Applicable To: FOD sworn employees

Approval Authority:  Deputy Chief Earnest Finley

Signature:  Signed by ENF

Date Signed:  1/17/12

1.               PURPOSE

In recent years, The Atlanta Municipal Court has had a large number of court case dismissals due to Atlanta Police Department officers failing to appear for their scheduled court times. Reasons for this high absentee rate varies from cases being re-scheduled for the incorrect time, which can cause a conflict between the court and the officer’s work schedule, to cases being scheduled for an officer’s off-days and court subpoenas not reaching the officers in time for the court appearance.

2.               POLICY

In an effort to decrease the court case dismissal rate, all officers within the command of the Field Operations Division (FOD) shall be assigned a set weekly court day and time. By doing this, it will assist Municipal Court judges and solicitors when a case is continued for reset.

3.               RESPONSIBILITIES

3.1              Section Commanders or his/her designees assigned to FOD shall be responsible for providing the FOD Administrative Office with a complete list of all the officers under his/her command with their assigned Municipal Court day and time. An updated list should be included in each Zones monthly report.

4.               ACTION

4.1              Unit Commanders or his/her designees assigned to FOD shall assign a set Municipal Court day and time for every officer under their command.

4.1.1           The assigned court day shall be any day, Monday through Thursday with a time of either 0800 hours or 1500 hours. No assigned court day and time shall be assigned outside the stated parameters or the officers assigned off-days.

4.1.2           The court days must be distributed evenly throughout the unit to prevent too many officers out of service for their court appearance at any one time.

4.1.3           Upon completion of the assigned Municipal Court day list, each Unit Commander or his/her designee shall forward the list to their Section Commander.

4.2              Officers shall write the three letter abbreviation of their assigned court day followed by a forward slash and the assigned court time in the right margin of every Uniform Traffic Citation (UTC) they issue.

4.3              FOD Administrative staff shall submit the list of officer’s court days to the Atlanta Municipal Court Clerk for approval.

4.3.1           The assigned court days must be evenly distributed throughout the division to prevent case docket overload.

4.3.2           FOD Administrative office will coordinate this program with the Atlanta Municipal Court Clerk.

5.               DEFINITIONS

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6.               REFERENCES

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