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Applicable To: All supervisors |
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Approval Authority: Chief George N. turner |
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Signature: Signed by GNT |
Date Signed: 12/3/10 |
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| Table of Content | |||
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4.3 Preventing Workplace Violence 4.4 Handling workplace violence against an employee |
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To implement the Mayor's Administrative Order on violence in the workplace, to instruct all employees in the procedures for dealing with workplace violence and potential violence, to establish procedures for assessing worksites to improve physical security and free worksites from behavior which constitutes sexual harassment.
It is the policy of the Atlanta Police Department to maintain a safe working environment. Any employee who commits or threatens violence will be subject to disciplinary action, dismissal, civil action, and/or criminal charges. The Atlanta Police Department prohibits sexual harassment and takes appropriate action against any employee found guilty of committing such conduct.
3.1 All bureau, division, and direct-report section commanders will implement this directive within their command.
3.2 In conjunction with the City's training director and chief psychologist, the Personnel Services Unit will monitor the implementation of this directive.
3.3 All Atlanta Police supervisory personnel, sworn and non-sworn, are required to ensure adherence to and compliance with the City of Atlanta Sexual Harassment Policy, and, upon learning of possible harassment, are required to take appropriate, prompt action in response thereto, including:
1. Informing complainants of their rights under the procedures set forth in the Sexual Harassment Policy.
2. Immediately notifying the Office of Professional Standards (OPS) of all sexual harassment complaints.
3.4 The Office of Professional Standards (OPS) is responsible for investigating all sexual harassment complaints. The Office of Professional Standards will make available at least one man and one woman to serve as complaint investigators.
3.5 Recognizing the seriousness of sexual harassment, the Chief of Police will follow the disciplinary guidelines established by City Code Section 114-605 to determine the appropriate disciplinary action to take on sustained sexual harassment complaints.
4.1 Division and section commanders will evaluate their worksites and maintain a safety and security plan to minimize risk of bodily or psychological harm for all employees.
4.2 The Department's Personnel Services Unit
4.2.1 Inform all new hires of the City's violence prevention policy as a part of New Employee Orientation.
4.2.2 Make employees available for necessary training and orientation as stipulated in this order.
4.2.3 Identify all employees in any area identified as a "high-risk" environment and ensure that they receive twelve hours of violence prevention training.
4.3 Preventing Workplace Violence
4.3.1 To ensure that corrective and preventative measures are taken with respect to violence in the workplace, all first line supervisors will monitor their employees in accordance with APD.SOP.2022 “Early Warning System”.
4.3.2 If any employee who left employment with the Department under unfavorable circumstances visits a worksite and raises concerns for a supervisor regarding threats or violence, the supervisor will immediately take appropriate action, including notifying the chain of command and OPS.
4.3.3 If someone comes to a Department worksite and threatens violence toward an employee, the supervisor will determine whether to ask the threatening person to leave, to arrest him or her, or to call for police assistance.
1. If the threatening person is an employee, former employee, or a family member of the threatened employee, the supervisor will also call OPS.
2. If the threatening person is an employee or a family member of the threatened employee, the supervisor will also call the Bureau of Employee Assistance Services (BEAS).
4.4 Handling workplace violence against an employee
4.4.1 When violence is committed against an employee, the supervisor on the scene will initiate the police response, issue appropriate charges, and notify the employee's chain or command. If the perpetrator is an employee or a family member of the attacked employee, the supervisor will also call OPS and Psychological Services. If death or serious injury occurs to an employee, the supervisor will ask Psychological Services to monitor the surviving employees and to counsel with them as necessary.
4.4.2 After an act of violence has occurred at an APD worksite, the supervisor on the scene will determine if the perpetrator has left the area; if he or she has not left the scene, the supervisor (if sworn) will make every effort to contain the perpetrator and to protect surviving personnel. If the perpetrator has left the scene, the supervisor will:
1. Call for emergency assistance and attend to the injured;
2. Secure the crime scene and notify the following:
a. Homicide;
b. ID, if serious injuries or death occurs
c. OPS, if suspect is employee or family member of employee; and
d. Psychological Services
3. Arrange for the removal of survivors from the scene to a safe place;
4. Avoid discussion of the situation with news agencies or releasing names of injured employees or deceased personnel;
5. Arrange to manage incoming phone calls into the affected worksite area;
6. Start processing worker compensation and other forms as a result of the incident;
7. Release the crime scene to Homicide once they are on the scene;
8. Arrange for survivors to call family members on an isolated phone line; and
9. Assist in the investigation as needed.
4.5 Calling Bureau of Employee Assistance Services
4.5.1 Call BEAS at 404-546-3074 or APD Communications after hours at 404-546-2369 and ask to speak to the clinician on emergency duty. The supervisor should state that emergency assistance is needed.
1. The BEAS emergency staff member will decide whether to go to the worksite or to have the employee transported to the BEAS office by the employee's supervisor or the police.
2. BEAS staff members will make immediate recommendations and will also follow up with a written report to the division commander or bureau director.
4.5.2 Whenever a supervisor calls for assistance from BEAS, he or she will follow up with BEAS within 72 hours regarding their recommendations.
4.6 In all cases of employee misconduct, the supervisor will follow the guidance of APD.SOP.2020“Disciplinary Process” including relief from duty, taking the employee's weapon, and assigning an employee to administrative duties.
