An officer broke police protocol when they relayed information about the driver involved in a serious car crash in Dededo over the weekend.

You may recall, police then released incorrect details that the driver had died. The officer did that without confirming it with a physician at the Guam Regional Medical City.

More than 20 hours had passed before the police corrected their mistake.

Tonight, the top brass of Guam police issued a public apology, as he has yet to determine what adverse action, if any, could be taken against the officer.

“Our apologies to the family, to the community and we just have to understand that it was our mistake and we have to make sure that it doesn’t happen in the future,” said Guam Police Chief Stephen Ignacio. 

Ignacio Friday revealed what happened when his officers prematurely released information that the driver in Sunday's Dededo crash on Harmon Loop Road died.

“A lot of miscommunication on our end, quite the mistake. It’s not the first time I've seen this happen and it’s not something we intentionally do. There is no ill will on our part to provide misleading information; of course we are not going to do that. But relying on information at the time we decided to report it out without proper confirmation through our normal channels. So it’s a lesson learned to stick to our established protocols,” said Ignacio. 

Ignacio admitted highway patrol officers investigating the crash went to Guam Regional Medical City to check on the condition of the driver.

“Their update as to the victim’s status was not readily available at the time we were inquiring – the officers, and this is where I'm talking about going outside of protocol, were approached by a family member who conveyed to the officer that the operator had passed away,” added Ignacio. 

That officer apparently broke protocol when they did not verify information with doctors.

“So we went with the word of the family and reported that out,” said Ignacio. 

As KUAM reported, it wasn’t until 20 hours later that GPD corrected their mistake after learning the driver was still fighting for his life.

“I instructed my PIO to push out the update that we had wrong information out, the driver was still alive. Unfortunately, two hours after we pushed out that the driver was still alive I got an update that they took the driver off life support and the driver passed away,” said Ignacio. 

The top brass understood it was a highly emotional time for the family of the driver identified by police as Traynie Radford.

“Our condolences to the family and we extend our apologies to the family for the miscommunication and to the community at large,” he said. 

As for the officer who broke protocol, Ignacio said incident reports are being submitted to his office to determine if there were any intentional violations.

He added he will decide then whether to send the case to his internal affairs or have the officer’s command administer discipline such as counseling, warnings or reprimands.

KUAM asked, “This is protocol in terms of communication rather than what they do out there in the field. How often do your officers get that type of training?”

“That’s why we vet all the information through our PIO but also our PIO relies on the information from the officers out in the field…They’ve gone through many traffic facilities before, it’s not their first time…but it was a lesson learned and they need to stick to established protocols,” Ignacio said.