HomeMy WebLinkAboutPolice Dept. Issues - A Rpt. by the Human Services Committee - 1987 POLICE DEPARTMENT ISSUES
A Report la the Human Services Committee
To The Ithaca Common Council
October 30, 1987
INTRODUCTION
Over the past couple of years the Human Services Committee has
spent a great amount of time dealing with issues involving the work
of Ithaca's Police Department. In 1986 the Committee focused on human
relations .training for police officers and on improvement of certain facilities
in the Department. After a variety of concerns about the Police Department
arose during Common Council's budget deliberations in the Fall of 1986,
the Committee began in early 1987 to examine the Department's staffing
needs and existing staffing practices and levels. This process quickly
made clear that the Committee should also look at a variety of other
concerns that relate to the Department. Consequently, the Committee
broadened the scope of its inquiry.
This report summarizes the types of statements made by various
parties (including various Police officers, the public, the Department's
administration, and Police Commissioners) about the Department, provides
our best assessment at this time of the information the Committee has
received, and presents a number of recommendations for consideration
by Common Council and the Chief of Police. The Committee wishes to
emphasize that this report does not represent all that could be said
regarding the work of Ithaca's Police Department. Rather, the report
says what the Committee feels it is necessary and appropriate to say
at this time. The Committee will continue to look closely at the affairs
of the Department and will make further reports to Common Council as
that appears appropriate. In doing this the Committee expects to consult
closely with the new Police Chief, the other personnel of the Police
Department, other members of Ithaca's City government, and all other
interested parties.
PROCESS
The Committee has gathered information in various ways throughout
the past ten months. It met with the Police Chief and reviewed written
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information about Department staffing provided by the Police Commissioners
and by the -Chief. This information included among other things the Chief's
recommendation that Common Council support the creation of a new crime patrol
unit. Through its own inquiries, through comments made to individual Committee
members outside the context of the Committee's meetings, and through the public
media the Committee heard a variety of complaints by certain Police officers
about how the City was treating the Police Department and a variety
of complaints by various citizens concerning deficiencies in how the Department
was conducting its affairs. Deciding that it was important for the Committee
to hear an open and fair airing of different views about the Department,
the Committee held a very well-attended public meeting in May so that
all interested parties would have an opportunity to make known their
views about the Department. Police Department personnel and members
of the public provided a wide spectrum of opinions. The Committee
found all of these to be very useful. Following that public meeting
the Committee continued its various efforts to collect information. The
Committee continued its discussion at a number of its meetings. Committee
members continued to seek and receive comments outside the context
of its meetings. Two Committee members took a lengthy tour of the
Police Department with the Acting Chief of Police.
PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS
In presenting this report the Committee is very aware of a number
of factors that circumscribe its efforts. These factors merit mention
here, and we urge those reading this report to keep all of these matters
in mind.
1 . Most importantly, we urge Common Council, the Police Department,
and all interested citizens to discuss the matters covered in this
report. We are not suggesting that we have learned everything
or figured out everything about the Ithaca Police Department.
Obviously, we have not, but this report addresses serious issues,
issues that we have a duty to confront and resolve.
2. Ithaca has just hired a new Police Chief, and this report does not
presume in any way to constrain the new chief in the freedom he
must have to assess the Department and its performance or in the
exercise of his duties. If this report accomplishes nothing else,
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the Committee hopes it will provide useful information to, and a
basis for discussion with, the new Chief of Police.
3. While the Committee was undertaking this assessment of various matters
pertaining to the Police Department, Police Chief Herson retired
from the Department. This report does not represent in any way
an attempt to assess Chief Herson's performance. Inevitably some
of the comments in this report may reflect on Chief Herson's perfor-
mance, but that is not their purpose.
4. Some of the recommendations in this report involve important financial
implications, and the Committee fully recognizes that Common Council
will not, and should not, accept those recommendations without looking
very carefully at those financial considerations. Similarly, some
of the matters discussed in this report regarding which the Committee
is not prepared to make recommendations at this time also involve
important financial considerations, and Common Council will have
to look carefully at those financial considerations as well.
5. This report honestly reflects the fact that some very hard criticisms
have been aimed by various parties at the Police Department regarding
the performance of its duties and by various police officers at the
City government, including most importantly Common Council, regarding
its level of support for the Department; the Committee does not
intend that this report attempt to rebut any of those criticisms or
to place any blame on any individual or individuals regarding those
criticisms. Instead, the Committee offers this report as an attempt
to support those aspects of the Department that are working well,
to improve the Department where it needs improving, and to contri-
bute to a better spirit of cooperation among the Department, the
rest of the City government, and all of the citizens of Ithaca with
respect to the absolutely vital work that the Department does in
the City.
6. This report summarizes many things that the Committee has heard
throughout this year - some in public and many not in public; this
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report does not purport to provide a written record of all that infor-
mation. The Committee has received a great deal of information
that can not be quantified or systematically recorded or analyzed.
Much of it is necessarily anecdotal, and much of it involves impressions
people have obtained through their various dealings with the Police
Department. This report attempts to respond to the information
the Committee has received in an ordered and concise manner.
7. This report does not in any way attempt to resolve any of those
matters that may be the subject of contract negotiations between
the City and any union representing Police Department personnel.
To the degree this report discusses items that are or will be the
subject of contract negotiations, it does so because those items
involve matters of concern that the City should address, regardless
of the existence of such negotiations.
8. While this report deals with a number of problems in the operations
of the Police Department, the Committee is very aware of the great
deal of professional work that the Department does accomplish;
the Committee intends that this report helps improve the Department's
efforts and that it not obscure the fact that much of what the Depart-
ment does is successful.
9. While the Committee intended to focus this inquiry only on the Police
Department, inevitably it found itself also involved in a partial
assessment of the role of the Community Police Board.
