Eye Witness Testimony

"I saw it with my own eyes." This may seem like the best evidence, but my experience shows otherwise.

I remember doing some robbery training at a local bank some years ago. I had a detective play the role of robber wearing a red sweatshirt and ball cap. Immediately after the mock robbery, everyone in the bank silently filled out a descriptive worksheet. Outside, I had the detective switch shirts with another detective. Both had short blonde hair but otherwise looked very different. I had the second detective enter the bank and asked the tellers how they did. Some commented that they got the pants wrong or shoes wrong. When asked if they would be able to testify in court positively identifying the man as the one who did the robbery, four hands shot up. They had focused on the bright red sweatshirt. Scary.

Eye witness testimony has to be treated very carefully. That's why we follow a very specific protocol developed by experts for photo line-ups.

Take a look at this video before reading further. The officers are ordering the suspect to put the gun down and it appears he is complying, and then shot! Did the officers overract?

Okay, now watch the video again. Carefully watch the suspect's right hand while he puts down the assault rifle with his left hand.

What you don't see, but the officer behind does see, is the suspect pulling a hidden handgun from his rear pants pocket with his right hand. As he falls, you can see it.

Things aren't always as they appear.

By the way, this was likely a training video so don't read too much into it.

2 New Cops

[Mayor Fuhriman swears in Brandon Prince (left) and Eric Rose (right)]

We had two recent additions to the police department filling vacancies from retirements. They were selected from a very competitive process.

Brandon Prince:

Played hockey at Utah State
Member of National Guard
Native of Huntington Beach, CA
Wife is a teacher (part of what she teaches is survival training) in Rigby
Family predominately either works in education or law enforcement (brother-in-law works at the Pocatello Police Department)
Married for about 2-years

Eric Rose:

Attended BYU-I, Graduated in July with degree in sociology
Member of the National Guard
Grew up in Colorado and Utah, but has family that resides in Idaho Falls
He and his wife have been married just over a year
Awaiting the birth of a daughter (their first) in January

They are both outstanding men, but the thing that impressed me most was their integrity and willingness to stand alone for doing the right thing. Some people are critical of the 20-something millennials, but if Brandon and Eric are in any way representative of their generation, we have reason for optimism.

Accomplishment #6

We worked to change the department leadership style from Directive to Servant Leader. We removed the rank-has-its-privileges mindset among supervisors starting by eliminating the reserved parking for captains and chief and making the captains and chief pay for their take-home cars like everyone else. We also now make the chief and captains wait in line for a new car like everyone else.

I love it when my views are challenged and many have risen to the task. Getting input from lots of angles inevitably generates better decisions and I humbly accept that. I have a guiding role, but those closest to the problem often have the best solutions on implementation.

My desire to have more participatory leadership has had mixed results. I was initially a little naïve in that I thought everyone would welcome me and know that even if imperfect, my motives were pure. I see the world in a very positive way, but unfortunately, as cops we’re faced with the worst and it has the potential to jade us.

Lessons Learned:

Inter-department communication is much harder than I thought it would be. I got so caught up with innovating new ideas and juggling all the demands of being chief, that I didn’t spend enough time with the front line. My leadership was strong with the people I worked with directly, but weak on face-time with the troops. I should have stayed more tuned into the street work.

As far as communication goes, I’ve learned that if people aren’t being regularly supplied with accurate information, they will make stuff up. As suspicious as we tend to be, I’m surprised that some cops are so gullible when it comes to believing rumors. I’m terrible at staying up with (or caring about) the rumor mill and I think that may have hurt us as a department. That is a reality I should have paid more attention to.

Speaking of lessons learned, I got caught flat-footed on the wage restructuring between Detectives and Patrol. Following the city-wide study, both increased, but Detectives increased more than Patrol. I had no idea it would create such a ruckus. I consider myself a pretty good student of human nature, but simply missed this one. I initially viewed it as the crabs-in-the-bucket syndrome (the saying goes that you don’t need a lid for the bucket if you have more than one crab because they will pull each other down), but I now understand that many viewed it as a matter of fairness.

An interesting Harvard study illustrates this point. Students were asked whether they would prefer:

a. $50,000 a year while others got half that or

b. $100,000 a year while others got twice as much.

