This could have been one of the worst weeks for APD and The Almighty Alcalde. From divisive contracts to potential felonious corruption the 5th floor seems to be in a complete meltdown. If all of this weren't enough the brain trust decided it was time to change the basic operational structure of the entire department.
Chief Schultz announced Thursday through the Journal's T.J. Wilham that the new bid and operational model for APD will be for 5-8s (ABQ Journal - Subscription). For the uninitiated that means that officers will work 5 days a week for 8 hours a shift. Currently, officers work 4 days a week for 10 hours per shift. The reason given for the unprecedented change - response times. We'll get back to that concept later.
Our Eyes tell us that the real reason behind the move is the Almighty Alcalde's desire to open a sixth area command on the northwest side of town. Now, we don't disagree that Albuquerque needs more officers and even more area commands, but this administration's perception over reality approach has made our city one of the more dangerous places in the country to live even if Chief Schultz feels safe.
Let's take a look at the current 4-10 shift schedule. In addition to picking up bad guys forty hours a week, officers have additional responsibilities that neither they nor their superiors have control over most of which have to do with the less than optional obligation of appearing in court. At present the 4 day 40 hour work week doesn't mean that officers have a full three days off, it means that if their days off happen to be during the Monday through Friday work week they'll more than likely end up in court on their day off.
Typically court won't last a full eight hours and sometimes they won't be scheduled with any court obligations - whether those are court appearances or pre-trial hearings. However, most officers are lucky to get one full day off a week once their non-shift obligations are taken into consideration.
We believe adding an 8 hour shift and reducing four of the other shifts by two hours will not only create a situation where there are fewer officers on the street, but will end up making law enforcement a 24-7 endeavor where officers are either on the street or in court. In addition to the unwieldy burden placed on officers and their families, we also must consider the effect of fatigue on an officer's judgment. Poor judgment results in poor decisions. Poor decision making results in offenders going free and endangering the public in ways that we don't even want to contemplate.
Let's get back to "poor response times." Right now we live in a dangerous city, poor response times are a result of a lack of officers on the street, high crime and we believe poor policies instituted by the 5th floor and the Chavez administration. Chief Schultz's 5-8 scheme stretches an already insufficient force over an increasingly large area. What it doesn't appear to do is reduce response times or reduce crime. After all, the same number of officers will be working the same number of hours. Do we really improve the quality of law enforcement by stretching them to their limits, spreading them over an increasing large area, and wrecking their family lives?
In just a week APD has managed to divide the rank and file against itself, and get rid of one of the most attractive benefits that APD provides its officers - the 4-10 work week that really means maybe a full 24 hours off. We've got to admit, that's quite an accomplishment if your goal is to wreck an already struggling department.
Chief Schultz and crew aided and abetted by the APOA have designed a contract that encourages senior officers to retire or leave APD for better opportunities. The change in operational structure to 5-8s will further encourage senior officers to leave and/or retire early - a situation that neither makes us safer nor helps APD reach its arbitrary goal of 1,100 officers.
(Sidebar)In the end all that will be accomplished is more officers leaving the department, deteriorating morale, and an increasingly inexperienced police force. In the end APD will be 10-7 as an effective law enforcement agency.
We're already hearing rumors of a "blue flu" and of increasing officer retiring by July 1st. Our Eyes tell us that the intrepid brain trust of the 5th floor plans to keep all of the departing officers on the roster as long as possible in order to minimize the appearance of force degradation. In other words, the plan is to lie to the general public - not exactly new when it comes to APD and numbers.
(End Sidebar)
28 comments:
why are they trying to open a new substation in the NW? They already have the one at cottonwood mall, not costing anything because the mall wants the presence of the cops, and it's not like they don't have plenty of parking and space....what a waste of money that is to build a new one, it's just like the one they built on central downtown, it's closed down because they can't staff it, and again, why would they open a new one? What are these people thinking?
The 5th floor continues to try and make the troops look like sh*%. Morale can get lower, believe it or not, we always say it can't but it seems to always happen that way.