SUMMARY OF PUBLIC COMMENTS REGARDING ITHACA'S POLICE DEPARTMENT
The following items summarize the major types of comments the
Committee has received from the public, either through its meetings
or through comments made to individual Committee members, about the
Police Department. These comments do not necessarily reflect the Committee's
opinion.
Public Comment:
1. The Department largely deals with crime in a reactive mode - i.e.,
after it happens - and does not do enough to prevent crime before
it occurs. The Department should strengthen its role in trying
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to prevent crime by working with citizens in ways such as the
following:
- making suggestions on street and building lighting strategies
that can help deter crime;
- making suggestions on installing and using alarm systems in
businesses and private residential units;
- promoting personal and property safety.
Public Comment:
2. The Department does not make adequate use of techniques for insuring
officers are sensitive to the needs and concerns of different types
of persons who make up the community they serve. As a result
Department personnel too frequently do the following:
- demonstrate insensitivity to peoples' needs;
- appear to be in a hurry so that they do not listen to what
citizens have to say;
- act indifferently or even rudely to persons with whom they
deal;
- deal abruptly and/or rudely with persons who telephone the
Department;
- fail to listen to victims' problems;
- utilize excessive force in responding to some situations;
- fail to provide an easily accessible person at Department head-
quarters to listen to and provide appropriate followup responses
to citizen complaints about actions taken by the Department
or individual Department personnel in particular circumstances.
In addition, police officers on beats on the City's streets too often
simply fail to talk or otherwise interact with citizens, thereby increasing
a sense of separateness between police officers and the community
they serve.
Public Comment:
3. Too frequently police officers focus unfairly on certain constituencies
- i.e., minority persons, youth, and college students - when someone
has broken the law and the police are trying to identify the guilty
party. Furthermore, police officers often express disinterest when
a member of one of those constituencies is the victim of some crime.
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Public Comment:
4. Too frequently police officers are insensitive to the problems women
may face when they are crime victims.
Public Comment:
5. The Department has not made the existence of its grievance system
for public complaints sufficiently known to the public. As a result
citizens often do not know how to file a complaint regarding the
action of a particular police officer or regarding the Department
as a whole. In addition, there continues to be problems with the
administration of the grievance system.
Public Comment:
6. The Department does not adequately address juvenile crime.
Frequently it fails to do the following:
- to take appropriate steps to encourage parents to take
responsibility for the actions of their children;
- to visit schools or youth organizations in order to encourage
proper and lawful behavior;
- to follow through adequately when it receives complaints about
juvenile misbehavior.
Public Comment:
7. The Department is frequently unable to provide adequate patrol
coverage throughout the City. More specifically,
- the Department does not provide sufficient walking patrols
in the City;
- the Department too frequently fails to deploy sufficient personnel
in high crime areas where they are most needed;
- the Department does not conduct enough patrols - either in
cars or on foot - and most citizens, therefore, are not sufficiently
aware of the presence of police officers in the normal course
of their affairs.
Public Comment:
8. The Department often has great difficulty in insuring that the minimum
number of officers (usually six) is on duty at a given time. Given
the fairly substantial number of officers in the Department, these
staffing problems appear to be greater than should typically be
caused by sick leaves, vacation leaves, disability leaves, special
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assignments, and other factors that typically take officers away
from duty.
Public Comment:
9. Many Department personnel spend too much time in the police station
or on "coffee" breaks in various local restaurants. In addition,
too frequently some officers are spending a substantial part of
their night shifts simply sleeping in their police cars.
Public Comment:
10. The actions of the Policemen's Benevolent Association (PBA) have
at times done much to harm relationships between the officers on
the one hand and the Department's administration and the rest
of the City government on the other. These actions have contributed
much to a decline in morale in the Department.
Public Comment:
11 . Too frequently Department personnel do not effectively and efficiently
pursue those suspected of committing crimes because police officers
are not sufficiently familar with the legal procedures necessary
for apprehending suspected criminals, conducting investigations,
and obtaining convictions. For example, individual officers often
do not know proper investigative procedures or correct procedures
for collecting and maintaining evidence in criminal matters.
Public Comment:
12. The Department suffers from a lack of leadership, and it is now
suffering from significant morale problems at all levels.
Public Comment :
13. The Department does not have an up-to-date statement of its operating
policies and procedures. As a result Police Department personnel
often must act on an ad hoc basis because they are unsure what
constitutes proper policy or procedure in particular circumstances.
Public Comment:
14. Too frequently Department personnel do not make sufficient attempts
to enforce certain types of City laws dealing with public order
and safety - e.g., noise rules and no-bike rules on the Commons,
traffic speed laws, STOP sign laws, the noise ordinance, and parking
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laws. Department personnel often seem to feel that these types
of laws are not important enough for their attention.
Public Comment:
15. The City's Police Commissioners have not made adequate efforts
to become an effective communications link between the Department
and the public, or to identify problem areas in the Department's
work and then try to find remedies for those problems.
Public Comment:
16. Police officers often respond efficiently, quickly, effectively and
courteously to requests for assistance from members of the public.
While there may be many criticisms of the Department , it is important
for people to remember the work that the Department successfully
accomplishes.
SUMMARY OF COMMENTS BY POLICE DEPARTMENT PERSONNEL
Some members of the Police Department have made various comments
about what they believe is the City government's lack of support
for the Department over the past several years and about the admin-
istration of the Department. The following items summarize the major
types of comments by Department personnel that the Committee has
received either through its meetings or through comments made to
individual Committee members. These comments do not necessarily
reflect the Committee's opinion.
Police Comment:
1 . Department personnel have to work in a building that is inadequate
and uncomfortable. More specifically, the Hall of Justice Building
suffers from the following problems:
- it has air conditioning problems;
- it has windows that can not be easily opened or closed, so
that the building remains hot during the summer months and
cold in the winter months;
- it is still not completely accessible by handicapped people;
- its bathroom facilities are not adequate;
- it has very inadequate storage space, particularly for evidence
collected in the cases on which the Department is working;
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- it has inadequate work spaces for Department personnel;
- it has inadequate locker room space;
- its doors do not close properly, so that the building suffers
both heating and security problems.