A majority chose (a). They were happy with less, as long as they were better off than others.

I still don’t personally accept the premise and am a little baffled and disappointed in human nature, but I should have been prepared for the reality of it.

I’m extremely gratified that so many of the men and women of the Idaho Falls Police Department will confront me if they believe I’m headed down the wrong path. This is a dramatic shift from the past. I believe I’ve earned this trust because I listen and act on their insights. I also love it that our captains lead from the front and aren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves and get dirty. The department is in good hands.

Accomplishment #5

We initiated localized Intelligence-Led Policing as an enhancement to Community Policing.

It may come as no great surprise that most crime is committed by repeat criminals. It’s more effective to focus on these 10%’ers than all criminals equally.

Besides fielding up-to-date crime analysis to the front line (still a work in progress), we work with the Prosecutor, Jail, and Probation & Parole to have a unified and integrated approach for dealing effectively with the repeat criminals.

By the way, incarceration is at an all-time high and crime is near a multi-decade low. I would expect we could fine-tune this equation by refocusing incarceration on repeats, which may lower incarceration rates while still keeping the problem children behind bars.

Accomplishment #4

We’ve equipped the officers and implemented technology (Mobile Dispatching, E-Citations, Online Reporting, wireless mobile video download, etc.) to give them the tools they need to be more effective. I’d much rather have one guy driving a backhoe than a hundred guys with shovels.

I’ve also made some mistakes here. When it comes to implementing new technology, I used too much of a ready-fire-aim approach. The biggest single failure here was my willingness to trust the salesman and go for the newest technology rather than go with proven technology and let someone else test-drive the beta software. I also realized a little late that we needed much more IT support which we solved by hiring Oliver.

The officers are now better equipped than they’ve ever been.

· Every officer has a high quality AR-15 which really helps in firepower and safety – safer because target acquisition is much more precise and safer because outdoor firefights often involves distance outside pistol range.

· External Vest: Police Officers, particularly those with patrol assignments, often suffer from back problems complicated by wearing a gun belt. External vest takes the load from the waist and distributes it elsewhere.

· The condition of the fleet is significantly better. Five years ago, it wasn’t uncommon to retire 170,000 mile cars. Now, the car retirement is closer to 120,000 (Is that like dog years?). This means less costly break-downs and more efficient use of tax dollars, not just in maintenance cost, but in downtime for officers.

· Every officer has a cell phone, which is much more efficient both in time, gas, and service to the public. The first time I proposed this to my captain some years ago; he scoffed at the idea saying it would be cheaper to give them a pocket full of quarters for a pay phone. Uh, what’s a payphone?

· We remodeled the PD on the cheap (under $35K) making a smoother work flow, especially in patrol. We also doubled the workout area.

· Our lab was nothing more than a closet with a few pieces of equipment. We had well-trained staff, but they didn’t have the tools to do their jobs. With the expanded lab and equipment, we are now a leader in the State on processing crime scene evidence. The addition of real-time finger print analysis has identified multiple suspects.

· We increased the capabilities of SWAT, including the ability to do explosive entries. It may seem counterintuitive until you think about it, but a well-trained SWAT team reduces the likelihood of a violent outcome. I can think of at least one case last year in which the SWAT team response likely saved the life of a man who otherwise would have forced a police shooting.

· Chin warmers. Okay, so allowing goatees doesn’t really qualify here…

Pit Bull Attack

Being an animal lover, I find that any time an officer has to shoot a dog is heartbreaking. I don’t blame the dog and I certainly don’t blame the officer. The real tragedy is that the owner didn’t keep closer tabs on the animal.

In this particular case, Officer Reynolds went to check out some trespassers on the south end of town. You can see from the video that Officer Reynolds initially went for his pepper spray, but seeing there wasn’t time, quickly (and wisely) went for his firearm.

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that Pit Bulls can be dangerous, as can many other dogs. If you own one, be responsible.

Accomplishment #3

We have worked hard to establish citizen trust and satisfaction.

