GPD Response Times and the Upcoming Report on the Consultant's Review

The News and Record has a good article regarding the GPD by Lex Alexander this morning on the matter of response times.  It offers a number of helpful insights.

A conversation I had with one officer some time ago also provided some perspective.  That officer told me about the problem the GPD has with the sprawling nature of the development in Greensboro.  Because the city is very spread out, and not very dense, there is much more territory to cover with available manpower.  And it makes the city more difficult to police.  What compounds this situation is the city's ongoing maniacal drive to annex ever-increasing amounts of territory despite the fact that our police department cannot handle the areas for which it is already responsible.

It appears there will be an editorial in tomorrow's paper regarding how to improve response times as well.  There have been many complaints in the city over the last year or so regarding response times.  And certainly, it is a problem when the department cannot effectively respond to a call reporting a crime in progress-- especially when there is, in fact, sufficient time to respond. 

It should be noted, however, that modern proactive policing techniques deliberately do not emphasize response times as a key indicator of quality.  Instead, experts argue this is not the main factor on which we should be concentrating.  Instead, there are a variety of proactive strategies that appear to be more important in driving down crime rates.

It is inevitable that any discussion regarding response times will necessarily raise the issue of staffing levels in the GPD.  Many months ago, the City Council directed that an outside consultant be retained to perform an administrative review of the GPD.  I am told that the report of this consultant will be presented to the City Council at its July 7 meeting. 

Unfortunately, the Council directed that the process of retaining the consultant be managed by Mitchell Johnson.  It will therefore be difficult to know if the report will be truly independent and rigorous; or if it will merely reflect the preferences and/or perspectives of the city manager and/or Chief Bellamy.

John Hammer reported in the Rhino Times about the curious circumstance that the unveiling of the consultant's report has apparently been delayed until after the city's budget process had been completed:

(Councilwoman Trudy) Wade said the council should have been told about disbanding the robbery suppression unit and that the council should have heard the report from the consultant hired to study the Police Department before passing the budget. Wade said, "We should have heard from the consultant before we did the budget, but someone in the manager's office dropped the ball."

...Councilmembers expressed a lot of frustration and anger at the way this police issue was handled, which is understandable because the consultant's report is complete and the consultant was ready, willing and able to present his findings to the City Council at that meeting on June 24. However, as Wade noted, the manager didn't call the consultant and schedule the meeting. Manager Johnson reportedly had two weeks to call and schedule a meeting with the consultant, but that was not enough time to make a phone call. What councilmembers say off the record is that the manager and some of his supporters did not want the council to receive the consultant's report before the budget had been passed, so the call was not made during the two week window the city had to schedule the meeting.

It has been clear for many months that the consultant's report would have budgetary implications.  The consultant may, for instance, recommend hiring significant numbers of additional police officers.  It would represent serious wrongdoing if anyone artificially attempted to protect the spending in the recent budget process from any impacts this report may have.

The City Council needs to be able to consider the entire universe of municipal spending, and let its budget reflect the proper priorities.  It needs to be in a position to make the right choices. 

It is not clear that emphasizing response times, or heeding this consultant's report, would necessarily be the best way to go.  But once again, there is reason to question whether the city will be making the right choices, for the right reasons in the aftermath of the unveiling of the report on July 7.

Update: Cara Michele gives her own take.  She says:

"Law enforcement is a basic function of government. It says a lot about our priorities as a city that we can find money for arts and flowers and birthday celebrations, but not for basic public safety."

Update II:  The News and Record editorializes in favor of steps to reduce the demand for police calls, thereby aiding with response times by freeing up officers for situations when they are most needed.

And Fred Gregory forwards a May, 2004 article from the Washington Times (unposted) that suggests Washington D.C., despite an increase in the number of cops, and the highest number of cops per unit population in the US, saw an increase in response times.  Having more cops does not necessarily guarantee a better response time, for instance, if the cops are not working. 

Response times are, at least partially, a management issue.  If you have significant numbers of cops who claim to be working, but are not-- as has been the case with the GPD-- response times will suffer.

Comments

[Stormy]

"It would represent serious wrongdoing if anyone artificially attempted to protect the spending in the recent budget process from any impacts this report may have."

So what? there is nothing that Mitch Johnson can do that would bring about his termination, nothing. We all know that "dropping the ball? had nothing to do with it. Mitch planned that one out well. We'll understand in a few days why.

[cara michele]

Can the Council amend a budget they've passed?

[keith]

urban sprawl is a major issue that is getting out of hand in Greensboro and also out in the county. All you have to do is look at the area they want to annex near Mccleansville. Let'e see those response times once these areas get annexed. I am sure the county with offices out in stoney creek could get there faster.

When you have a pro-development anything goes attitude like Greensboro does what can you expect.

Did you also notice that with the proposed transportation bond that there was not any talk about Horse Pen Creek Road being a part of the bond. To hear the transportation person that there won't be any relief for over 10 years is uncalled for.This road need helps now not later . What a mess Horse Pen Creek Road will be in a few years, it already is right now.

[Joe Guarino]

Thanks, Keith, for the comments.