4.7 Employee Feedback Procedure
4.7.1 Supervisors will use information contained in APD.SOP.1080 “Internal Communications” (i.e. watch representatives, horizon message board and staff meetings) and APD.SOP.2040 “Grievance Procedure” policies to promote two-way communication for employees to express concerns and offer suggestions about the workplace, policies, etc.
4.7.2 Employees will use the same programs as a means of communicating ideas and information intended for the enhancement of the Department and resolution of problems.
(CALEA 5th edition standard, 26.1.3)
An employee feeling that he or she has been subjected to sexual or other unlawful harassment is encouraged to promptly report and file a discrimination complaint to any of the following: their immediate supervisor, the designated Departmental EEO Coordinator (Personnel Services Unit commander), the Office of Professional Standards (OPS), or the City's Affirmative Action Officer.
1. The complainant will meet with a complaint investigator.
2. The complainant may choose either a male or female complaint investigator.
3. The complainant will make a sworn written statement describing the unlawful harassment allegation.
The complaint investigator will immediately initiate an investigation.
1. Any and all persons involved in the investigation of a complaint of unlawful harassment, whether as complainant, witness, accused, investigator, or other person involved in some way in the matter, will be treated with respect and with all reasonable confidentiality. However, all closed OPS investigations may be subject to Open Records laws and therefore it may not be possible to maintain confidentiality once the complaint investigation is concluded.
2. Any individual who retaliates against another individual for reporting sexual harassment or against anyone participating in an investigation of sexual harassment will be subject to disciplinary action as provided by City Code Section 114-605 of the Sexual Harassment Policy (from 10 day suspension up to dismissal).
3. Upon completion of the investigation, OPS will forward a written report of the investigation to the Chief of Police, with recommendations for the disposition of the complaint. If the investigative report reveals there is reasonable cause to believe that unlawful harassment has occurred, the employee found to have engaged in the harassment will be subject to disciplinary action.
4.8.3 Disciplinary Action
1. The Chief of Police will implement disciplinary action for unlawful harassment as prescribed by the APD.SOP.2020 “Disciplinary Process” and in accordance with City of Atlanta Sexual Harassment Policy, City Code Section 114-605.
2. Disciplinary action for the first offense of harassment ranges from a minimum of a ten day suspension up to and including dismissal. At the discretion of the disciplinary authority, additional harassment training may be required for first offenders. Disciplinary action for the second offense of harassment is dismissal.
3. If an investigation results in a finding that the complainant willfully made a false complaint of harassment, that complainant shall be subject to disciplinary action as provided by City Code Section 114-610 and APD.SOP.2020 “Disciplinary Process.”
4.8.4 The complainant will be notified, in writing, of the disposition of the complaint investigation.
1. As the staffing needs of the Department dictate, and whenever possible and practical, an employee who has been disciplined for harassment and who returns to work, may not be returned to the same work assignment if that work assignment is the same work assignment as the victim's work assignment, for a period of at least one year from the effective date of the disciplinary action taken against that employee for the harassment.
2. As the staffing needs of the Department dictate and whenever possible and practical, a victim's request for a transfer to an assignment away from the harasser shall be granted, during the time period starting from the date of complaint and ending one year from the effective date of the disciplinary action taken against the harasser.
4.8.6 Any supervisor who fails to act upon an unlawful harassment allegation reported to him or her, or unlawful harassment conduct or practices known of or observed by him or her, will be subject to disciplinary action up to and including dismissal.
4.8.7 Any complainant who has been involved in an unlawful harassment complaint, whose complaint has been investigated and resolved at the Department level, has the right to appeal the decision to the City Affirmative Action Officer.
5.1 High-risk environment: A workplace environment that lends itself, by virtue of the type of tasks performed, location or other factors to a high chance for disagreements between co-workers or disagreements between employees and the public which could result in threats or abusive emotional or physical behavior.
5.2 Direct Reports: Division commanders, bureau directors and other employees that report directly to the Chief of Police.
5.3 Sexual Harassment: Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when: submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual's employment; submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting such individual; such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work performance or creating an intimidating , hostile or offensive working environment. Examples of sexual harassment include, but are not limited to: unwanted sexual advances; demands for sexual favors in exchange for favorable treatment or continued employment; repeated sexual jokes, flirtations, advances or propositions; verbal abuse of a sexual nature; graphic verbal commentary about an individual's body, sexual prowess or sexual deficiencies; leering, whistling, touching, pinching, assault, coerced sexual acts or suggestive, insulting, obscene comments or gestures; display in the workplace of sexually suggestive objects or pictures; ostracizing an employee in conformity with sexual conduct; sexual conduct that reasonably causes mental and emotional detriment to the victim; retaliation against an individual for reporting or complaining about sexually harassing conduct. This behavior is unacceptable in the workplace and is unacceptable in other work-related settings such as business trips and business-related social events.
5.4 Other Unlawful Harassment: any employee that unreasonably interferes with another employee’s work performance and/or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.
5.5 Complaint investigator: sworn OPS employee assigned to investigate a complaint of sexual harassment.
APD SOP.2021 “Workplace Safety”, Effective November 1, 2007 and signed November 2, 2007
APD.SOP.2020 Disciplinary Process APD.SOP.2040 Grievance Procedure APD.SOP.2022 Early Warning System APD.SOP.1080 Internal Communication City of Atlanta, Mayor's Administrative Order No. 94-05 City of Atlanta Sexual Harassment Policy, City Code Section 114-601- 114-610 CALEA 5th edition standard, 26.1.3 |
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