office has two similar, older rifles. All told, the eight rifles would cost $12,000, which would come from the District Attorney Asset Forfeiture trust funds.
John Driscoll/The Times-Standard
Article Launched: 09/01/2007 04:30:15 AM PDT
No comments:
Post a Comment