Venegas

The Sacramento Police Officers Association and police officer Michael B. Kime appeal from a judgment denying their petition for a writ of mandate against Arturo Venegas, Jr., as Chief of Police, and the City of Sacramento. The interests of the Sacramento Police Officers Association and of Kime are unified; thus, for convenience, we will refer to their positions as those of Kime. The interests of Venegas and of the City of Sacramento are unified and, in fact, are the interests of Kime’s employer, the Sacramento City Police Department (the Department); for convenience, we will refer to their interests as those of the Department.

Kime contends that, pursuant to the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act (Gov. Code, § 3300 et seq.), he is entitled to read and respond to information maintained in the Department’s internal affairs section regarding an allegation of neglect of duty by Kime relating to the theft of a city-owned car entrusted to him. The Department acknowledges that its internal affairs section maintains an index card for each of the Department’s public safety officers and that the index card “lists all complaints made against that officer, whether…