Opinion ID: 2997024
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Risk of an Erroneous Deprivation and the

Text: Value of Procedural Safeguards In spite of the unquestioned strength of the private interests affected in this case, the City nonetheless argues for a per se rule that no pre-termination process should be required to fire AWOP police officers. The City first suggests that there is no possibility of an erroneous deprivation because of the Department’s system of procedural checks. These procedures, including the submission of a detailed PAR form and a phone call verification by an administrative sergeant in the personnel division, are intended to assure the Department that the factual basis of the AWOP termination is correct. Second, the City insists that pre-termination procedures would be valueless because the mandatory language of the CBA (the “employment relationship shall be terminated”) eliminates the possibility that discretion will be exercised in favor of an AWOP officer. Contrary to the City’s assertions, a pre-termination notice and hearing could avoid harmful mistakes and provide value to both the officers and the Department. Even the best bureaucrats occasionally make mistakes. Maybe an officer could present evidence that a clerical error occurred that led to false PAR forms and AWOP confirmation (indeed, Sergeant Gawne was concerned with just such an error upon hearing from Hudson after Hudson received the termination letter). Or perhaps the individual in the AWOP officer’s unit in charge of sending the PAR forms held a grudge against the officer and fraudulently misinformed the No. 03-2690 11 personnel division. To avoid mistakes, it is of fundamental importance that the individual with the most at stake, the AWOP officer, be given an opportunity to explain why he should not be terminated. If the facts were undisputed and the punishment truly automatic, this might be a circumstance in which no pretermination process was required. See Loudermill, 470 U.S. at 543 n.8 (noting that a person may not “insist on a hearing in order to argue that the decisionmaker should be lenient and depart from legal requirements”); Dixon v. Love, 431 U.S. 105, 113-14 (1977) (concluding that additional procedures were unnecessary because the factual basis for taking away the plaintiff’s driver’s license was undisputed, and the state authorities would have had to depart from binding regulations to change the decision). But Hudson’s and Pamon’s demands for pre-termination process are not necessarily a mere plea for leniency. Hudson could sensibly argue that the AWOP policy was not intended to apply to an officer who had been ordered by the Department to stay away from work. And Pamon could point to a good-faith belief that his furlough-extension application was approved, as it had been in the past. Furthermore, despite the protestations of the City to the contrary, the facts of this case demonstrate that the system allows for the exercise of discretion in applying the AWOP policy. First, Pamon was due back at work on February 1, 2002, but he was nevertheless not counted as AWOP until February 13. Second, as Hudson’s and Pamon’s facts make clear, the Department allows an officer to be heard on the officer’s AWOP termination before a final decision is made, even though such process is not a formal policy. After meeting with Commander Griffin, Hudson submitted a memorandum to him, explaining why he had not complied with the notification requirements and claiming he was not aware of them. Similarly, Pamon met with Captain Roy and tried to convince Roy that he should not be terminated. 12 No. 03-2690 Surely there is some explanation that would have convinced the Plaintiffs’ superiors that they should not be terminated, or else why did Griffin, Roy, and Powers even bother hearing from Hudson and Pamon? As we can find no reason to infer that the Plaintiffs’ supervisors allowed Hudson and Pamon to contest their termination simply as an empty charade, then we can conclude the inverse: these informal hearings provided the Plaintiffs with a genuine opportunity to avoid termination. Hence, the second factor weighs in favor of a pre-deprivation hearing.