Victims of communicable diseases have the legal right to expect, and municipal employees, including police and emergency service officers are duly bound to provide, the same level of service and enforcement as any other individual would receive.
(A) Officers assume that a certain degree of risk exists in law enforcement and emergency service work and accept those risks with their individual appointments. This holds true with any potential risks of contacting a communicable disease as surely as it does with the risks of confronting an armed criminal.
(B) Any officer who refuses to take proper action in regard to victims of a communicable disease, when appropriate protective equipment is available, shall be subject to disciplinary measures along with civil and/or criminal prosecution.
(C) Whenever an officer mentions in a report that an individual has or may have a communicable disease, he or she shall write "contains confidential medical information" across the top margin of the first page of the report.
(D) The officer's supervisor shall ensure that the above statement is on all reports requiring that statement at the time the report is reviewed and initiated by the supervisor.
(E) The supervisor disseminating newspaper releases shall make certain the confidential information is not given out to the news media.
(F) All requests (including subpoenas) for copies of reports marked "contains confidential medical information" shall be referred to the City Attorney when the incident involves an indictable or juvenile offense.
(G) Prior approval shall be obtained from the City Attorney before advising a victim of sexual assault that the suspect has, or is suspected of having, a communicable disease.
(H) All circumstances, not covered in this policy, that may arise concerning releasing confidential information regarding a victim, or suspected victim, of a communicable disease shall be referred directly to the appropriate department head or City Attorney.
(I) Victims of a communicable disease and their families have a right to conduct their lives without fear of discrimination. An employee shall not make public, directly or indirectly, the identity of a victim or suspected victim of a communicable disease.
(J) Whenever an employee finds it necessary to notify another employee, police officer, firefighter, emergency service officer or health care provider that a victim has or is suspected of having a communicable disease, that information shall be conveyed in a dignified, discrete and confidential manner. The person to whom the information is being conveyed should be reminded that the information is confidential and that it should not be treated as public information.
(K) Any employee who disseminates confidential information in regard to a victim, or suspected victim of a communicable disease in violation of this policy shall be subject to serious disciplinary action and/or civil and/or criminal prosecution.
(1989 Code, § 4-514)