Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services	
Death/Serious Injury Notifications

January 1, 2022	

POLICE/SHERIFF'S OFFICE	RULES AND REGULATIONS	
SUBJECT: Death/Serious Injury Notifications	NUMBER:    2-41	
EFFECTIVE DATE: 01/01/2022	REVIEW DATE: 06/07/2021	
AMENDS/SUPERSEDES: 7/1/2008	APPROVED: _______________________
              	Chief of Police/Sheriff	
	VLEPSC STANDARDS: 	

NOTE 

		This order is for internal use only, and does not increase an officer's civil or criminal liability in any way. It should not be construed as the creation of a higher standard of safety or care in an evidentiary sense, with respect to third-party claims. Violations of this directive, if proven, can only form the basis of a complaint by this department, and then only in a non-judicial administrative setting.

I. 	POLICY

	It shall be the policy of the [Police Department/Sheriff’s Office] to assist citizens, hospitals, doctors and other licensed medical practitioners, clergy and other law enforcement and public welfare agencies in the delivery of emergency messages and/or notifications that may have a profound impact resulting in high emotion and stress for the receiver(s). In delivering such information, officers should give special consideration to those receiving it. 

II.	PURPOSE

	The purpose of this General Order is to establish the policy and procedures for the delivery of emergency messages and/or notifications, including to the next-of-kin, regarding death, serious injury, or illness of persons.

III.	PROCEDURE

A.	Deceased Persons

1.	Death notifications shall be made as soon as possible and in person. No such notifications shall be made by phone or by leaving a phone message. 

•	Officers who are unable to make immediate contact with persons being notified should inform their supervisors and make arrangements with officers coming on-duty as they go off-duty to continue the efforts to contact the party. No delay in making notification should occur as a result of routine events in an officer’s schedule that could be modified, delayed or cancelled until the notification can occur.

•	Officers inquiring of neighbors or others in the vicinity as to the whereabouts of the person(s) being notified should indicate only that immediate contact is necessary and that an urgent matter requires that party’s attention.

2.	Depending on the circumstances, officers may request another officer or the department's chaplain to be present. When possible, and at the officer's discretion, he/she may also contact relatives, clergymen, close friends or medical personnel for assistance in delivering the message and/or attending to the needs of the receiving party.

B.	Seriously Injured or Ill Persons

1.	Serious injury and illness notifications should normally be delivered in person. However, circumstances may dictate the use of judgment in how a notification is made based upon the information received. 

•	For example, if a person is not home when the officer calls, and then telephones the station house later to find out the purpose of the officer’s visit, it may be necessary or desirable to deliver the message without further delay. 

2.	Officers or others may request a notification be made at the scene of an incident such as a traffic accident. In fact, the injured party may be the one requesting the notification. Such a notification may also be requested by emergency medical personnel for medical reasons. In such situations, a notification may be made by telephone to direct a relative to the medical facility where the injured/ill person is located. Information regarding the person's condition will not be disclosed and officers will not indicate the death or serious injury of a person. 

•	The Communications Officer should offer assistance in contacting additional relatives, friends, or clergymen if indicated, to solve problems of transportation, childcare, or other logistics.

3.	Notifications requested by other agencies should be conducted in person. However, depending on circumstances, a message by phone or note directing the person to call a specific phone number may be permissible. Details given by phone message or note should be limited and not indicate the death or serious illness of a family member. 

•	For example, an officer might leave this message: “Officer (your name) stopped at your home at (time) on (date) at the request of the (agency, facility, etc.) to ask you to contact them immediately regarding an urgent matter. Please call this telephone number: _ (number) _____________, and ask for _ (name of contact) __________________.

4.	Notifications and emergency messages received from sources not known to police should be verified to prevent false reports and erroneous information being delivered.

5.	Officers shall be considerate and exercise respect and compassion for persons receiving messages and notifications that are likely to be accompanied by emotional stress and grief. Officers may need to delay divulging full information until the person is in an environment where assistance can be provided in dealing with the emotional stress of the message. 