Police Comment:
2. Department personnel have to work with a significant amount of
inadequate personal equipment. Most importantly, this inadequate
equipment includes cars, radios, and bullet proof vests. Various
other pieces of personal equipment are also often deficient. In
addition, much of the office equipment in the Department does not
work well, or is inadequate.
Police Comment:
3. The computer system recently installed by the City in the Police
Department causes various problems for Department personnel. For
example, officers often have to spend a good deal of time in the
station entering information into the computer system, leading to
a decrease in the amount of time that they are able to spend on
their beats. Furthermore, the necessity for entering data into the
computer often causes problems in providing necessary and timely
information to officers coming onto subsequent shifts because infor-
mation in the computer is not easily retrievable.
Police Comment:
4. Common Council has been hostile to the Police Department in recent
years. It has repeatedly favored other City departments in funding
departmental requests while it has failed to support the Police Depart-
ment's requests for various types of funding. For example, Common
Council has given rapid approval to Fire Department requests for
additional personnel, has built a new Youth Bureau building when
the Police Department building is inadequate, and has failed to support
Police Department requests for new and improved equipment, including
new police cars to replace those that have been heavily used.
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Police Comment:
5. The Department lacks adequate leadership. Evidence of the lack
of leadership in the Department includes absence of staff meetings,
absence of the use of roll call procedures during shifts to insure
officers are aware of information relevant to their shift duties,
absence of any coherent statement of Department goals and policies,
and absence of strong efforts by superior officers in advocating
the Department's needs to Common Council.
Police Comment
6. The Department is suffering serious morale problems at all levels.
Major factors contributing to these morale problems included the
following:
- lack of support from City officials ( see above) ;
- difficulty of enforcing certain City ordinances - e.g. , noise,
shopping carts, and parking;
- over-leniency of the courts in dealing with those whom the
police charge with breaking the law;
- lack of a sufficient number of police officers to do all the
tasks the people of Ithaca expect the Department to complete;
- inefficiencies caused in personnel allocations by the application
of various Department policies - e.g., requirement that full
shifts cover twenty-four hours of each day;
- lack of support from the Police Commissioners.
DISCUSSION AND ASSESSMENT
This section of our report discusses and assesses the information
we have collected over the past months. For brevity's sake we refer
in numerous places to the various comments made by different parties,
as discussed in the previous sections (i.e., Public Comments and Police
Comments) .
1 . In many respects the citizens of Ithaca support the efforts and actions
of their Police Department. The basic reason for this support is
clear - the Police Department does a difficult job and does so in
many instances with a reasonable degree of efficiency, professional
competence, and courteousness. While much of this report contains
Discussion and Assessment con't
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numerous statements that are critical of the Police Department, those
statements do not and can not obscure the important work that the
Department routinely and competently accomplishes.
2. Nothwithstanding this basic and important support for the Department's
work, the Committee believes that the Department must significantly
improve its efforts in a number of respects. While Ithaca has been
very fortunate in avoiding serious problems that other cities have
experienced in their police departments, failure to correct the problems
now evident in Ithaca's Police Department may well lead to significant
difficulties in the future. The Committee believes, furthermore, that
the passage of time will only aggravate the existing problems and
that the City and the Department must move reasonably quickly to
address them.
3. The Department's most serious overall problem is one of community-
police interrelationships. Clearly some of the comments the Committee
has received overstate any negative conclusions that could reasonably
be drawn about the Department's performance. Nevertheless, the
basic fact remains that the Department's actions often leave citizens
with serious doubts about its overall commitment and ability to carry
out its responsibilities in ways that best serve the interests and welfare
of this City's population. While the Department's actions in particular
situations can usually be explained in a reasonable manner, the fact
that numerous persons doubt the Department's competence and interest
in many areas of its responsibilities suggests strongly that the Depart-
ment has a significant amount of work to do respecting its interrelation-
ships with the community at large.
4. The Committee believes that Public Comment #1 above (i.e. , police
largely reacting to crime as opposed to preventing crime) is essentially
correct. The Department must find appropriate means to involve
itself more substantially in crime prevention.
5. The Committee believes that Public Comment #2 above (i.e. , police
insensitivity to various people concerns and problems) is essentially
correct. The Police Department must improve its overall level of
Discussion and Assessment con't
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sensitivity to the needs and concerns of the various people with whom
it must interact. Improved training for police officers regarding
different types of human problems and concerns and constant depart-
mental attention to possibilities of police insensitivity must become
common aspects of the Department's work. In addition, the Department
must take appropriate steps to insure that it deals politely with persons
who telephone headquarters and that police officers interact constructively
with the general public on a regular basis.
6. The Committee does not have sufficient information to assess at this
time whether Public Comments #3 and #4 above (i.e. , unfair police attention
to or avoidance of certain constituencies and police insensitivity to
the problems of women crime victims) ,accurately describe the
Department's overall performance. The Committee can say, however,
that it has heard numerous complaints of this type and that the frequency
and nature of these comments suggest strongly that they reflect
important community relations problems for the Department. It is
reasonable to conclude, therefore, that the Police Department should
recognize that these issues require greater attention and sensitivity
than they have previously received. These two comments reflect
important elements in the Department's overall problem of interrelation-
ships with the Ithaca community.
7. The Committee believes that Public Comment #5 above (i.e. , lack
of public awareness regarding existence of grievance procedure and
problems with the administration of that procedure) is essentially
correct. The public does not seem to be generally aware of the improved
grievance procedure that has been in place for approximately a year,
and the system does not appear to be functioning in such a way that
it smoothly deals with complaints related to the Department. It is
reasonable to conclude that both the Department and the Community
Police Board must find appropriate means to improve the operation
of the grievance procedure and to make certain the public becomes
more aware that the grievance procedure is an available and appro-
priate mechanism for making complaints about police actions.
