Irvine Orders Probe of Police Sex Charges

City officials launched an investigation Wednesday into allegations that on-duty police officers routinely had sex with women in the back seats of patrols cars and formed a club to induct those officers who “got away with it.”

City Manager Paul O. Brady Jr. ordered the investigation Tuesday after reports surfaced from a lawyer for four women officers who are former or current members of the department and who sued the city in February for sexual harassment and discrimination over the treatment of women on the force.

The women claim that some officers boasted about their on-duty sexual exploits and formed a “Code Four” club in which membership and pins were awarded to an officer once he had sex with a woman in his patrol car.

“If you got away with it, you could become a member,” plaintiff Pamela Fuehrer said at a news conference at her attorney’s office.

But the Code Four allegations have not been included in any of the legal papers filed by the women as part of their lawsuit. And at the news conference, Fuehrer and another plaintiff, Abbe Taylor, both of whom are on medical leave from the Irvine Police Department, refused to discuss many of the details behind the latest allegations.

The women and their lawyer, Steven R. Pingle, declined to say how many officers they believe are in the alleged Code Four club and said they did not know with whom the officers allegedly had sex in their cars.

Code four is a police term meaning that an officer is all right.

Fuehrer and Taylor have worked at the department since 1984, but both women said they had never aired their allegations before because they did not think it would do any good.

Police administrators were unavailable for comment, but city officials said they were shocked.

“This comes as a surprise to me and to the Police Department. It’s new,” Brady said. “The city has no record of any complaints about this.”

Mayor Michael Ward said he views the allegations seriously. “I want (city officials) to search out if there’s any truth to this matter whatsoever, and if so, take appropriate action. Anyone involved in this should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” Ward said.