COLUMBIA -- Columbia's city manager has laid out a set of recommendations for the police department after a February report gave a less than favorable review.
Mike Matthes' plan includes a recommendation to review the police chief and senior staff to determine their managerial capacity for their jobs.
It also has suggestions to create and implement a fair, impersonal internal justice system for complaints and possible violations. And to establish and implement a promotional system based upon merit.
There are 14 recommendations total.
Matthes said he gathered input from the police department, its command staff, and the officers association.
This is the letter Matthes sent to the council:
Subject: Police Department Road Map resulting from Eric A. Anderson’s February, 2012 organizational review
Dear Mayor and Members of the City Council,
Over the last month, I have discussed the assessment conducted by Eric Anderson with a great many people.
I asked for input from the Police Department’s Command Staff. I met with representatives of the Columbia Police Officers Association. I asked for input from the Police Department as a whole, which the Executive Director of CPOA was generously willing to gather on my behalf. I gathered input from a team of senior city leaders representing a support network for the Police Department (Human Resources, Law, Finance, and my office). I have spoken with residents (and radio hosts) and appreciate their input and questions a great deal.
I absorbed this input and considered the many options we have related to each of the 14 recommendations in the Anderson review. Having done this, I provide the following road map to let you know the direction I will be moving in the coming years to implement every one of the 14 recommendations.
Recommendation 1:
"Review the Police Chief and his Senior Command Staff to determine their leadership and managerial capacity for their offices. Having had the 2006 study at their disposal, and confronting the significant number of public departmental failures, their further failure to improve the conditions in the department makes this review vital. It should be conducted in the context of the Code of Ordinances, City of Columbia, Missouri, Section 21-20(b)."
I will personally conduct these reviews. These reviews are my first priority and I will be working to accomplish them by the end of May. Council should expect that these will result in changes, or recommendations for changes if outside my purview.
Recommendation 2:
"Communicate clearly and continuously the strategic purpose of the police department to all members of the department, sworn and civilian, and to the public."
The Police Department is not alone in this shortcoming. We have recently started a strategic planning process for all departments in the city government. This process will include the Police Department and I will personally facilitate parts of that process. Their work will be delivered to Council in time for your mini-retreat in May and the full retreat in June. By the end of the fiscal year, every department, including the Police Department will have an established strategic purpose.
Equally important as having a strategic plan is communicating it. I will be working with the command staff to formulate a communication process that reaches every employee of the department with accurate and timely factual information.
More specifically, the Command Staff has indicated that it will begin to transmit a synopsis of their weekly meeting to the rest of the Department in an effort to communicate more clearly. They will also invite line level personnel to participate in Command Staff meetings.
Recommendation 3:
"Communicate clearly and continuously the values that underlie that strategic purpose to all members of the department, sworn and civilian, and to the public.
Related closely to the second recommendation, our approach to implement this concept will also be through the use of the strategic planning process. Implementing this will require a significant increase in interaction between command staff and officers. As above, the command staff has indicated that they will more purposefully interact with their teams.
Recommendation 4:
"Codify the General Orders, rules, policies and procedures of the department. This process has been underway for almost three years. Adoption and distribution of the General Orders, rules, policies, and procedures that govern the actions of the members of the department has to be a high priority. Those that are in effect should be clearly identified and well publicized and not changed until their replacements are complete and ready for implementation. When ready, their implementation should be accompanied by extensive training. All those subject to them should receive and personally sign for their copy. Unless extraordinary circumstances require it, changes should be issued semiannually on a regular schedule and be signed for by each officer and a copy of the signed change maintained in the officers’ personnel record. Those replaced should be removed entirely from the department’s computers and clearly designated as superseded."
Shortly after the receipt of this recommendation, the Police Department finished the first significant step to implement this idea, by joining the Lexipol service. This service provides a set of baseline policies vetted through federal and state law. These have been adopted by the department and are now moving through the promulgation process. That process will include a review by the Human Resources Department and my office. I will also ask the Columbia Police Officers Association to review them. Once these policies have become finalized, a significant training effort will occur.
Recommendation 5:
"Implement extensive and continual training in all aspects of the work of the Police Department. The average age of the department is rapidly falling, as officers retire or otherwise leave the department. Unless training is seriously improved, newer officers cannot be adequately prepared for their tasks and older officers will begin to lose their skills. Currently, 48% of Patrol Officers on the street have fewer than 5 years’ experience."
The training budget in the department was cut by 10% in fiscal year 11. Half of that was replaced in the FY12 budget (our current budget) for a total budget of a little over $120,000. This amounts to $600 per employee per year. This investment may not be adequate to achieve the improvement recommended here. The curriculum itself may need to improve and it may be that the amount of training can increase without a large budget impact. As an example, I will be exploring the idea that command staff conduct some of the training in the curriculum.