Michele, I believe Goldie Wells indicated in the article to which I linked that the budget could be amended. The dynamics of amending an existing budget, however, is inevitably different than starting a budget from scratch-- particularly when there may be potentially a call for significant additional spending with respect to the police department.

And yes, Stormy, you are right. We will find out shortly why there was a need to handle this in the manner it was handled.

[cara michele]

I don't understand how our City Councils (present and past) continue to fund everything else while ignoring the obvious needs of the police department. Public safety is a fundamental responsibility of the government. It's very frustrating. And dangerous.

[Matt Lojko, Jr.]

In Lex Alexander's article regarding police response times, Greensboro Police Chief Tim Bellamy allegedly makes the following statement. "People in Greensboro need to know what the situation is," he said. "(Past) chiefs have said there wasn't a need for more manpower, but you've got to be truthful with people."

This statement is simply outrageous. My hope is that Chief Bellamy was either misquoted or his statement was taken out of context.

During my career with the Greensboro Police Department, I worked with the budget under three different administrations...Chief Sylvester Daughtry, Chief Robert White, and Chief David Wray. Each of these chiefs made increased manpower a priority in their budget requests. A review of the supplemental budget requests made by these chiefs for each budget year will clearly show their strong desire to increase departmental manpower. The various print and television media reported on their requests and they are also a part of City Council minutes in some circumstances.

I hope Chief Bellamy will clear up this statement because it infers that prior chiefs were less than truthful and that is clearly unsupported by the facts.

Matthew A. Lojko, Jr.
Captain (Retired)
Greensboro Police Department

[Joe Guarino]

Michele, I agree. Law enforcement and public safety should be considered top priority. Other budgetary items should be considered secondary in importance. This has not been the case in Greensboro for many years. I don't claim to know how many police we need, but it is wrong when our city government refrains from prioritizing police and public safety.

Matt, thanks for your comments, and I appreciate your pointing this out. I remember vaguely seeing a memo David Wray wrote that discussed staffing levels, and the implications associated with different levels of staffing. He was attempting to say, diplomatically, that more becomes possible with additional personnel slots.

It makes little sense to blame past police chiefs. It was the former city council members, together with the city manager(s), who were responsible for overseeing the department's work and determining how the department would be supported.

[Stormy]

Bellamy's statement is just part of the present administration's spin. I suspect that Mitch finds it necessary to pass blame for GPD's present ills back to David Wray. Mitch will never take responsibility for the damage that he has caused. Mitch's history will always show that David Wray was the villain, and Mitch was the savior. Bellamy is just a hand puppet of Mitch, who is a hand puppet of others, himself.

Unless Jerry Bledsoe is fabricating the truth in print, Tim Bellamy is either spinning the truth or revising history. We can all agree with Bellamy on one thing that he said "you've got to be truthful with people."
From Cops in Black & White Part 6

"One thing that kept coming up – and that Wray and most officers agreed about – was that the department was seriously understaffed. Robert White had sought an additional 125 officers, but had gotten only about a fourth of that number in his four-and-a-half years as chief. Wray was planning to make his own plea for more officers to the City Council when budget planning began early in 2004."

"But before he could make that request he had to assure the city manager that he had done everything he could do with the staff he had to meet the increasing pressure of calls, especially at night. Redeployment of some sort was necessary to satisfy that demand, and that only could be accomplished through shift changes. The study on how to change those shifts had to be done before Wray could ask for more officers. Budget planning required him to do that in January."

"As all of this was taking place, Wray also was lobbying hard to get more officers for the department. He had been talking with City Manager Ed Kitchen about that from the time he became chief. He also had been speaking at community meetings about the need for more officers and encouraging community leaders to contact the mayor and city council members."

"Wray realized that it was highly unlikely that he would get all of the 99 new officers he wanted at one time (Robert White had gotten only 32 in his four-and-a-half years). He decided to spread out his requests over the next few years. He asked for 32 new officers at a first year cost of $1.7 million in the budget proposals he submitted to the council in January. (The council had rejected a request for 12 new officers the previous year.)"

[Joe]

Stormy, thanks for providing that excerpt from the Bledsoe series. It demonstrates had been looking for more officers. And it highlights, once again, how the issue of staffing forced Wray's actions on shift changes.

[Stormy]

This all makes you wonder, who is running GPD these days?

[Stormy]

An update on Bellamy's comment about past chiefs. I asked Lex Alexander about this and mentioned that Chiefs White and Wray did ask for more officers publicly.

His response was "I believe he was referring to Chief Sylvester Daughtry." So, is it credible to believe that Bellamy was speaking of only Daughtry, when he said "past chiefs"? It would seem that Alexander allowed Bellamy to slide on this one because it met the need. If Bellamy was speaking of only Daughtry, why didn't he say that, rather than allow people to assume that White and Wray were not being truthful with people?

[Joe Guarino]

Interesting, Stormy. Thanks for the update.

[bubba]

"It would seem that Alexander allowed Bellamy to slide on this one because it met the need."

Not surprising, considering what we know of Lex Alexander from past experience.

[Stormy]

Ben Holder had some good info on the Latin Kings and Nelson Johnson story in the N-R. Now, it's about immigration and racism. Imagine?

Que es Jorge Cornell?