•
Discussion and Assessment con't
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8. The Committee believes that Public Comments #6 above (i.e. , lack
of attention to the problems of juvenile crime) is essentially correct.
In particular, problems of juvenile crime require special efforts by
the police to make closer contacts with young people and, in many
cases, with the parents of young people who have trouble with the
law. The Committee feels that by and large these efforts are not
being made and that this area of concern should become a more
significant priority for the Department.
9. The Committee believes that Public Comments #7 and #8 above (i.e. ,
difficulty in maintaining sufficient patrols and difficulty in maintaining
minimum staff levels per shift) are essentially correct and that these
problems must be solved by a combination of efforts by, and cooperation
between, the Police Department and Common Council. These problems
stem out of the subject that led the Committee into this inquiry in
the first place - i.e., the Department's staffing levels. The most
common complaint the Committee heard over these past months was
that there are not enough police in the places where they are most
needed. In particular, the Committee heard over and over again
that the Department does not conduct sufficient foot patrols in the
City, in both residential neighborhoods and commercial areas. The
most common response the Committee heard from Police Department
personnel regarding these staff level issues was that the Department
does not have sufficient people to do more than what it is now doing
and that in particular more foot patrols are simply not possible given
current staff resources in the Department.
The Committee is very aware that several factors contribute signifi-
cantly to the fact that even with a fairly large number of police
officers the Department has difficulty maintaining sufficient on-duty
officers on the streets of the City. (The reader should note that
the Department's normal complement is 58 police officers, 3 captains,
and 7 sergeants.) These factors include the following:
- Police officers are often detailed onto special assignments where
they are not normally seen by the public - e.g., transporting
prisoners.
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- Numerous tasks of police officers require them to complete a
significant amount of paper and report work that takes them off
the streets and into Police Headquarters or some other office
- e.g., filing reports necessary to support a drunk driving arrest.
- The Department has to cover a great number of tasks, and the
fact that at any given moment officers may not be in particular
places where they are needed does not mean that they are doing
unimportant tasks at those times.
- Ithaca's Police Department, like presumably all police departments,
has to contend with fairly significant levels of leave caused by
disabilities to individual police officers. Police work is often
hazardous, and officers suffer a fair number of injuries that
keep them from work for varying periods of time.
- Police personnel have to complete various training requirements
that take them away from their day-to-day duties.
- The Department has to fill three shifts that cover twenty-four
hours of every day of the year and has to do so in the face
of all the factors that typically affect a work force - e.g. , sick
leave, personal leave, and vacation leave.
- The Department has to meet its staffing levels in light of a number
of concessions that the City of Ithaca has made over the years
in various contract negotiations - e.g. , if a police officer works
on certain designated holidays, he or she may take comp time
as agreed to per contract.
- Certain department policies make it difficult to maintain officers
in those places where, and at those times when, they are likely
to be most needed - e.g. , the current Department policy of main-
taining three full shifts through twenty-four hours of each day
limits the Department's flexibility in providing police officers
at particular times and in particular places.
Even taking these factors fully into account, the Committee is not
able to explain why the Department has so much difficulty in main-
taining adequate levels of police around the City. In particular,
Discussion and Assessment con't
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the Committee can not determine at this time that, as Police Department
personnel claim, it is not possible to have more car patrols and more
foot patrols around the City. Committee members have inquired,
for example, why it would not be feasible to require police officers
on certain car beats to spend some portion of those beats on foot
in various neighborhoods, available for recall to their police cars
in case of an emergency through the radios that the officers carry.
Department personnel have responded consistently that this method
of getting more officers on foot on the streets is not possible in light
of the current force levels in the Department, but the Committee
still has not seen information that supports those responses. It
is possible that the Department is correct in claiming that it can
not with its current personnel allotment put more officers on the
City's streets, but at this time the Committee feels the burden is
on the Department to support those claims with much more specific
and understandable information than has been forthcoming up to this
point. The Committee has also not received sufficient information
to determine whether or not it should support the creation of a
crime patrol unit as recommended by former Chief Herson.
The Committee is also very aware of how difficult it is to either fully
explain or fully understand how all of the factors affecting Department
work force levels act in combination to determine the number of police officers
on the City's streets on any given day. The Committee is by no
means expert in deciphering all of this information and deciding that
the Department has sufficient (or insufficient) personnel on duty
or on certain types of duty at any given time. To a very large degree
that type of detailed analysis must remain the province of the Depart-
ment's leadership. Nevertheless, the Department must find ways
to provide summaries of that information in a reasonable format that
will allow Common Council to make informed policy judgments about
the sufficiency or insufficiency of the Department's work force. To
date that type of information has not been forthcoming.
Discussion and Assessment con't
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Assuming the Police Department can and eventually will provide detailed
and organized information regarding the limits that its current work
force level imposes on the Department's ability to perform its responsi-
bilities, Common Council has to be prepared to consider seriously
the possibility that over the next few years it will have to expand
gradually the number of people working in the Police Department.
While the information we have to date is not sufficient for reaching
any conclusion about increasing the size of the Department and while
Department claims to date about needing more personnel have not
in our opinion been substantiated, we feel it is likely that the demands
on the Department do require more people than it now has. On the
basis of the information we have received we can certainly not say
that the Department needs more personnel in order to provide the
type of police presence around the City that many citizens believe
is required, but we recognize the distinct possibility that this may
indeed be the case. We will be seeking further information in this
regard.
In regard to attempting to resolve whatever staffing level problems
the Department eventually demonstrates do exist, the Committee feels
the Department must explore the strategy of utilizing more non-uniformed
personnel (i.e., persons who are not police officers) for fulfilling
certain tasks that the police officers have traditionally undertaken.
These tasks would obviously have to be appropriate for non-uniformed
personnel to accomplish. Using these non-uniformed persons in the
Department hopefully should free more officers to do the work, including
on-street work, that requires uniformed police officers. At this time
the Committee has identified only two types of positions for which
non-uniformed personnel could be expected to make major contributions
to the Department's work. These two types of positions are computer
system operators (see item 20 below) and radio dispatchers. There
may be other areas where non-uniformed personnel could significantly
help the Police Department, and it should be the Department leadership's
responsibility to identify those possibilities.
