“Property crime is up, the Department of Justice is here, APD is below 1,000 officers, there are only seven cadets in the current academy class, 911 response times are up, APD has lost over $30,000,000 of taxpayer dollars and counting in (police misconduct) lawsuits (since 2002,) and (a police union) survey says the officers don’t have faith in Chief Schultz” –Retired APD Sergeant Dan Klein
“It does raise the question of who was minding the store. There is a great benefit to spending time with others in the law enforcement community and attending conferences, but what did we really get for it? Was Chief Schultz out padding his résumé? Or was he bringing tangible benefits back to the city and the department?”—Retired APD Lieutenant Steve Tate
“The promotion of incompetent supervisors is the rule rather than the exception and numerous supervisors have their current position as a result of lawsuits. Leaders who supported their troops were punished by being passed over on promotions while the meek that followed orders without questions were rewarded.” –Retired Officer Chad Wilder
50% of the officers believe Schultz should be fired, 99% think Schultz is doing a poor job and the reason why morale is down.—APOA Survey
“Well there’s never been a story done on me before. I find it a little suspect. I’ve been chief for 8 years but that’s no problem.” “We are under investigation because of the force encounters in 2010. That’s it.”—(current) APD Chief Ray Schultz. Schultz then dismissed Klein’s criticisms, saying he had no direct knowledge of what it takes to be a police chief [and] that Tate was a “mid-manager” who has been gone from APD for several years and said he wasn’t qualified to assess the work of a police chief.
In Monday’s paper, Chief Schultz was confronted with his extensive travel and vacation time over the last couple years. In addition to the data in the report, in at least 16 trips covering over 51 days of travel, Schultz went hobnobbing with others to conferences and conventions. In his interview with the Journal’s Jeff Proctor, Schultz got very animated in his discussion regarding officer body cams, vendor discussions, and technology. For those that have interacted with Schultz, we all know how he gets very excited in talking about how technology will solve this or that. Except that we know ideas are worthless when they are not implemented or are implemented by people that have no skills involving law enforcement (for instance self-anointed “smart police” commander TJ Wilham).
But what is truly stunning, is Schultz’s continued denial of accepting any external criticism. As the above quotes indicate honest concerns relevant to APD current state of affairs, Schultz is more interested in discrediting his very critics. Yet despite all of Schultz’s endless posturing about how he’s implemented 95% of these ideas, or unique approaches, DOJ is very much here investigation a department that is in crisis. About 12 officers have graduated from APD’s new training “university” and there are less than 10 in the current academy. The date for the next academy is unknown. But while new recruits trickle in, officers retire as soon as possible and outpace new hires. A whole class of officers have now been determined to have been targets of discrimination. Crime is up. Costs are up. Lawsuit costs are up. Now we have a fatal accident involving a sergeant over the weekend that already smell bad given BCSO’s PIO putting their thumb on the scale comments about why the sergeant may have been running code (really so a person was killed while he was ATL’ng for a drunk driver…really?). Now even one of Schultz’s protected sergeants is in trouble with a domestic violence related arrest in Sandoval County.
Funny how no other department in the state, or region, seems to have so many daily problems. But Schultz will be pointing the finger at somebody else. But there’s one thing Schultz can’t deny, he knows how to use his time to his own benefit. In 2012, there were 240 working days. However of all those days, Schultz was on “work” out of town for 31 days and took 29 days of vacation. So out of 240 days of work, he spent 180 days, or 75% here in Albuquerque. So 1 out of every 4 days, he was somewhere else….And we all know that while Schultz boasts about working around the clock, there is a rotation of duty chiefs. So even Schultz gets to be off and out much more frequently than he states. And it seems he has a favorite companion….and a future trip already planned……..a revisit from last year’s show it seems:
September 19, 2013—New England Organized Crime Symposium& Trade Show
Keynote Speakers: APD Ray Schultz and Karen Fischer
CLICK TO VIEW BY AGENDA
HERE
September 28, 2012— New England Organized Crime Symposium& Trade Show
Keynote Speakers: APD Ray Schultz and Karen Fischer
CLICK TO VIEW NEWS LETTER
HERE
And lastly, Lieutenant (Ret.) Steve Tate responded to Schultz's comments with his usual accuracy:
I would like to point out that this "critic" is concerned with the value of the trips and conferences during a time when APD is involved in turmoil. What do we have to show that improved based on these trips and conferences? They may have been a benefit to the city, but what was the return on that investment? This is a valid and deserved question since tax payer money was used . It is a true embarrassment to the entire police department and community that the DOJ is even in town looking into APD. Do the DOJ investigators happen to be qualified to assess the "work of a police chief" since they most likely were never police chiefs themselves. What a ridiculous response by Schultz to valid criticism. I find it very telling that Schultz's response is to claim that his critics are not qualified to assess his work because they never held the position or have been gone for a few years. This shows how disconnected Schultz is. Who knows what his definition is of "work of a police chief". What does that mean anyway? I would rather focus on his performance as a leader. If we do this, then everyone in the APD, city and entire community is more than qualified to assess his performance. Let's ask if the department is in better shape during his tenure and see what the facts show. Let's ask about department morale......and about community relationships. A real leader would be very concerned with morale since it will ultimately impact how the department is viewed by the community. If you treat your department employees the right way, then you can expect them to treat the community the same way. Is it a coincidence that department morale is at an all time crisis level low and at the same time the DOJ has seen fit to come to Albuquerque? Successful organizational leaders understand this relationship with employee and customer (community) satisfaction and put in place initiatives to ensure they can impact this relationship in a positive and effective way. I find it interesting that Schultz has never proactively created an anonymous employees satisfaction survey to gain insight into department morale. The police union did their own survey and when the overwhelming numbers showed they had no faith in Schultz, what was his response? He attacked the critics just like he did in this case. A real leader would have been very concerned and taken steps to work on that relationship internally. A real leader would not blame everything and everyone else as Schultz had done for his almost 8 year tenure as chief. However, Schultz isn't an effective leader and that is what APD needs now....a leader running APD............not someone just doing the "work of a police chief". Schultz should have stepped down years ago and when he didn't, Mayor Berry should have removed him. APD and the entire community has suffered because of Schultz's ineffective and plain lack of leadership. Don't take my word for it.....especially since I've been gone for 6 years.....ask anyone currently with APD or that has recently left and see what they tell you.....you will be shocked.