•	For example: Advising parents of the death of a son or daughter may be delayed until the arrival at the emergency room where licensed medical practitioners are equipped, trained and experienced in dealing with grief.

•	In this example, the officer might say, “I don’t know the exact condition of your (relative), but I have been asked to notify you to come to the hospital emergency room immediately.”

6.	Delivery of emergency messages and notifications shall not interfere with other police calls involving serious threats to life and/or property. If an officer assigned to deliver such a message is redirected to another higher priority call, another officer, if possible, should be immediately assigned to the notification. The new officer should be fully advised of all details that he or she needs for the notification.

7.	Emergency messages for doctors or other medical personnel, when normal communications such as pagers and phones have failed, shall be delivered promptly.

8.	In all instances where a victim has been transported to a medical facility and is unable to speak for themselves, it shall be the duty of the investigating officer or his or her designee to coordinate with hospital officials so as to ensure family notification is made in a timely manner.

C.	Communications Officers Responsibilities

Communications Officers shall follow the above listed guidelines in receiving and dispatching emergency messages and notifications. When such a message is received, the Communications Officer should make a CAD entry and obtain as much information as possible from the caller to include name, agency or relationship to the party, address and telephone number and any number the receiving party may need to contact upon receipt of the message. Death or serious illness messages or notifications should not be dispatched on an unsecured radio frequency.

D.	Special Circumstances

Special circumstances exist when conditions are such that the normal timing and flow of this Order cannot realistically be met due to the presence of media reporting on a situation, a large number of casualties occurring at the same time, several casualties occurring under circumstances in which the bodies have not yet been identified, or other unusual conditions.

1.	In exceptional circumstances, the incident commander shall establish an appropriate procedure for handling death and injury notifications in a manner as near to the standard procedure as practical, and as sensitive to the families and survivors of victims as possible. The system established for this purpose shall be communicated to the families of potential victims in order that they may plan their own activities and schedules accordingly. The media should also be informed of the system to be followed in order that they will know how and when information will be released.

2.	No release or confirmation of victims’ names will be made to the media until a reasonable effort has first been made to contact the families of those victims. An exception to this rule may occur in situations in which one or more political leaders are among the victims and it becomes necessary to provide for immediate succession of power, or in which it is deemed urgent and necessary to inform the general public even at the expense of the victims’ families’ sensitivities.

3.	In establishing an emergency procedure for notifications, the incident commander shall attempt to create a uniform procedure in which all survivors are notified in similar manner. This may entail telephone notifications be communicated to out-of-area law enforcement agencies to assist in this process. It may also entail gathering the families who are present at a crime or other disaster scene into one area to make notifications. Compassion and sensitivity shall be an important aspect of any system employed. The use of victims services agencies, grief counselors, and/or other appropriate professionals shall be incorporated into the plan whenever that is possible and practical.

4.	In situations in which the bodies of victims are turned over to the medical examiner or placed in a temporary morgue, and in which injured victims are sent to hospital emergency rooms without having first been identified, the incident commander shall collaborate with the medical examiner and hospital officials to establish a notification procedure that is uniform as to the treatment of all surviving families, but that also serves to make the earliest possible notification of confirmed fatalities and injured victims. Such a system must acknowledge that full and final determination of identity in some cases may not be possible for several days – i.e. victims of severe burns. In such an event, survivors should receive an explanation of the difficulty being encountered, and a notification of tentative identification of persons thought to be present during the incident, and now missing or unaccounted for, should be communicated to the families seeking information on a family member. In such circumstances, the families should be enlisted to help by immediately notifying law enforcement authorities of persons who are found to be unharmed.

5.	Uniform procedures for notifying survivors and victims’ families does not mean the withholding of confirmed identities simply for the purpose of releasing the names all at one time. Generally, the system established should assure the earliest possible confirmation of fatality and victim identities.