Organization - Legal Unit

The Legal Unit is responsible for handling all legal matters for the Police Department. The attorneys are Assistant City Attorneys who are assigned to the department. Currently there are two attorneys and a secretary.

The duties of the legal advisors are to advise the command staff on the legal issues concerning, policy and procedures, police operations, personnel issues, contracts, civil liability, intergovernmental agreements, public records requests, weapon releases and other issues. The legal advisors are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week to respond to major crime scenes, major accidents, incidents involving the Special Assignment Unit and to assist any officer or detective who may require legal assistance in field or in conducting an investigation.

Police Legal Advisors spend considerable amount of time training new and experienced officers on legal subjects in law enforcement and keeping officers updated on legal developments. Legal Advisors handle court actions such as criminal nuisance cases, gang injunctions, property forfeitures and other civil litigation for the department.