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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 -2- 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, -3- 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 -4- 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 -5- 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. -6- 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 -7- 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 -8- 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; -9- - 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. -10- 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 -11- 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 -12 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 -13- 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. • Discussion and Assessment con't -14- - 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 -15- 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 -16- 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 -17- 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 -18- 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 -19- 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 • -20- 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 -21- 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 -22- 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 -23- 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 • -24- 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 -29- 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.