Was Detective Osman qualified?
[2] Because Detective Osman had been a City of Monterey Park police officer for 12 years he satisfied the threshold requirement of section 872, subdivision (b): “Any law enforcement officer testifying as to hearsay statements shall … have five years of law enforcement experience. …” As Whitman makes clear, five years’ law enforcement experience is a necessary but insufficient qualification. Officer Alexander, the testifying officer in Whitman, had eight years’ experience but was unqualified. But Whitman makes less clear just what, in addition to five years’ experience, constitutes section 872, subdivision (b) officer qualification. [5 Cal.App.4th 444] Officer Alexander illustrates what constitutes nonqualification. “Proposition 115 does not authorize a finding of probable cause based on the testimony of a noninvestigating officer or ‘reader’ merely reciting the police report of an investigating officer.” (Whitman v.