Discussion and Assessment con't
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In addition, the Committee is very aware of the fact that Police Depart-
ment personnel must spend considerable amounts of their time dealing
with concerns related to large scale student housing .units located
off the Cornell University and Ithaca College campuses. The Committee
believes the City must actively explore the possibility that Cornell
University and Ithaca College can and will assume part of the financial
and/or operational responsibility for providing police services for those
housing units.
10. The Committee does not have enough information at this time to assess
whether Public Comment #9 above (i.e. , police officers spend too
much on-duty time in the police station, on coffee breaks, or sleeping)
is accurate. The Committee can say, however, that it has heard
numerous complaints of this type and that the frequency and nature
of these complaints suggest strongly that this factor is at least a
significant public image problem for the Department and may be a
serious problem.
11 . Because of the City's relations with the Policemen's Benevolent Associa-
tion, the Committee has decided not to comment with respect to Public
Comment #10 above (i.e. , the negative impact on police morale caused
by the activities of the PBA) . As discussed below (see item #13
in this Discussion and Assessment) , the Committee does agree that
the Department has suffered from significant morale problems.
12. The Committee believes that it is very likely that Public Comment
#11 above (i.e. , lack of police familiarity with legal procedures limits
Department's ability to pursue investigations and obtain convictions)
is correct. The Committee is less definite about this assessment than
it is about many others in this report because information relating
to this problem is so difficult to obtain. Nevertheless, the Committee
believes that the information it has received tends to support this
comment.
13. The Committee believes that Public Comment #12 above (i.e., leader-
ship and morale problems in the Police Department) is accurate.
In the Committee's opinion these problems constitute the second most
Discussion and Assessment con't
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serious difficulty the Department faces. The Committee received infor-
mation supporting this comment from numerous sources both within
and outside the Police Department. The Committee believes the Depart-
ment's leadership and morale problems have affected all aspects of
its work. Types of factors that have contributed to deficiencies
in both leadership and morale in the Department include virtually
every specific factor discussed in this report. In fact many factors
appear to have created a self - perpetuating situation in the Depart-
ment - i.e. , morale declines because of perceived problems in the
Department; leadership declines as morale decreases; morale then
decreases more; and the process of decline continues. The Committee
recognizes that leadership and morale problems are inextricably tied
to other factors discussed in this report and that the Department's
morale and leadership problems can be fully cured only with a proper
addressing of other concerns - e.g. , improved training, better relations
with Common Council, and additional resources for the Department
in certain areas.
With respect to those matters involving leadership and morale concerns
that the Police Department can itself control, the Committee feels
that two problems in particular merit immediate attention. First,
the Committee was very surprised to learn that the Department does
not hold regular staff meetings. These meetings should constitute
an important mechanism for identifying, discussing, and working
out problems with departmental policies and procedures. Consequently,
these meetings should provide an important avenue for the Department's
leadership to establish the Department's direction and to detect problems
in the Department's efforts to carry out its various mandates. Second,
the absence of an up-to-date statement of the Department's operating
policies and procedures contributes to its leadership and morale problems.
The next item addresses this deficiency.
14. The Committee believes that Public Comment #13 above (i.e., lack
of an up-to-date statement of the Department's operating policies
and procedures and the impact of that deficiency) is accurate and
Discussion and Assessment con't
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that the absence of a statement of policies and procedures contributes
significantly to many of the Department's problems. The Committee
can see no reason for this particular deficiency and believes that -
the creation of this statement must become a high priority for the
Department.
15. The Committee believes that Public Comment #14 above (i.e., inadequate
police enforcement of certain City laws) requires careful assessment
of several factors.
First, many of the concerns already discussed - e.g. , staffing levels,
morale, leadership, Police Department image - contribute significantly
to these problems.
Second, the Committee believes that no matter how successful a police
department may be, there will be a significant number of complaints
about traffic and parking problems. In other words, some level
of complaints about these problems must be accepted as a given.
Third, given the realistic limits on what police officers can accomplish
even under the best of circumstances, it may be necessary to remove
or limit the Police Department's responsibilities in certain areas
so that it can focus on those matters that are most important for
the police to accomplish. The Committee believes that Common Council
should look very hard at what it feels are the most important tasks
for the Police Department to complete and what other tasks might
be less important for police involvement. In this regard, the
Committee feels that the Council must examine closely whether it
should move at least part of the enforcement of the noise ordinance,
certain rules pertaining to the Ithaca Commons, and parking regula-
tions from the Police Department to other City agencies. While
not mentioned by the public, Police Department personnel made
similar comments about enforcement difficulties pertaining to the
Shopping Cart ordinance (see Police Comment #6 above) , and the
Committee would add that ordinance to the list of items that might
be moved wholly or partly out of the Department's jurisdiction.
• Discussion and Assessment con't
•
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Fourth, the Committee feels that certain City ordinances such as
the noise ordinance and some parking regulations are not easily
enforceable and that the City needs to improve their enforceability,
regardless of whether the Police Department or some other entity
in City government is responsible for enforcing them, and/or improve
the training of those responsible for enforcing those laws.
16. The Committee believes that Public Comment #15 above (i.e., inadequacy
of efforts by the Police Commissioners to be an effective communications
conduit between the public and the Department and to provide leader-
ship in addressing problems in the Department's work) is essentially
correct. To some degree these problems with the Community Police
Board have been caused by the lack of full membership on the Board
and the inability of the Board to obtain a quorum in numerous meetings.
In this regard the Committee notes that the Mayor has not filled a
vacancy that has been open on the Board for a number of months.
