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The commissioner shall have power, in his or her discretion on conviction of a member of the force of any legal offense or neglect of duty, or violation of rules, or neglect or disobedience of orders or incapacity, or absence without leave, or any conduct injurious to the public peace or welfare, or immoral conduct, or conduct unbecoming an officer or member, or other breach of discipline, to punish the offending party by reprimand, forfeiture and withholding of pay for a specified time, or dismissal from the force; but not more than ten days' pay shall be forfeited and withheld for any offense. Officers and members of the uniformed force shall be removable only after written charges shall have been preferred against them, and after the charges shall have been publicly examined into, upon such reasonable notice of not less than forty-eight hours to the person charged, and in such manner of examination as the rules and regulations of the commissioner may prescribe. The examination into such charges and trial shall be conducted by the commissioner, a deputy commissioner or other person designated by the commissioner in writing for that purpose; but no decision shall be final or be enforced until approved by the commissioner. The rules and regulations for the uniformed force of the department, as established from time to time by the commissioner, shall be printed, published and circulated among the officers and members of such department.
Any member of the department who shall withdraw or resign without the permission of the commissioner shall be subject to the forfeiture of salary due to such member. Unexplained absence, without leave, of any member of the uniformed force, for five days, shall be deemed and held to be a resignation by such member, and accepted as such.
a. Upon written application to the mayor by the person aggrieved, setting forth the reasons for demanding such rehearing, the commissioner may rehear the charges upon which a member or a probationary member of the uniformed force has been dismissed, or reduced from the rank theretofore held by him or her. Such person or persons shall be required to waive in writing all claim against the city for back pay and shall obtain the mayor's consent to such rehearing, such consent to be in writing and to state the reasons why such charges should be reheard.
b. Such application for a rehearing shall be made within one year from the date of the removal or reduction in rank.
c. If the commissioner shall determine that such member has been illegally or unjustly dismissed or reduced, the commissioner may reinstate such member or restore such member to the rank from which he or she was reduced, as the case may be, and allow such member the whole of his or her time since such dismissal to be applied on his or her time of service in the department, or the commissioner may grant such other or further relief as he or she may determine to be just, or may affirm the dismissal or reduction, as he or she may determine from the evidence.
d. If the applicant be a probationary member of the department, the commissioner may allow such probationary member the time already served as a probationary member to count as time served, but shall not allow the time between the date of his or her dismissal and restoration to count as service in the department.
e. Employees of the department, not entitled to a trial before dismissal, and who were given an opportunity to explain charges before they were removed, may apply to the mayor, within one year from the date of the order separating them from the service, for a further opportunity to explain, setting forth the reasons for such action. The mayor, in his or her discretion, may grant such application. The commissioner, thereupon, shall afford a further opportunity to the dismissed employee to explain the charges filed against him or her, on which the removal was based. Thereafter the commissioner, in his or her discretion, may reinstate the dismissed employee or reaffirm the previous removal. Prior to any reinstatement hereunder, such former employee shall file a written statement waiving all claim or claims for back salary and damages of any kind whatsoever.
In the performance of their duties, all officers and members of the uniformed force, other than the chief marshal, deputy chief fire marshals, supervising fire marshals and fire marshals, shall have the powers and perform the duties of peace officers, but their power to make arrests and to serve process in criminal actions shall be restricted to cases arising under laws relating to fires and the extinguishment thereof, and to fire perils.
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