The officer is clearly and inexcusably at fault. Even if he was responding with lights and siren, there is no excuse for not exercising due regard for others and having precise control of his car.
As I told my trainees, the public expects us to be expert drivers and to obey traffic laws at all times. You’ve been trained to that standard, so like it or not, perform at that level.
At my agency, it probably would have been a minimum two week suspension without pay, remedial training and extra attention paid to his driving and cell habits. If he had any prior driving or electronic device policy violations, it’d probably be termination.
Highway patrol investigated any patrol car crashes we had. They would have found him in violation of the Vehicle Code sections for unsafe turning movement, failure to drive within the right-hand side of the road, and possibly the cell phone law if it didn’t fall within the public safety officer exemption. The deputy would have been charged, and basically directed by the sheriff to own it, pay the fine and take the points.
Everyone would have been sternly warned at roll call (daily shift briefing), the next monthly training day would have had a block on driving policy and cell phone policy and the next guy to violate either policy would be looking at just much punishment, if not more. The county would have paid the bicyclist’s medical bills and replaced his bike. Oh, and the errant deputy would have screwed himself out of any promotion or specialized assignment for at least five years to come. The admin had a long memory and held stuff against people.
