"FSPD...Facts, Opinions and Predictions..."

Through the presentation by the City Manager at the last Commission Meeting as well as the Tribune report it has been made public that the FSPD officers are below average in pay compared to other localities. At the same meeting the Commission voted to spend $3,000 to the Kansas League of Municipalities to update their wage study to affirm that fact. Neither report disclosed how many officers have recently left the department, nor if pay was actually the major reasoning for their leaving.

So here are those facts, as I understand them. This year 7 officers including the Police Chief left the Department. Last year 7 officers, which included 3 sergeants left the force. (14 officers in less than 1-1/2 years.) and over 23% turnover in years prior. So in the last 18 months we lost nearly the same number of the entire replacement force of 15 that we have now. It is a requirement of new untrained officers to attend the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center (KLETC) in Hutchison, Kansas within a year of their hiring. The academy training is 14 weeks, 40 hours a week, (add to that the 6 hour round-trip to the center). The local department training is 12 additional weeks supervised here, 43 hours a week. Considering that new officers are paid during their training, (even at the low $10.65 per hour rate) and you will see it is costing the city at least $12,000 per untrained employee they hire. If that is applied to the number of officers that have quit if they are replaced with untrained officers we would be looking at over $168,000 in cost of training to the city. Now with that, is there any guarantee that we are not just training a new batch of officers to be hired by other cities? (That was former Chief Reye’s excuse for turnover rate; other cities were hiring the experienced officers that we had here because they were so well trained.) So doesn’t it just make sense for the city to pay a little more to hire only trained officers in the first place? But would that be the simple solution to the problem? I doubt it, because I don’t feel the problems are only concerning the rate of pay. We have heard that from at least one other former officer publicly.

I also have to wonder is it really a responsible thing for the City to pay $3,000 to the Kansas League to update their wage study when we have a paid HR director on staff? Especially when the 2006 budget has already been approved so the likelihood of higher pay won’t be taking effect until 2007 anyway. And isn’t it also part of the HR directors responsibility to conduct exit interviews? He might hear from the former officers that the current rate of pay has not been their major area of concern, or he might not, considering the other possibility… the possibly that there has been resentment in the department over the times the HR director himself has been appointed as chief without any law enforcement training. Or that he is also a Reserve Lieutenant and focuses on Homicide Investigation Interviews when necessary. (Again without any law enforcement training.) Or that he has been allowed to carry a weapon on “stake-outs.” Wouldn’t it be somewhat difficult for a former officer to feel comfortable giving an exit interview to the same person he might have worked under or resented, having no reasonable expectation that it would ever effect any change anyway? (Just a possibility.) So why not save the $3,000 and perhaps apply it to hiring an outside agency to conduct the exit interviews then report them to the Commission? Or better yet the Commission could do it themselves in executive session in order to figure out exactly what the problems are and with whom the responsibility lays. If they really want to know the answers.

Now, it’s not news that I state my opinions on policy and politics on my website, and I don’t profess to be psychic, but I will make the following “opinionated prediction…”

I think the City Manager will end up keeping Jeff Davis on as Chief of both Departments.

I base that on a few observations. One is the fact that the City Manager has chosen to appoint the Fire Chief as the interim Police Chief instead of hiring a trained/experienced officer from inside the department. Chief Davis has years of Administrative experience in his resume, however no Law Enforcement Training. He is scheduled for the Academy in November. I believe that the City Manager will justify this decision to the Commission and community as an overall savings and streamlining to the department. (Even though it would be less money to not have to train him at the academy and hire an trained/experienced officer.) I noticed that during his power-point presentation at the Commission meeting the manager pointed out that one of the cities in the survey has this type of combination of department heads. Of course combination department heads is nothing new to this administration. Remember, Bob Johnson is not just an HR Director, but also Airport Director, Community Center Director, Theater Director, and Reserve Lt. Police Homicide Detective, and still has time to operate the video camera at the meetings! All with just a 2 year degree from the Community College. That’s pretty impressive. It will be interesting to see if this combination is what happens to the department, and if by doing so it can turn things around for the police officers we have left. I do have my doubts on that too though, considering that there’s a good chance that HR Director Bob Johnson will most likely fill-in as ”interim for the interim” while the Interim Chief is away at the Academy. And would Chief Davis actually only be a figurehead for implementing Johnson's policy to the department? (Just another prediction.) Then again I’m not very good at predictions considering the April Elections!

I invite comments or emails from anyone, anytime. I'd like to know what you think...