California Police Chief- Fall 2013 CPCA_2019_Spring Magazine- FINAL | Page 8
LEGAL
POBRA’S
FORGOTTEN COUSIN:
Government Code Section 3508.1
Affecting Civilian Police Employees
By James R. Touchstone, Esq. and Jamaar M. Boyd-Weatherby, Esq.
Almost every law enforcement agency in California is intimately aware of the duties
and the obligations imposed by the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act
(“POBRA”). However, many agencies are not aware that POBRA has a little known
cousin - Government Code section 3508.1. Section 3508.1 provides POBRA-like
rights to police civilian employees. Located in collective bargaining statutes associat-
ed with the Meyers- Milias- Brown Act, Section 3508.1 provides a number of rights to
civilian employees that were taken directly from POBRA. Section 3508.1 states that
the term “‘police employee’ includes the civilian employees of the police department
of any city.” Based upon this broad definition, it arguably would include everyone from
clerical employees to non-sworn jailers. Due to the relative anonymity of this code sec-
tion, there have not been any cases that specifically address the proper interpretation
of Section 3508.1.
Similar to provisions of POBRA, Section 3508.1
provides in subdivision (a): “With respect to any police
employee, except as provided in this subdivision and
subdivision (d), no punitive action, nor denial of promotion
on grounds other than merit, shall be undertaken for any
act, omission, or other allegation of misconduct if the
investigation of the allegation is not completed within
one year of the public agency’s discovery by a person
authorized to initiate an investigation of the allegation of
an act, omission, or other misconduct.” Section 3508.1 also
has the same tolling periods as POBRA. As such, the one-
year limitations period is tolled in the following situations:
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If the act, omission, or other allegation of misconduct is
also the subject of a criminal investigation or criminal
prosecution.
If the police employee waives the one-year time period
in writing.
If the investigation is a multijurisdictional investigation
that requires a reasonable extension for coordination of
the involved agencies.
If the investigation involves more than one employee
and requires a reasonable extension.