A city imposed a 12-hour suspension without pay on a custody officer for failing to ensure adequate medical care for an inmate. The applicable policy stated that if a custody officer observes that an inmate needs medical treatment, the officer should call the watch commander and request paramedics to transport the inmate to the hospital.
In this case, the officer was the primary custody officer on duty when an individual was arrested for suspicion of DUI. After being in custody for nine hours, inmate’s condition did not improve; the inmate was still unable to answer questions or walk. The officer failed to request paramedics to transport inmate to the hospital. The officer appealed his 12-hour suspension.
Associate Boktor argued before the city’s civil service commission that someone with the officer’s experience should have recognized that there would be improvement in the level of sobriety during the course of nine hours. The fact that the inmate was still having difficulty maintaining balance and answering questions should have alerted the officer that the inmate had a medical issue that needed attention. The civil service commission sustained the suspension of the officer for failure to ensure adequate care of the inmate.