These membership problems do not provide a complete explanation
for the failure of the Police Commissioners to provide a more adequate
public forum for the discussion of Police Department matters or to
take a leadership role in trying to provide remedies for any problems
that are identified in the Department's work. The sharing of infor-
mation between the Community Police Board and Common Council has
been spotty, at best. The Board has not encouraged the public to
use it as a forum for addressing questions about the Police Department.
The Board has not made evident any willingness to provide a major
communications link with the public or to play a leadership role respecting
Police Department issues.
The Committee sees a need for re-examining the structure, role and
membership of the Community Police Board. The Committee is not
suggesting that the Community Police Board is solely responsible
for its problems. Common Council is ultimately responsible for ensuring
that the City's lay boards function in a manner that is consistent
with the overall welfare of the community. Given the nature of police
work, no other lay board in the City of Ithaca carries more critical
Discussion and Assessment con't
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responsibilities than. the Community Police Board, and Ithaca needs
a Board that functions more effectively than has been the case to
date.
17. The Committee agrees that Public Comment #16 above (i.e. , efficiency,
promptness, effectiveness, and common courtesy in the Police Depart-
ment's handling of many of its responsibilities) is generally correct.
However, the Committee also received a number of negative comments
regarding the Department's efficiency, promptness, effectiveness,
and courtesy in particular circumstances.
18. The Committee believes that Police Comment #1 above (i.e. , inadequacy
of the Police Department headquarters as a working space) is partly
correct. The Hall of Justice building is a relatively modern building,
and the City has worked over a number of years to update and alter
that facility so it is better able to accommodate Police Department
functions and to serve the public that has to utilize it. While it
is certainly possible to imagine that the City could develop a more
useful and efficient police headquarters facility, the Committee believes
the current building can function adequately for the foreseeable future.
Notwithstanding the general adequacy of the Hall of Justice building
as the Police Department headquarters, the Committee does believe
that this building suffers from a variety of problems that significantly
reduce the building's efficiency and attractiveness as a place to work.
These deficiencies, briefly stated, include some of those listed above
in Police Comment #1 - i.e. , problems with air conditioning, windows
that do not open or close properly, bathrooms, handicapped accessibility,
storage space (particularly for evidence) , and doors that do not close
properly. These problems certainly merit attention. The Committee
believes that the building does have adequate work spaces and adequate
locker room spaces for Department personnel, although there may
be a need to rearrange the use of some of the space in the headquarters
building.
Maintenance and upkeep of City-owned buildings is the responsibility
of the Department of Public Works. Most of the problems mentioned
Discussion and Assessment con't
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in the previous paragraph fall within this maintenance and upkeep
responsibility of the DPW. The Committee believes that the Police
Department and the DPW need to improve their inter-department
communications regarding solutions to the maintenance and upkeep
type problems that the Department is experiencing. The Committee
feels that currently each department is blaming the other for the
continuation of these types of problems. That situation should not
continue.
The Police Department's problems in storing evidence do not fall under
the maintenance and upkeep problems discussed in the previous para-
graph. The Committee believes that this problem has to be addressed,
possibly by utilizing space currently occupied by a garage across
the street from the Hall of Justice.
19. The Committee has not received much information to support Police
Comment #2 above (i.e. , inadequacy of personal equipment police
officers have to use and inadequacy of office equipment) . If that
comment is correct, and it may be, that problem is due in large part
to the inability of the Department's leadership to make a clear case
for replacing equipment used by police officers. Recognizing that
no City department receives as large a budget as it would hope
to get if there were no constraints on the City's resources, the
Committee believes that Common Council has been as attentive to the
equipment needs of the Police Department as it has been to any other
City department. During the budget process each year it is incumbent
on the Department's leadership to make clear to Common Council what
the Department's equipment and other priorities for funding are.
If strong presentations are not made, it is very possible that the
Mayor and/or Common Council will reduce the Department's budget
requests in favor of other items for which stronger arguments are
made. The Committee feels that in recent years the Department has
not made strong budget presentations to Common Council, and the
Committee recognizes that this factor may have led to some reductions
in the Department budgets that made it difficult to replace certain
equipment used by police officers.
Discussion and Assessment con't
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Police cars do present special issues in the Department's budget.
Common Council has recognized that the wear and tear typically imposed
on police cars-means the Department needs new police cars on .a fairly
regular basis, and Council has provided four or five new cars each
year over the past several years. It is true that Council did cut
one new car from the Department's budget request in 1986, but in
providing for four new police vehicles in 1987 the Council did not,
in the Committee's opinion, significantly hurt either the quality of
the Department's automobile fleet or the Department's ability to function.
20. The Committee believes that Police Comment #3 above (i.e., problems
caused by the installation of a computer system in the Department)
is accurate. The introduction of expanded computer capacity into
the Police Department has been a mixed blessing for the Department.
The Department can now store many more types of information and
greater quantities of information than it could previously. However,
the fact that police officers have to spend a fair amount of their
time entering information into the computer system has increased
the amount of time officers are away from their patrol assignments
and in the police station. Presumably, this fact is related to some
of the complaints that the Committee has received regarding the lack
of police personnel where the public feels they are most needed and
regarding the amount of time police officers spend in the station.
Furthermore, the Department is not able to retrieve information quickly
from the computer after it is entered, so that on-duty officers often
do not have up-to-date information gathered during earlier shifts.
The Committee believes that the introduction of a much more sophis-
ticated computer system in the Department (like any City department)
would lead to certain short-term problems caused by personnel having
to learn how to utilize that system. Nevertheless, the Committee
is convinced that the Department needs to find more efficient ways
to utilize its computer system through reducing the time its uniformed
personnel spend entering information into that system. The Common
Council never intended that this system would lead to a reduction
in the amount of time police officers spend on their beats, and it
Discussion and Assessment con't
•
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appears the Department must solve this problem in the near future.
The Committee believes that a reasonable solution to the problem of
entering information in the computer may lie in the Department's hiring
non-uniformed personnel to carry the major responsibility for that
task. This action would presumably decrease the amount of time
• officers have to spend in the police station and increase their time
on the City's streets. This idea may not solve this problem, but
the Committee feels it merits close attention by the Department and
Common Council.
