Why the Push to Lower Standards For Becoming A District Attorney Investigator?

“At a time when Californians are demanding more and better training for law enforcement professionals, the Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training has voted to decrease the minimum qualifications to become a District Attorney Investigator,” Joe Del Guidice, Chief of the Bureau of Investigation for the Riverside County District Attorney and chief Investigator association president told the Globe in an recent interview.

Why is the Commission on Police Officer Standards and Training (POST) pushing to lower the qualifications for becoming a DA Investigator?

“After impassioned testimony from many chief investigators and elected district attorneys, hundreds of letters and other correspondence from our investigators and peace officer associations, and dozens of phone calls voicing our collective opposition to changing Regulation 1005, the Commission voted unanimously (only one abstention) to proceed with the lowering of District Attorney Investigator minimum qualifications,” Del Guidice said. “I found their indifference to these communiques and their ensuing discussion on the matter to be appalling. Commission Chairperson, Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley led the charge to disregard the wisdom of 48 out of the 51 California DA Bureau Chiefs and dozens of other elected District Attorneys as ‘blatantly absurd’ and ‘absolutely insulting.'”

You can hear Chair Dudley’s prepared remarks at the 49-minute mark in this video POST meeting.

“While I concede there may be limited legitimate arguments in favor of changing Regulation 1005(a), I am dumbfounded at the hubris displayed by this Commission,”Del Guidice continued. “I had anticipated the commissioners would state their disagreement with our opposition, then defer to the almost unanimous primary stakeholders who made our feelings known. Instead, this Commission, whose members have precisely no experience leading a Bureau of Investigation, acknowledged the overwhelming disapproval, then proceeded to flippantly disregard this testimony in favor of their personal opinions. These commissioners of diverse backgrounds are entrusted with the responsibility of representing the varied interests of all law enforcement disciplines. By ignoring the wishes of 95% of the state’s Chief DA Investigators and dozens of elected District Attorneys in favor of their own personal agenda, this Commission has failed to fulfill its fundamental obligation to represent us.”

As the letter from 48 Chief DA Investigators explains, “Perhaps the most critical component of the DA Investigator is their duality as both an investigator and as a full-authority (830.1 PC) county peace officer; they represent the enforcement component of each county’s top law enforcement official, the elected District Attorneys. As evidenced by the events of last year, DA Investigators can be pressed into service as mutual aid to handle everything from general patrol functions, to emergency operations and the rendering of aid to smaller departments. They are also equipped to handle major criminal investigations for smaller police departments that lack investigative resources, and are able to assist these same agencies in a cohesive, effective response to civil unrest.” The letter is below.

So what’s really going on? The Globe spoke with other investigators and heard the same thing over and over: This push is simply a way for state Peace Officer Standards and Training employees to help friends who retired from other State specialized investigations positions with the Department Of Justice, The Horse Racing Board, the Department of Insurance, Contractors State Licensing Board, DMV, Medical Board, to name a few, get jobs with counties that have their own generous retirement systems in order to “double-dip.” That way, they can access their pension while earning income (double-dipping) as full-time employees with DA’s Offices. But it doesn’t make any sense lowering the standards for those tasked with “policing the police” to a lower standard than those they are investigating. “We really shouldn’t be lowering standards just to line the pockets of some retired state employees,” one investigator told the Globe.

This shallow push for “double-dipping” comes at a time when the state is ostensibly attempting to put an end to double dipping. A May 10th Sacramento Bee article exposes a recent CalPERS audit which “found violations in the use of retired annuitants at 72% of the 61 local government agencies it audited.”

“The audit also noted 39 agencies that employed retired annuitants for “several years.” That suggested the agencies were running afoul of the law’s requirement that such workers only be used in “limited duration” appointments, such as for emergencies.”

Mr. Del Guidice provided the Globe with all of the correspondence and public records requests sent to the Commission on Police Officer Standards and Training:

1. The CCI letter to the POST commission objecting to their proposed change and asking for a hearing
2. A letter from me as CCIA President to the Chair with our renewed objection and laying them out for their disingenuousness.
3. The PRA asking them for record of their alleged multiple inquiries about changing this regulation. In their Addendum – Initial Statement of Reasons states that, “POST has received numerous inquiries to allow individuals who qualify for law enforcement investigators positions to become DAIs.”  But, when they receive a PRA to support this, all they have (so far) is one e-mail.
4. The addendum to the reasons the commission made its decision, which triggered the 15 day reopening because they did not properly disclose.
5. Notice of additional documents dated (Jan 21, 2022) giving the public a 15-day notice to respond (expired Feb 8, 2022) this was the document buried in the website that took a significant amount of digging to find. It was also placed in an area dated July 2021.  Since this was brought to POST’s attention, they reposted the notice on March 28, 2022, with an expiration date of April 11, 2022 (15 days).
6. Letter to the Chair from LA Peace Officer Association outlining POST’s failure to disclose properly and try and hurry this change through.
7. The one letter that was provided as a result of our PRA.

It is stunning that the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training unanimously voted to lower the District Attorney Investigator minimum qualifications at a time when law enforcement is under a microscope of scrutiny, and the state has made clear “Double dipping” is prohibited.

The investigators sent Joyce Dudly a letter arguing that the “proposed regulation undermines POST’s purported goal of enhancing professionalism in California law enforcement, which is why it is opposed by 49 of the 52 California District Attorney Bureau Chiefs. POST has simply ignored the reasoned thoughts and feedback from the experts in this field.”

“Hubris” indeed. What’s the motive for the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training for lowering these important standards? What do they get out of it?

Here are two letters to the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training from the California Chief Investigators: