Saving a life doesn't shield anyone from an internal case — sometimes it does the opposite. The baby rescue case, covered in the previous piece, had a follow-up that anyone who's never worked inside a police department would struggle to imagine: the officer who performed CPR became the target of an internal inquiry, precisely because the case drew attention.

"This Is Just an Inquiry, Not an IA"

The first inquiry opened by the department was classified as an inquiry — an informal, lighter-weight review, without the procedural protections of a formal disciplinary investigation. The distinction matters: an inquiry can become routine for any out-of-the-ordinary incident; a formal investigation opened by Internal Affairs (Corregedoria), on the other hand, is a disciplinary process with real potential consequences for the job.

"This is just an inquiry, not an IA" — just so we know what happened, right, it's just watching the camera footage.

Why the Embarrassment Triggered an Inquiry

The case became public because the emergency medical service (EMS) arrived late — and one of the paramedics, jumping out of the ambulance, tripped and broke his leg, becoming part of the story captured in photos at the scene. The rescue-of-the-year award, given to the officer and his partner (not to the EMS crew), publicly reinforced the medical service's failure. From there came a string of inquiries — including one about time the patrol car sat idle overnight, with no direct connection to the baby's case.

The Union Legal Defense Plan's Attorney

Facing the string of inquiries, the officer called on the attorney provided through the legal defense plan offered by his union (in Texas, the TMPA — Texas Municipal Police Association; in California, these associations function as unions, as with PORAC). It's a service the officer pays for monthly out of pocket, guaranteeing legal representation whenever an inquiry is opened — a right that, in the United States, tends to be treated the same as any unionized worker's right during a disciplinary process at work.

In California, That Right Has a Name and a Law: POBR

In California, this set of protections has been codified since 1977 in the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act (POBR — California Government Code, sections 3300 through 3313), the first law in the country to specifically guarantee police officers procedural rights during an administrative investigation: written notice of the matter under investigation, the right to representation (union or attorney) during interrogation — as long as the representative isn't also a witness or target of the same investigation — and a one-year deadline for the agency to complete the inquiry and impose any punishment, or lose that right.

"So I thought about the worst case: if something happens, if I'm in a use of force, a shooting, this department is going to hurt me. You can't transfer to another department after that."

The Invisible Cost: The Transfer That Never Happens

That last point weighs heaviest on a career: a record loaded with internal inquiries — even when none of them results in formal punishment — can block an officer's transfer to another department. Other agencies, when evaluating a lateral candidate, typically review the full disciplinary file, and a string of internal investigations raises a red flag even without proven fault. Knowing the law that protects the process — and using the representation you're entitled to from the very first notice — is what separates an inquiry you fight from a career worn down and ended.

Who's talking here: Eliel Teixeira and Edwin Wu are active-duty police officers in the Los Angeles, California area — Brazilian-born, American citizens, with long careers in law enforcement. On Palavrão Tático, they talk cop-to-cop, for officers and enthusiasts, with no translation into civilian language.

Heads up: everything described here applies to California rules — and, on several points, to each host's specific department. In other U.S. states (Texas, Florida, New York…) the rules can be very different.

Watch this part of the episode:

What Internal Affairs (Corregedoria) Is and an Officer's Rights During the Investigation (approximate segment) — starting at 1:03:20 · Palavrão Tático