First, What your chief does not understand is that the trend in modern law enforcement is now a 3-12 schedule. This trend is spreading across the county in many police dept's. Many California dept's now used this schedule.
Second, Well, other police dept's are attemping to make a poor work place a more enjoyable one, you chief is making your dept worse.
Third, Your chief is behind the times when it comes to modern policing management.
Fourth, Para- Military style management is out! Every police manager worth his salt knows that! Your chief needs to fast forward about 20 years, and step into this century.
Fifth, any police supervisor that has any type of advanced/formal management training should have been taught this!
Coming from a fairly large police dept, but now retired and in a management position, I can't beleive what I am reading about your department's organization. They are playing with fire. They need to bring in some experts on managing police organizations.
Unfortunately, the only people that suffer are the officers and citizens they are sworn to protect!
During the Chief Bob Stover Administration, Chief Ray Schultz who was at the time a DWI Sgt was investigated for double dipping on overtime. What Sgt Schultz was doing is called tag teaming. He and his DWI Unit would call out with DWI Stops and one officer would call in another officer to issue fields, then another officer would conduct the investigation. The result, was that each Officer/Sgt on the DWI stop was subpoena to court and received overtime money. The problem here is that they did not all need to be on the call, but did it for the overtime money.
The investigation, through his own officer's statements indicated that Sgt Schultz and his crew, infact had complete and full knowledge that they were double dipping overtime money.
As a result, Sgt Schultz' DWI unit was disbanded and he was disciplined. Schultz has fired officers for doing the same.
This is the type of person Schultz is!
As a tax paying citizen in this fair city of ours, I highly encourage all of you that can leave the department, to please do so, immediately. Hopefully we can attrition out the cancer and start anew.
By the way, tt's 5 9's, not 5 8's
Funny how the REAL story is not put out there. Oh wait, it NEVER is!
BCSO, BCSO, BCSO!
APD will always be there, the question is do you want them to be there staffed with a diversity of younger and older cops who have vastly enhanced skill sets? Front loading the contract money will get you the young guys, but even they are coming from a pool of recruits that look at many depts. before deciding. Many depts. offer 4-10s or 3-12s, so this decision may have undone to some degree the enhanced money package. Also, additional substations are almost always political - since except at briefing they are nearly empty. Frankly you can brief cops in a neighborhood for free and get the same community "buy in" without the millions in construction costs. Congrats once again for whichever politician managed to screw with cops for their own legacy. It shouldnt come as a suprise though, it has happened for hundreds of years of society.
My husband is a new police officer, and everytime I read this blog, I become more concerned for my husband's safety. I had no idea that the Albuquerque police Dept had so many problems. I would never have supported this career change had I known of the internal strife at APD. Obviously,there are inherent dangers that go along with being a police officer, but I certainly didn't anticipate that we would have to be leary of the people in charge of the police department!
There's corruption everywhere you go in the world, and in every police agency. As long as you and your husband aren't corrupt or suseptable to corruption, don't worry about it. If he's corrupt or suseptable to corrution, yes, you better worry for your husbands safety!
Do not listen to the last post. 99% of the APD has integrity and are hard working cops. We are all fathers, wives, son, daughters, brothers, and sisters who work day in and day out to serve and protect. Like in any large corporation, there are fools who rule the roost. Your husband is working in one of the best agencies in the nation. He has a large family of brothers and sisters in blue that are there for him. Just ask any of the officers and their families who were ever injured or killed in the line of duty. Support and be proud of your husband who is one of Albuquerques bravest.
Former blogger: "Governor Richardson who could possibly be the next Vice President of the United States!" Really??? Are you that ignorant? The rest of the country out there (and a hell of a lot of us here in NM) think he's a bungling, stupid, corrupt slob! I have personally heard members of his own cabinet run him down during public speeches. Everyone in the DOE hates him because of all the bungling he did during his stint as DOE Secretary. You don't really think the public at large can be duped like that, do you? Dream on -
To the wife.....Don't be afraid of the people in charge.... be very afraid of the quality of people your husband depends on to back him up. If you don't know who they are or what kind of people they are,,,take a look at some of the blog postings here. They are posted by the very people your husband counts on to help him, Now thats what should really scare you...
