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Adam
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http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=local&id=4917721
FLINT (WJRT) - (01/08/07)--Monday, union officials were claiming Flint Mayor Don Williamson's shakeup of the Flint Police Department could jeopardize arson investigations -- all this in a city with nearly the highest arson rate in the nation.
Union officials say right now the mayor is shuffling people around without considering their training and expertise.
For instance, the mayor is transferring the top arson investigator from the Flint Police Department to patrol, simply because he believes he's been on the job too long.
ABC12 has learned out of the more than 120 arson convictions over the last three years, Sgt. Jim Hamilton has solved more than 90 of those cases.
Sgt. Rick Hetherington says he's had more convictions in the last three years than the last 20 combined.
But because of the transfer, Hamilton is heading to patrol, and another detective who has no arson experience will take over arson investigations.
"You have no depth if you have one person," Williamson said. "If he dies, God bless him or he retires. You have no backups. We are changing everybody every few months."
"I think he's trying to break all the union contracts, separate the unions, do what he wants to do when he wants to do it," Hetherington said.
Hetherington says none of the numerous transfers in the department have been based on expertise and work performance.
That's the main reason more than 100 Flint police officers have filed complaints with the state's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
"We must change these jobs so everyone in the department knows all the jobs -- not just one job -- and that's one of the big mistakes this city made before I got here," Williamson said.
Hamilton chose not to comment on this case. His transfer takes effect this week. |
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Tue Jan 09, 2007 7:08 pm |
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Have heard all community police officers will be moved?
It takes many months for community police officers to learn the beat. Creating partnerships to be proactive in the community is hard to do when pulled off your beat repeatedly. We have COPS officers that are trying to work with the community.
If they are moved months and years worth of community contacts are tossed in the trash. Along with the voters cash that supported Community Policing. |
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Wed Jan 10, 2007 1:18 am |
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Biggie9
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Frankly this is one issue where both sides have a case.
The mayor is correct in that if one has but ONE expert in an area, the department is at risk [death, retirement etc]. Clearly the Police Dept, AS ANY city department, should have DEPTH in personnel capability. Its foolish and risky otherwise.
However.
You don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
What ought to happen:
a systematic review of critical skills/expertise necessary within the opertaion of the ENTIRE police dept [hey this could even include mundane administerial functions such as payroll] along with the corresponding inventory assessment of each and every person [this person is qualified to to do A, B F, G]. Do it in a comprehensive manner where each person knows what skills they are considered to have and not, and what skills/capabilities they still need to acquire, in a systematic way.
When something threadbare such as, we have only ONE experienced arson investigator, then a devlopment plan needs to be put into effect. What should we have? One experienced person per shift? 3 people? 5? Then find 2 people, hopefully ones WHO WANT/DESIRE to learn/function in that role [versus random selection] assign them to work WITH the experienced officer for some length of time. USE the trained investigator to leverage the new ones, be on call for advice/oversight. Then after a year or so, rinse and repeat until you have a cadre of trained officers...eg; rotate in some more detectives so that eventually you build up that skill within a number of detectives. BUT you should always keep your BEST, expert in a role where they can train and support the critical skill.
Eventually you should identify critical skills/expertise and get a number of detectives/officers proficient, so that the city isn't at risk of losing these capabilities. In this regard the mayor correct, but once again doing something that would harm the city in the short-term.
That sure sounds like Flint to me....bull in the china shop. |
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Biggie |
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Wed Jan 10, 2007 1:27 am |
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