Recommendation 6:
"In order to supplement improved training; reinforce the department’s internal justice system; provide for speedy interpretation of the ordinances, laws, rules and regulations of the department; and support officers in the field, an Attorney from the Law Department should be assigned to the Police Department on a full time basis."
The budget I am preparing now, and will submit to you for consideration in August, will include a additional attorney in the Law Department. This recommendation is underscored by the current caseload of the Law Department for Police business.
Recommendation 7:
"Address the pay compression issue as soon as a budgetary opportunity can be created."
As with recommendations 2 and 3, this is a citywide problem. Our system allows pay compression to be created with nearly every new hire and promotion. I am committed to solving this equity issue citywide. This is also a subject of conversation in the meet and confer process. My intent will be to include in the recommended budget sufficient funding to conduct a thorough citywide analysis of the problem with a plan to phase in a solution over a short number of years. This problem is fundamentally a structural flaw in our approach to compensation and we must change our system such that compression cannot recur once fixed.
Recommendation 8:
"Develop a department-wide Performance Management System with measures, evaluations and regular reporting."
This recommendation is closely related to recommendations 2 and 3, and will be a citywide effort. The strategic plan developed in the coming months will establish the goals the department will strive to achieve. Once goals are set, measures (including the ICMA benchmark data) will be used to judge our progress. An example might be that we establish improving community satisfaction with the quality of the police department as an important goal. Moving that from 69% to say 75% over three years might be our goal and yardstick in one.
Recommendation 9:
"Establish and implement a promotional system based upon merit and ensure that all employees understand the system. The system should include testing; interviewing that includes Human Resources personnel, and consideration of past performance."
This is largely in place, and, will be solidified best through our meet and confer process. I expect there may need to be changes to Chapter 19 to finalize this effort.
Recommendation 10:
"Create and implement a fair, impersonal internal justice system for the disposition of complaints and allegations of violations of policy. This system should provide due process to all members of the department and be overseen by the City Manager or his/her appointee."
Our approach to internal affairs has been a source of debate for some time. I intend to research how the best departments in the country approach this issue, then develop our approach with that as a knowledge base. It may be that this function would move to a different department such as Human Resources. This research and redesign of our approach is one I would like to accomplish by October 1, 2012.
Recommendation 11:
"Create a system of joint patrol/citizen committees to develop and assure dialogue between the department and the especially vulnerable, e.g. the minority and low income, parts of the community."
When our Police Department has engaged in this activity, significant positive response has resulted. This is a tried and true method to increase the confidence the community has in our Police Department. The Police Chief in particular has demonstrated this through his outreach to important community and neighborhood groups. I will work with the command staff in particular, and through the strategic planning process in general, to develop a proactive and intentional outreach effort that will be sustained over the long term.
Recommendation 12:
"Construction of a new Police Headquarters that, through its architecture, encourages communication between and among the ranks. It should not include a jail or holding facilities. The Sheriff has facilities for this purpose and an agreement between the Sheriff and the City should be negotiated so that the Police can use the facilities for holding and interrogation."
The Police Department and the Public Safety Joint Communication Office have recently completed a needs assessment for future facility needs. Those results will be available shortly. I have added a project in the CIP (currently unfunded) to hold a place for this effort. No matter the specific facilities that result, this level of investment will require a future ballot to proceed. On an encouraging note, last year the legislature approved language to allow just such a ballot initiative. I view this recommendation as an external validation of an internally recognized need.
Recommendation 13:
"The department should pursue accreditation through CALEA. This effort is more than an attempt to establish clear stable policies. It entails a multi-year undertaking that will require that additional resources be made available to the department."
This recommendation is a powerful way to ensure long term success for the Police Department. Chief Burton has initiated an effort to achieve this result. I expect this to be a highly important element of the strategic plan for the Police Department. This effort may take a few years to achieve and a long term commitment to sustain. The results will be worth the effort.
Recommendation 14:
"A representative of the City Manager should oversee the implementation of the recommendations of this report. The matters being addressed are both community concerns and departmental leadership and management issues. This makes it very difficult for the department to adequately measure its own progress. The City Manager has ultimate managerial responsibility for the department. His office should supervise the actions taken.
I agree completely with this recommendation and have decided to oversee the implementation of this road map myself. In addition, I have called together a team of support departments to act as a safety net for the Police Department throughout this effort and beyond. This group is made up of Law, Human Resources, Finance, and the City Manager’s Office.
Regards,
Mike Matthes
City Manager
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