The DWI Unit under ray ray was not disbanded, I know I was there. Yes ray did take a hit for the timsheet thing.
bring on the blue flu!
It was disbanded and everyone was transferred out, including you, if you in fact were there, or maybe you were one of the officer's that gave a statement on Ray's overtime fraud, most did! A new DWI Unit was created without overtime hounds! Ray was transferred.
IA has copies of all that stuff, unless, Ray had it destroyed to cover up his past crimes.
The Chief does not care about our families, as he is in his own little world! Look at how he has taken all the power. He would not have been able to do this with the last bunch of Captain's. That's why he feared them. However, they all knew how corrupt the chief was and wanted no part of him or his administration. Hence, the massive brass retirement. The Chief likes puppets that can't think for themselves and don't question his authority.
To many outside of law enforcement, a 5/8s schedule may seem perfectly normal. What most people don't understand about working that shift as a cop is this: 1st, when working 'normal' hours in an office (for example), for the most part when you are on your lunch break you get to leave your desk and walk away from your responsibilties, at least for a short while - police officers, on the other hand, must remain available to respond to an emergency (meaning, that they often have to get up from a fresh plate of food and leave); 2nd, as the Eye stated, unless you are a senior officer and happen to have Saturday / Sunday off, then your days off will fall during the normal work week - what that means is that you will work (for example) Thur/Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon and be off Tues/Wed,,,,off, that is, unless you have court on Tues/Wed (and needless to say, if you happen to work graveyard, court will be cutting into your precious sleep time) - this means, basically, working 7 days a week for some folks and how many of you would stand by at let that happen to yourselves. So, let's look at 4/10s: again, assuming you are a junior officer with Tues/Wed/Thur off, even working grave yard, you are now looking at maybe 3 days where court will interrupt your days off, but maybe you also have a 33% better chance to actually have a day without any court. How do we solve the court issue: well, cops could start doing less at work, which would the result in less court. That's not really the answer, for a number of reason. On the other hand, the department (read 5th floor) could put its collective foot down with Metro Court in particular, and insist that officers are not given court or pretrial assignments on their days off. And what about bringing back night court for those officers that are already on duty in the evenings? Just a thought.
Albuquerque's problem is not unanswered or delayed response to calls for service. The problem is rising crime rates. Solving the calls for service problem is not going to reduce crime. I know this sounds counterintuitive but that's the reality. Countless studies prove it and it's a documented reality.
Now that the public has the perceptions that more cops are available for calls the net result will be...more calls for service.
An educated command staff would know this. Leaders with backbone would know this but we don't have this. We have amateurs and wannabes.
I'd like to thank the ABQJournal for reinforcing this myth because by endorsing yet another poor decision by Ray, policing in Albuquerque just went to the stone age. I antipicate 2008 will be the most violent year in Albuquerque's history.
But I shouldn't be surprised, I guess that's what you get when you have a yes man as a chief who's only academic credentials are from a non-accredited diploma mill.
And you Mr. "you'll get over it" we will, we will forget you and but we'll always remember the fact that you never were really a cop.
Wow, I forgot about night court, used to have it here back in the day! That's a great idea most large cities still have it, too.
This chief is just worried about how much money he can make before he skips town laughing at all the destruction he has done to the APD!
How are 378 officers out of the 970 plus the 5th and 11th floor say are working going to protect this city? This number is less than last bid. Where are the other 500+ officers assigned? No matter how the 5th or 11th floor spin it they are not taking calls for services. The math is skewed as is the mentality of senior officals who are are responsible for the safety of the community.
Why not require Serageants, Lt's, Commanders, Deputy Chief's, and all Detectives and specialized untis to take calls for a minimum of 3 hours per shift (and not just 8-5, Monday thru Friday). This will reduce officers needed for calls for service and allow the field to remain on 4/10s or 3/12s. It will also allow patrolman to thoroughly conduct investigations rather then a quick report forwarded to a detective that will never investigate the incident.
