The key—as I think Zane alluded to earlier—is a well-defined mandate: death; serious injury, with serious injury outlined in our regulations down to specific injuries or specific components that will qualify for inclusion under the term “serious injury”; as well as sexual assault; interpersonal violence.... Then there is a somewhat seldom used catch-all for matters of significant public interest.
That clearly outlines what falls within the SIRT side. There will be some crossover between the two sides.
Part of the trick of running an agency that covers both complaints and the serious incident side is the appropriate separation and staging of those incidents. On a certain matter that might also constitute a complaint or might also constitute something with some disciplinary jeopardy to a member, we have the option to park that complaint or park the consideration of disciplinary jeopardy until the conclusion of the serious incident investigation.
At the conclusion of a serious incident investigation, our act allows me to either direct the matter over to the PCC side for further investigation if necessary, or direct it to the head of a police agency for the imposition of major or minor discipline, if necessary.
That approach allows us to appropriately stage the investigation and to conclude the serious incident investigation, which is the criminal investigation, first, before any consideration is necessary on the disciplinary side. There are also some companion protections for the members in there to allow the police officers involved the decision to participate in one of those investigations without necessarily providing a statement in the other investigation, because there are differences in terms of the compelled or voluntary statements that are required in each of those investigations.