NBC 4: Deceased Police Officer Communicates Concerns

Profectio Ex Aequitas

My heart has broken. Everywhere I look, I see cops being cut down in handfuls. Here in my hometown, my brethren hang their heads. Morale is at its lowest. The state of our nation’s economy has left politicians asking police to do more with less. Columbus cops are willing to answer the call … willing to put our lives on the line — to fight for justice. But who will fight for us? Our new leadership calls for “Accountability.” I call for accountability from our new leadership.

Why do we continue to repeat the ways of the past? Here is a simple and costly example. Almost everything we do as police is accomplished on a computer. Why? Because it’s a more effective way of doing the job, Yet we still hand out our Directives, our SOP’s, our Criminal Complaint manual in paper forms by the thousands wasted print shop time, wasted man hours, wasted paper, and wasted toner. At the end of the day we pay a Lieutenant $41.80 an hour to make sure cops have this material and it’s up to date. At the same time we pay our computer “cops” $30.40 and hour to make sure this same exact material is uploaded onto our police intranet — so every cruiser computer can access it, and also onto the World Wide Web, for whatever purpose that serves. Does this seem “EFFECTIVE”? Does it sound accountable?

While we’re on the topic of doing things from our old days… lets talk about seniority based police positions. I’m sure that 20, or even 40…maybe 50 years ago this was a good idea. Movement between jobs was fairly ritual. Cops only spent 3 or 4 years working the dreaded 2nd and 3rd shift work of patrol before securing a daylight job — or a detective bureau job. Today, the job change is stagnant water that doesn’t move. Have you ever smelled a body of water that has no movement? It really stinks. Things start to grow in it, things that shouldn’t be there. Mold for one thing. I think we have a moldy detective bureau. I think Narcotics is moldy too. Heck, let’s not kid ourselves — if you were a drug dealer that only sold to addicts in their 20’s to mid 30’s, you’d NEVER get caught by an undercover Columbus Police narcotics detective. Why is that? Stagnant water…that’s why. Officers are spending over a decade in shift patrol work with no relief. The burn out rate is staggering but no one is paying attention.

Accountability. That’s the catch phrase of the new leadership. “We have no money’ is the catch phrase of the City of Columbus. At least, “We have no money for cops…but hug our firefighters, please.” So how do we join the two? We need accountability to join in perfect harmony with the “do more with less” philosophy of our downtrodden economy. I have an idea if anyone is interested. First, let’s increase the production of the personnel that we have at our disposal. This is simply done…it will take planning — but only to catch us up to modern policing. We need to step away from our ancient form of seniority based movement. We need to have our already staffed Research and Development cops create a test to become a detective. Most Police departments our size already have this. They’ve been doing it for years. Why not us? You can’t take the test until you reach top pay. This fosters the maturity we want, the experience on the street that good cops need. After top pay, 5 years. we have a candidate selection process based upon willing applicants who earn points through a combination of merits from their chain of command and a score on a detectives test. You pass the test, you get a placement number among a group of applicants, and you apply for detective jobs once the process is over. Movement inside the bureau stays inside the bureau until there are jobs left — new jobs get filled this way. Quit worrying about which females and minotirites are where. This is a coward’s excuse to hide behind seniority. It means we are neither accountable for our production, nor can we be blamed if we don’t measure tip to some politically correct ideal of how females and minorities should be placed. Simply put, if someone argues there are only 5 females in the detective bureau — we can say its seniority based, there is no fault. If there is a test and only 5 females are in the bureau, then “Someone is to blame.” Quit playing the political game. No one wins. Make a fair test that everyone can take and walk away.

Next, morale. The promise of something new and exciting is wonderful for those who are eligible. What about those in patrol that don’t qualify or who like the fast pace of patrol and want to stay? How do we give them back that bold smile — the pride that comes with uniformed patrol work? How about we treat them like adults? We have a complaint system that is also archaic. It’s efficient — if you want to crush the spirit of good patrol officers. We created this system, this cop eating machine in the shadow of a DOJ lawsuit. We were scared and frantically grasping for anything that would make the accusations go away. I am 200% for a clean professional police force, but I am 1000% against one that lacks common sense and would rather slap a cop across his honorable face than call a liar a liar. Example an angry citizen calls in a complaint against a cop who arrested him. The allegation is that the cop used profanity, racial slurs and unprovoked physical force in arresting the man. These are SERIOUS allegations. A cop could lose his job, maybe even go to jail. Do we make the citizen sign his name to this story? Why no.. .that would “intimidate” the public out of stepping forward. No. instead we investigate — and when we find the accusations to be lies, even on Technicolor video with Dolby surround sound, we still discipline the cop. Why? How could discipline come from such a story? Because the camera caught the honorable patrol officer to be without his halo of an 8 point white uniform hat. What does that do for morale? I’ll tell you what it does, it pulverizes it into dust, Stop treating your cops like children. It would be nice to see the Columbus Division of Police prosecute those that lie on good cops. Let the prosecutors drop the charges if they want. We will file regardless. While we’re talking about our beloved cover, hats are for funerals, court and promotion ceremonies. White shirts and $65 uniform pants are for supervisors. Cops need to be comfortable, not win “Best Dressed Police Department” awards…not in this economy. Not when comfort is actually less expensive. Come on Command Staff — rule with a modern heart, not an ancient soul.

So now we have a new, highly motivated police force moving along at a faster pace, with more efficiency and a much better attitude about the job. Who is going to lead? It’s not a trick question. Of course our Chief will lead. In order to accomplish what I suggest, he will need to take a bold step forward in a direction we needed to go for almost a quarter of a century. Still, who REALLY is going to lead on the front line? The Sergeants? Think again, they’re in the substation’s typing up reports. Have you ever taken a second to time schedule out exactly what is expected of the average street Sergeant in Columbus? You know, like over weight people map out calorie intake to see how their body is really performing. Can a Sergeant ACTUALLY accomplish all of the duties expected in the supervisor’s manual, the SOP’S, the directives? Can they do this AND play an active role in the supervision of these newly motivated officers? I think, when the R&D staff are done creating our new detective bureau, R&D personnel should take time to evaluate supervisory workloads — starting with patrol. We can do more with less if Sergeants Were free to respond and take part in priority 1 and 2 runs. An extra cop on the street actually handling calls for service while at the same time in the field supervising how the street cops handle their job… is this more efficient? It has to be. It is no secret in the Columbus Division of Police that the rank of Lieutenant is the cushiest place to be. Why is that? What is the motto of our new leadership? Accountability — that’s right. So if it is found that responsibilities can shift, and that Lieutenants can shoulder more so Sergeants can perform more effectively isn’t that our goal? If our budget is so constricted that the uniform allowances of the men and women who tackle suspects and damage uniform parts is cut short, isn’t it the job of the Commander’s and Chiefs who drive home City cars filled with City gas to find ways to bring budgeted money back into the department? Accountability Ladies and Gentlemen.

Now, looking at my clock — this took me 47 minutes to compose. Imagine what you can do with the rest of the year. Watch over my brothers and sisters. We do not risk our lives in vain. We will rise and meet the new challenges — if you would only inspire us…lead us…defend us.

In Spirit,
James K. Reed
Columbus Police Officer

Recipients,
Mayor of Columbus
Columbus City Council
CPD chiefs
CPD Commanders
FOP President
All FOP Chiefs
Local ABC, CBS, NBC
CALEA