VIDEO: What Happens To An Officer’s Case If He Leaves The Department?

CLAY COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)- We often hear about law enforcement officers leaving their departments for various reasons such as retirement or resignations, but what happens to the cases they were working?

Whether its working homicides, burglaries or even issuing traffic tickets, law enforcement officers can have a heavy case load and those cases still have to be worked through, even if the officer is no longer at the department.

“A case is never dropped,” said Avery Cook, newly elected West Point police chief.

Avery Cook will soon be leaving the Clay County Sheriff’s Office to take over the WPD, and although he’s changing agencies, he’s still responsible for the cases that he’s working now as an investigator.

“We have victims out there and we never want to drop a case so another individual steps up to the plate and present that case or whatever we need to do to get that solved, we got somebody standing in line to do it,” he said.

Cook said even if an officer leaves, the investigation continues.

In cases where an arrest has been made the officer can be subpoenaed back to court.

“Matter of fact, we have grand jury coming up next month, and the cases that I have prepared for the grand jury, I will come back and present those to the grand jury next month,” said Cook.

“They are basically the chief witnesses of the case, said Clay County Sheriff Eddie Scott. “They will have to testify to the facts of the case and whatever the courts or the District Attorney’s office needs them for.”

Sheriff Scott said in cases where an arrest hasn’t been made, the cases are assigned to investigators within the department.

“At any given time most of these guys plates are loaded and they work closely amongst themselves in working these cases,” the sheriff explained. “One may pick up information on the case that he’s working on that make help the investigator on another case he’s working on, so working closely together is a key part of it.”

Scott said most officers take pride in their work, so despite them leaving, they still want to see their cases through.

“Just because we make an arrest, the case is not over,” said Scott. “This thing has to go to court and once you get that conviction, then you can say job well done.”

If an officer doesn’t show up after being subpoenaed to court, they can be charged with contempt of court.