6 Police Discipline Cases May Be Dropped

San Francisco police officials said at least six disciplinary cases against officers will probably be dropped because internal affairs investigators failed to meet the deadline for bringing charges.

The Police Commission ordered the department earlier this week to notify complainants when their cases die because police have failed to act quickly enough.

Capt. Denis O’Leary, who is in charge of departmental discipline, said the cases had apparently died in the last few months because investigators hadn’t completed them before the one-year statute of limitations expired.

All cases were sent to the department by the Office of Citizen Complaints, an independent city agency that handles grievances filed by the public. City voters approved a measure this month, Proposition H, that will make it easier for the agency to take such complaints directly to the Police Commission.