They have forgotten from where they came. If this was a military organization the top brass and field leadership would have been relieved.
Why aren't the Serageants and Lt's speaking up? This Department is about whats best for the individual not what is best for the team. The department has to many sworn personnel inside (i.e. School Resource Officers, OPS Review, TRU, Communications, Report Review, PTU, Task Forces, etc.)
Also, disband the detective groups and assign them to the area commands with the same shifts the patrol officers have.
The final thing is to have the District Attorney's office do their job instead of having officers/detectives do a complete "supp out" on a case. That's a lawyers job. If officers are required to do it then pay them what an attorney gets paid. The same goes with Oficer prosecuted cases (which is bullshit since the DA should be handling these cases anyway).
The judicial system is corrupt (to include the lazy DA's offices). Fix this and many problems will go away.
Were going to busy in the field this year answering calls for service and all the other stuff we have to do. Lets just take our time and remember its one call at a time, report written before we go on to the next, no more humping from call to call. What did that get us, we were trying to do our best and they still spit on us like were lower than snake shit. Now its time to do our work, how the SOP states that all reports will be turned in at the end of shift. Lets all SLOW down and get things done right.
Take your 5 8s and quit whining. Be glad you have a job. If you really cared about all this you would have been active with the APOA all along. You get what you deserve by allowing others to control you. I don't think Schultz is a very good chief, but he has every right to put you on whatever shift he thinks. He wouldn't do it if he thought the APOA was powerful.
Get involved and stop your whining.
"Get involved and stop your whining"
Here's an idea you wannabe leader from the APOA, identify yourself and take command. Otherwise take your miserable association back to where it came from ... the basement (literally).
THe 5-8's schedule is simply a power play by the chief and mayor. Both of these men rule by fear instead of by leadership. Both Ray-Ray and SMarty have been recieving black eye after black eye due to the media reports of their inability to recruit officers, reduce crime, or provide an acceptable work environment for the officers on the department. From every article written about the lack of officers and skyrocketing crime rates, to the ad placed by the APOA during Balloon Fiesta, to the high profile violent crimes which keep ABQ on the news wire. Each of these have undermined the legitimacy of these two men. This power play is another forceful way to "control" the officers and to show who is "boss". The dynamic duo is afraid of the Officers in the department speaking out and revealing the true beast that is crime within the city. Unfortunately for the hard working men and women in blue, the only way that this duo knows how to "control" is with a heavy hand. They have successfully crushed the spirit and morale of the department by implementing a schedule that will overwork officers to the point that health and mental wellness will decrease enough to cause more problems. This power play is just another attempt to avoid an additional black eye to these two because a 6th area command was promised without the resources to properly implement it. I hope that Ray-Ray and SMary are held accountable when the next tragedy happens because the manpower is spread too thin. We are going to end up with officers too tired to properly do their jobs, too disgruntled to want to do this job, and alone on the job because there are not enough officers to provide backup when something truly bad happens. The result of all of this...higher crime rates unhappy citizens, and unhappy officers. Please hold these two accountable when we have to attend the funeral of another officer or citizen because the egos of these two men would not allow them to do what is right instead of what makes them look good.
Ok we finally tracked down Ron O, the secretary had been telling us that he was hiding from the media, the 5th floor and some pissed off officers.
Ron O did confirm he was in deed hiding from the media, what the fuck!!!!
Ok he said that he himself was not really happy with the contract and was having regtrets. He said he did not benenift from the contract but did what he thought was good for the "membership as a whole."
So here is our take, he did it from peer pressure from the self serving rookie negotiators/board members or got suckered in by the City, we suspect is both.
Some of the pissed off members are attending the meeting tonight, popcorn is optional.
A big shoutout to Drew Bader and Shawn Higdon!!!! Thanks guys for taking out an on-going problem in our community and tax payer burden. Let's get the rest of these scumbags off the streets.....great job guys!!
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