The Committee recognizes the information retrieval problems faced
by the Department are important. The Committee assumes some
modification of that system may be necessary to allow more rapid
retrieval of inputted information so it can be utilized by officers on
subsequent shifts. The Department should assess the possible alter-
natives for dealing with this problem and make appropriate recommenda-
tions to Common Council.
21 . The Committee does not feel that Police Comment #4 above (i.e. , Common
Council hostility toward the Police Department) is accurate. The
Committee believes that it has dealt with the Department in the same
way it has dealt with all City agencies. The Committee does acknow-
ledge that less than adequate representation of the Department before
Common Council has caused Council not to agree with certain budget
requests by the Department in recent years, (see item 19 in this
Discussion and Assessment) .
22. The Committee feels that Police Comment #5 above (i.e. , lack of leader-
ship in the Department) is accurate. Please see items #13, 14, and
19 in this Discussion and Assessment.
23. The Committee feels that Police Comment #6 above (i.e. , morale problems
in the Department) is correct. Most of the matters raised by this
comment have already been covered by this Discussion and Assessment
section. In general see item 13 of this section. Regarding most
of the specifics contained in this comment, please see the following
items in this section:
Discussion and Assessment con't
-25-
- lack of support from City officials --items 19 and 21
- difficulty of enforcing certain City ordinances --item 15
- lack of sufficient police officers to do all the tasks expected .
of the Department --items 9 and 15
- lack of support from Police Commissioners --item 16
This section has not discussed two matters addressed in Police Comment
#6: i.e. , over-leniency of the courts and inefficiencies in personnel
allocations caused by application of certain Department policies.
Regarding alleged over-leniency by the courts, the Committee recognizes
that how courts deal with cases may affect the morale of police officers
who work hard to bring accused law-breakers to justice. However,
beyond determining what legislation and regulations the City of Ithaca
should have and applying those laws and regulations fairly and effectively,
the City government (other than judges) can not alter, and should
not be able to alter, how judges decide the cases that come before
them. Obviously all citizens, including Police Department personnel,
must live with judicial determinations, and many different people have
widely differing opinions regarding the wisdom and fairness of those
decisions. A community should not judge the competence of its police
department on the basis of judicial actions in particular cases, unless
a lack of competence on the part of the police has negatively affected
those decisions. In this regard the Committee refers the reader back
to the concerns addressed in item #12 of this Discussion and Assessment.
All Ithaca can ask of its police officers is that they fulfill their responsi-
bilities in a professional manner. If they do that, how judges dispose
of the cases before them can not reflect negatively on those officers.
With respect to the personnel allocation problems connected with the
application of certain Department policies, the Committee believes
that this comment is correct. For example, the Committee can see
that the Department's current policy of maintaining equal-sized shifts
twenty-four hours a day does cause certain problems in terms of
having enough officers available in those places and at those times
where they are most needed. The Committee believes that this concern
is part of the overall, larger issue of the Department's problems
Discussion and Assessment con't
• -26-
in maintaining sufficient levels of police officers on the City's streets,
and the Committee refers the reader back to item #9 of this Discussion
and Assessment.
24. The Committee recognizes that the items in this section addressing
the Department's staffing levels, equipment, possible utilization of
non-uniformed personnel for putting information into the Department's
computer system, the condition of the Police Headquarters building,
the possible transfer of certain Police Department responsibilities
to other entities in the City government, and expanded Department
efforts in such areas as juvenile crime have significant financial
implications. The fact that the Committee has identified these areas
as potentially needing attention and effort does not mean that the
City has the financial resources at the present time to address all
of those concerns. The Committee has not examined in any detail
the financial implications of trying to solve these problems.
25. The Committee remains strongly committed to supporting any and
all reasonable actions that will expand the number of women and minority
persons serving as police officers in the Department. The Department
currently has two women police officers and two minority officers.
RECOMMENDATIONS
In this section the Committee states those recommendations stemming
from its inquiry into the work of the Police Department that it believes
are most important or appropriate for the Department and/or the
Common Council to address at this time. This section does not state
all the recommendations that could be derived from this report. On
the basis of its inquiry to date and this report, the Human Services
Committee recommends the following:
1 . This report should form the basis for discussions over the next twelve
months (i.e. , by November, 1988) by and among the Police Chief
and other Department personnel, the Police Commissioners, all other
interested parties, and the Committee. During that period the Committee
should make any changes in this report that appear appropriate and
Recommendations con't
-27-
should present any recommendations that flow from this report beyond
those stated here.
2. By May 1, 1988 the Police Chief should prepare for Common Council
a written report that assesses the Department's staff patterns and
levels and makes recommendations regarding those staff patterns and
levels for the following five years.
3. As soon as possible the Department should begin to utilize a system
of regular staff meetings involving all police officers and a roll call
system during all shifts.
4. As soon as possible the Department should develop and officially adopt
an up-to-date statement of its policies and goals for use by all Department
personnel and for reference by the public. It should subsequently
keep that statement current and accurate.
5. During 1988, the City, acting under the Mayor's leadership, should
initiate a policy level dialogue with Cornell University and Ithaca
College regarding the possibility that those institutions could begin
assuming some of the costs and/or responsibilities for police services
related to major student housing units located off-campus.
6. During 1988 the Police Chief should initiate selective and appropriate
experiments for determining the feasibility and desirability of increasing
the amount of time police officers spend on foot patrols in the City.
The Police Chief should report on the outcome of those experiments
in time for budget deliberations in 1988.
7. With regard to the adequacy of the Hall of Justice building, the Super-
intendent of Public Works and the Police Chief should jointly prepare
a report to the Budget and Administration Committee addressing all
of the following maintenance and upkeep problems that have not been
properly solved: air conditioning, windows, handicapped accessibility,
bathrooms and doors. In addition, this report should address any
other maintenance and upkeep problems that either the Superintendent
or the Chief believes should be covered. This report should specify
what the problems are, how those problems can be solved, what the
costs will be for those solutions, and a timetable for completing them.
