Make no mistake about it, when you are involved in a shooting or serious duty-related incident your first call should be to your NCSPA Attorney. By calling the number provided on your membership card you will be provided with your attorney right away. Say nothing, do nothing until your attorney arrives on the scene. Some of you have asked or wondered if the city, county or entity you work for will provide you an attorney. They may but they won’t be representing your interest.

You need an attorney who will take care of you and represent your interests. If you are indicted in a duty-related incident the county, city or state is under no obligation to represent you. The idictment will automatically disqualify you from representation within your agency. Remember, if you are being investigated, determine if it is administrative or criminal. If it is administrative or internal you must cooperate with the administration and always tell the truth. Tell the truth just like it happened.

If it is criminal than invoke your right to remain silent until advised further by your NCSPA attorney. During an investigation within your agency you have the right to invoke the Garrity rule. When being questioned without your attorney or answering questions at the scene of a critical incident do so only after you have invoked the Garrity Rule. (We are not telling you to not answer questions during an internal investigation we are advising you to invoke Garrity before answering those questions as it relates to your critical incident) Garrity protects you and the agency. Garrity keeps it internal so the information can not be used in the criminal investigation.

By invoking the Garrity rule, the officer is invoking his or her right against self-incrimination. Any statements made after invoking Garrity, may only be used for department investigation purposes and not for criminal prosecution purposes. The Garrity Rule stems from the court case Garrity v. New Jersey, 385 U.S. 493 (1967), which was decided in 1966 by the United States Supreme Court. It was a traffic ticket fixing case of all things.