Posted on 05/11/2003 5:54:30 PM PDT by akron
ONE COP'S VIEW
Why HPD has all the problems it does
By SGT. T.A. BRITT
WHAT in the heck is going on over at the Houston Police Department? The officers are making more money than ever. They have a working relationship with the administration. Why all of the bad press? What has happened to cause so many people to doubt the honesty and integrity of my police department?
In the past year, we have had the following things come to light:
•A crime lab in a new building leaked like a sieve. Evidence was destroyed or tainted to the point that convictions are now being questioned.
•A bone-headed mass arrest failed to follow the simplest of rules regarding procedure or probable cause. The result will cost the city millions of dollars and untold loss in public confidence.
•A corrupt internal affairs sergeant was arrested and charged with kidnapping a citizen and demanding ransom.
•The police chief was indicted for perjury.
Recently, Chronicle columnist Thom Marshall wrote an article ("Time to resurrect a 'hue and cry'," May 3, Metropolitan cover) that equated Houston's problems with the corruption New York City has faced for decades. Shame on him for writing the article and shame on the Houston Chronicle for printing shameless dribble that has no facts to support it. Houston's problems are not rooted in greed for money. Nor is its problem rooted in poor hiring standards. Houston's problems are much harder to identify and in many ways harder to root out. If it were greedy officers stealing money or drugs, there would be audio and video evidence galore broadcast on every news channel. The scoundrels would be arrested and charged. If it were poor hiring standards, the fix would be simple: Raise the bar to keep the fools out. Instead, our problems are caused by something harder to find and even harder to prove.
In 1985, I was the president of the Houston Police Patrolmen's Union. The police and fire unions were in an epic battle with Mayor Kathy Whitmire, who was bent on repealing civil service. The unions eventually negotiated a compromise that, among other things, allowed the appointment of assistant chiefs instead of the tried-and-true method of competitive exams. Then-chief of police, Lee Brown, lobbied hard for this legislation. His reasoning was that each incoming administration should have the right to bring in its own "team." He pleaded with the Texas Legislature that he needed the flexibility to dismiss those at the top to better manage the police department. I was suspect of his motives at the time, but I agreed to the change, as did the other union representatives, because in the purest sense, his argument had merit.
Here's the rub. Since the enactment of that law, not one assistant chief has been demoted back to his permanent rank or fired for any reason. Not one. No incoming chief has ever replaced an assistant chief with someone on his "team." In 18 years, no assistant chief has ever been held accountable at the expense of his or her position for not getting the job done. Is it possible that Houston possesses the assistant chief "dream team"? I think not. Today's appointed assistant chiefs enjoy something very similar to a federal judge's lifetime appointment. Why is that? If the law was supposed to give the chief of police some flexibility, why hasn't he ever flexed a little?
The management books I read to prepare for the sergeants' exam stressed that accountability starts at the top. That's great theory unless you work for the Houston Police Department. Everyone at the bottom is held accountable for the slightest infraction, while those at the top get the old wink and a nod. Nothing wrong at the top. We have everything under control. The culprits have been identified, and we are holding them accountable. Trust us.
Who should be held accountable? While Police Chief C.O. Bradford did not build the iceberg, he certainly was at the helm when the ship hit it. It's really not his fault. He was a man thrust to the top, wholly unprepared for the task at hand. His real street experience can be counted in months, not years. He never promoted past the rank of sergeant.
Don't misinterpret what I'm saying. He is by no means stupid. Quite the opposite. Chief Bradford is an educated and articulate man. But those are not the sole qualifiers for this job. He has never had to make a "hurry up now" tactical decision as a street supervisor. He has never had that heart-throbbing sensation any supervisor worth his salt has had when he has made decisions that can get people killed. It takes time to learn how to manage people. It takes even longer to learn what each rank in the chain of command does and why it does it. Being pretty and smart ain't enough!
The sad fact is, that if the mayor and chief were not people of color, there would be vitriolic demands for change. While black defendants have been convicted on the basis of DNA evidence that is, at the very least, suspect, the silence from Councilwoman Ada Edwards, former Councilman Jew Don Boney and activist Quannel X is deafening. On the surface, it appears that their activism is as shallow as it it is fraudulent.
Recently, a colleague of mine was visiting with a well-known City Council member who was complaining about the lack of police activity in her district. He told her, "This is the police department you wanted. I'm not sure you're going to like it. But it is the one you wanted." I could not have said it better.
Britt is a 30-year veteran of the Houston Police Department.
What ever came of that, anyway?
http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2003-03-13/feature.html/1/index.html
Sample:
But there is no way he could respect the over-promoted people Bolton began installing three years ago, he says. "In my chain of command, they didn't have the experience or intelligence to do the job. The rank and file see it, but there's nothing you can do about it.
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