I have an open door and accept all complaints from anyone. I have my direct line and cell phone number listed on my business cards and website. Supervisors who receive officer complaints explain that if they aren’t satisfied with the internal investigation outcome, they are encouraged to discuss the matter with me personally. I’m very proud of my record as the overwhelming majority of people who have talked to me personally, end up satisfied. One of the reasons this works is because I really do listen and frequently make changes/corrections to fix problems based on these insights. By the way, I only get a small fraction of the complaints that I used to receive, a testament to the great work our officers are doing.

We’re quick to turn over conflict-of-interest cases to other agencies – especially critical incidents in which deadly force is used.

We raised the bar when we hired Joelyn as a Community Projects Coordinator and stepped up our communication with the news media by providing daily releases and research. For a police department, we are very generous in releasing information. We also added social media (Chief’s blog, Facebook, Twitter) as an additional outreach to the community.

I collaborated with a university professor in creating a victim satisfaction survey. Starting out, we had a 65% satisfaction rate – typical of many police departments. We then tied this to individual officers by sampling two cases per month per officer. Our satisfaction rate skyrocketed from 65% to 92% in a year’s time and recently, we’ve been flirting with 98%. When results are measured, results improve.

Along those same lines, we initiated data-driven performance measures on quality resulting in a 12% increase in solve rates and higher quality cases presented to the Prosecutor’s Office. I’m sure this also helped with the victim satisfaction rate.

Accomplishment #2

We have dramatically improved relationships with other agencies, particularly the Sheriff’s Office. One of my first acts as police chief was to tear down a locking door separating the Police Department and Sheriff’s Office. There was a collective sigh of relieve as this symbolically signaled the end of a long-standing rift between agencies. Sheriff Paul Wilde and I continued by eliminating reserved parking for us and our captains and other unnecessary “reserved for IFPD only” and “reserved for BSO only” parking.

Paul and I made a blood oath to cooperate no matter what, which led to collaboration on technology, a joint major crimes task force, crime intelligence, and a common records system allowing us to see each other’s cases, suspects, and other data sharing. Not only do we get a lot more bang-for-the-buck in tax dollars, but we are more effective working as a team.

All this works because Paul and I set aside our egos for the common good. Cops aren’t known for small egos so this isn’t something that comes naturally. Just ask Rebecca.

Accomplishment #1

Continuing with my obsession in making government more efficient, one of the first things I did was to eliminate a captain and two lieutenant positions and put them on the street. Of course I did this through attrition (I’m not a barbarian). Besides putting three additional officers on the street, which would have cost the city over $250,000 a year, it saved the city about $89,000 a year in lower salaries. Here are some other annual cost savings:

· Eliminating ineffective Cadet Program $30,000

· Renegotiated SRO contract $74,328

· Negotiated deaf-line fees $4,800

· Through efficiency gains in Records, cut ½ position $24,371

· Initiated online accident reports $1,700

· Condensed three secretary positions into two $45,817

· Initiated online crime reporting $40,148

Through attrition, we civilianized three positions saving about $95,000 a year. Sworn police officers are expensive. It cost about $12,000 annually per officer just to keep a cop trained and equipped. They require a lot of specialized training and they are wired a certain way. It makes sense to have cops do what cops do best.

· Civilianized Property Room Technician $43,849

· Civilianized Training Coordinator $31,709

· Civilianized Crime Scene Technician $20,175

Lessons Learned:

On the downside of flattening the organization, lost opportunity for promotion was a serious blow to at least two sergeants. At the time, I considered it likely that at least two lieutenants would retire. That never happened (I guess they loved me too much to leave). This also limited our options in making mid-management assignments.

Accomplishments and Lessons Learned

Those of you who understand me know I can’t rest until I’ve at least made a stab at making things work better. My dragon-slaying idealism also must get along with my obsession with making government more responsive and efficient. I’ve carried my experience in business and my MBA into law enforcement to apply some principles that helped us accomplish more with less. Over the next few posts, I’ll flesh out some of the high points as well as lessons learned on the following:

1.      Making government more efficient
2.      Dramatically improved relationships with other agencies
3.      Worked hard to establish citizen trust and satisfaction
4.      Equipped the officers with the tools to be more efficient and effective
5.      Initiated localized Intelligence-Led Policing
6.      Change in leadership from Directive to Servant Leader

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