403 Court Procedure (Issued 05-15-2008)FRIDLEY POLICE DATE OF ISSUE NUMBER:
GENERAL ORDER March 15, 2008 403
SUBJECT: REVISION DATE SECTION:
Court Procedure May 15, 2008 Green
I. PURPOSE
To prescribe specific procedures to be followed regarding court
appearances.
II. POLICY
Department personnel concerned in cases before a court, competent
investigating body, judicial tribunal, hearing board, or person authorized
to take testimony, shall be punctual in attendance after being officially
notified. The term "court" shall infer all of the above.
III. PROCEDURE
A. Preparation
Personnel who are required to appear in court shall have the cases
in which they are interested properly prepared, witnesses properly
subpoenaed and all property which is to be used in evidence
suitably arranged for presentation to the court.
B. Traffic Citations
Personnel issuing traffic citations shall fill them out properly and
completely with the required data. All traffic citations shall contain
appropriate notations regarding the circumstances which brought
about the issuance of the citation to permit later recollection of the
incident.
C. Case Continuances
Personnel who are unable to attend a scheduled court case shall
follow the below described procedure.
1. A request will be made to the prosecuting attorney as soon
as possible and prior to the scheduled court appearance.
2. If the situation is in the nature of an emergency on the day
of, or immediately before the scheduled court appearance,
the shift supervisor and the prosecuting attorney will be
notified of the necessity for emergency absence.
3. Personnel, whether compensated or volunteer, who fail to
appear in court at the assigned scheduled time, without
being properly excused, may be subject to disciplinary
action.
D. Records for Court
1. Review and printing of case files to refresh memory prior
to court testimony may be done directly by involved
personnel through the Anoka County Central Records
browser.
2. Original documents shall not be removed from ISU without
permission of the ISU supervisor. In all cases, the removal
shall be logged as prescribed by ISU procedures to indicate
who has the document.
3. Records which are “certified” (certified driver’s license
records for instance) are maintained by the Information
Services Unit (ISU). Removal of certified documents to
court shall be logged as prescribed by ISU procedures to
indicate who has the document
4. Records which document department equipment such as
squad car speed-o-meter calibrations and radar tuning fork
certifications may be maintained by the prosecuting
attorney or the administrative assistant. Officers shall
obtain the required records from the appropriate source (or
verify that they are in possession of the prosecuting
attorney) prior to the scheduled court appearance.
5. Records which are in effect evidence, such as forged
checks, shall be signed out of evidence prior to the
scheduled court appearance following the procedures
established in General Order 302 Evidence Handling.
E. Court Subpoena for Records
1. A subpoena for “all records” on a particular case (usually
done for civil actions) shall be forwarded to the ISU
supervisor for response. No records shall be released
without authorization of the ISU supervisor or Division
Commander.