POBAR Rights

Answer:

Last year, we were representing a client who was a police officer in Orange County, and the client wanted to know specifically what rights they had under the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act, or POBAR. POBAR grants certain procedural safeguards for officers if the officer is going to be interrogated and could be subjected to some type of punitive action. Some of these safeguards include being able to have an attorney present during the interrogation; that the interrogation will occur at a reasonable hour; that it’ll last a reasonable amount of time; that the officer under interrogation will be provided the name and rank of the officer or supervisor doing the interrogation, and they’ll be provided the name of anyone else present in the room before the interrogation; that prior to the interrogation, the officer will be provided notice of the nature of the investigation.

There are safeguards that an officer is entitled to record the interrogation; that the officer is going to be interviewed a second time; that an officer is entitled to recordings, transcripts and notes prior to the second interrogation. These are just some of the procedural safeguards under POBAR. If you believe that your rights under POBAR were violated, give our office a call for a consultation.