Recommendations con't
_28_
This report should be prepared in time for budget deliberations in
1988. The Superintendent and the Chief should have necessary resources
for any professional assistance needed to prepare this -report, and
Common Council should set aside money for such assistance in a
contingency fund in its 1988 budget.
The fact that this report is being prepared should not deter either
the Police Department or the Department of Public Works from completing
in 1988 any of this type of work that can be accomplished within
the context of the 1988 budget. The Committee does not in any way
wish to discourage any progress that could be made in these areas
during the next year.
8. The Superintendent of Public Works and the Police Chief should prepare
a joint report for Council's Budget and Administration Committee addressing
the Police Department's needs for space to store evidence. This
report should identify the nature of the problems that exist and propose
alternatives, costs, and timetables for solving those problems.
The Committee does not believe it is absolutely necessary for this
report to be completed during the next twelve months. If the Police
Chief feels it is necessary to undertake the report during that time,
Common Council should set aside sufficient money for its preparation
in a contingency fund in its 1988 budget.
9. The Police Department should develop for the Budget and Administration
Committee an inventory and assessment of the condition of personal
equipment supplied by the Department for use by its personnel, (including
but not limited to cars, radios and bullet proof vests) , and of the
Department's major office equipment. This inventory and assessment
should be periodically updated.
10. During 1988 the Human Services Committee should undertake an assess-
ment of the structure, role and membership of the Community Police
Board and prepare a report for Common Council by the end of that
year. In preparing this report the Committee should consult closely
with the Board, the Department, and all other interested parties.
Recommendations con't
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11 . During 1988 the Charter and Ordinance Committee should examine
the enforceability of the following ordinances and determine what
if any improvements should be made in them to make them more easily
enforceable: noise, parking, certain Ithaca Commons rules, and
shopping carts. At the same time the Charter and Ordinance Committee
and the Budget and Administration Committee should examine whether
any or all responsibilities for enforcing those ordinances should,
or even could, be removed from the Police Department. Both
committees should consult fully with all interested parties, including
the Department, and report to Common Council on these matters by
the end of 1988.
12. As soon as possible the Police Chief should identify those areas in
which certain Department personnel are not sufficiently familiar with
legal procedures necessary for effectively apprehending suspected
criminals, conducting investigations, and obtaining convictions. The
Chief should then determine the order of significance of those problem
areas and undertake the steps necessary to insure that all City police
officers are properly trained in those areas. Common Council should
place sufficient funds in its 1988 budget to allow the Department
to make significant progress during that year in dealing with any
training deficiencies of this nature that the Chief identifies.
13. As soon as possible the Police Chief should identify and initiate appro-
priate policies, systems, procedures, and/or training efforts to improve
the Department's overall ability to interact positively and constructively
with the public the Department serves. Common Council should place
sufficient funds in the 1988 budget to allow the Department to make
significant progress during that year in improving its ability to inter-
act with the public.
14. The Committee recommends that the Department and the rest of the
City government continue to utilize all appropriate means to increase
the number of women and minority persons serving as police officers
in Ithaca's Police Department.
-30-
CONCLUSION
This ends the Committee's report. We will go on discussing these
issues, and we will draw together such additional information and
make such additional recommendations as we deem appropriate. We
wish to thank the Ithaca Police Department and the citizens of Ithaca
for their interest and efforts in discussing these issues, and we thank
them in advance for their efforts in the future to make certain that
Ithaca provides professional, efficient, and courteous police service
to all of its citizens.
APPENDIX - A
•
t One Sgenevo4nt c_! Doci tin &nc.
ITHACA, NEW YORK
PBA POSITION ON THE REPORT OF THE HUMAN SERVICES Committee
ON
POLICE DEPARTMENT ISSUES
Although the PBA agrees with the report to a surprising degree,
there are several very important issues which we feel should be
brought to the attention of the full Council , press, and public .
First we disagree that any group should put itself in a position of
examining its own performance as this group has done.
Specifically, the PBA, during the public hearing on these issues,
leveled charges of bias toward some members of Council in the
treatment of IPD. In it 's report (Pg .3 #5) , the Committee makes a
reference to these charges, and states that "the Committee does not -
intend that this report attempt to rebut any of those criticisms" .
A wise statement , since any person should see the obvious conflict
of interest in such self-critiquing .
However , later in the report the Committee engages in just such a
self serving exercise. We refer to page 25, #21 , in which the
report rebuts that very charge, and further , elaborates on the
reasons why it (Council ) acted in the fashion it did, essentially
saying "maybe we did, but we had good reasons for doing so" .
Our second major disagreement concerns a so called "public
statement" blaming the PBA's action in part for the decline in
morale of the Police Department by it's negotiation of better wages
and conditions of employment . First , it is extremely doubtful that
this was a statement from the general public . Rather we feel that
this was comment from a member of Council or City Government .
Second , it is ludicrous to believe that a union, by it 's successful
negotiations efforts, attributed to the decline in the morale of
it 's members. This statement is so preposterous it deserves no
place in this report , even given that it was a public comment (and
we do not give that it was! )
Thirdly, an errant reference to compensatory time on Pg . 15, Para.
#5, states that some of the inability to put officers on the street
is attributed to the PBA's negotiation of compensatory time as a
benefit for working a holiday. It further states that when an
officer works a holiday, that officer then gets "three days off" .
This is completely in error , and has never been true. In addition,
the clause in the collective bargaining agreement which applies
here has remained unchanged and in effect for almost 20 years, and
was mutually agreed to by the PBA and City. To now throw this up
in the faces of the employees of the department is a `cheap shot ' ,
and an attempt to put some of the blame on the PHA for the city's
inability to put officers on the street where they are needed .
This comment has done much to adversely affect the relationship
between Council and the PBA and it 's members.