Posted on 10/01/2005 2:10:52 PM PDT by dware
Lack of Trust, Communication foster "Attitude of Arrogance" at GJPD
Saturday, October 01 2005 @ 02:39 PM CDT
Lack of Trust, Communication foster "Attitude of Arrogance" at GJPD
by David Ware
The Grand Junction Police Department released the results of focus groups that have worked over the summer to identify issues that plague the embattled department. The common themes among the eight groups included trust issues, lack of communication and a heavy workload.
The focus groups met over the summer to discuss eight specific areas originally identified by the City of Grand Junction's Human Resources back in April. Those areas include personnel, communication, organizational trust, staffing, citizen complaints, community policing, officer safety and calls for service.
According to the report filed by the communications group, GJPD Chief Greg Morrison and Captain Troy Smith have created an "attitude of arrogance" within the department by failing to recognize and acknowledge officers outside of the work environment.
"We ask that you work diligiently to know your employees by name and be aware of who is in your surroundings" the report stated. "Executive Staff as a whole needs to show a desire to make change and dispel the 'attitude of arrogance'."
The report also exposes a serious lack of trust in line staff.
"It is the belief of this group that trust is a two way street. In order to trust the administration, we must feel that they trust us. It has been our experience over the last several years that the employees are not trusted by the current administration in almost anything that we do."
The report from the Organizational Trust group cited three examples of what they perceived as mistrust from the administration, including placing locks on equipment room doors, removing blinds from the officer's report writing room and a failure to adequately disseminate information.
"The lock on the door of the room containing the tazers, radio batteries, etc. creates an undue stress on employees" the report states. "If a radio battery goes dead in the middle of the shift, it is impossoble to get another one without hunting down a supervisor."
According to the report, this could also create safety issues.
"With the severe shortage of staff that we are dealing with, it seems inappropriate to delay putting an employee on the street for lack of a working radio. However, putting him on the street without a radio creates a safety issue."
In addition to the complaints, the report also provides suggestions that would work towards solving these issues, though some were viewed as too expensive.
"Knowing that some of these solutions would be declined as cost-prohibitive, we ask another question: How much is trust worth?"
Meanwhile, the Staffing Group presented issues stressing a heavy workload for officers, highlighting a 30% increase in personnel without the addition of a Supervisor. Other concerns included a need for more detectives, telecommunications personnel and adjustments to current schedules to allow for greater coverage.
In a prepared statement, Chief Morrison commended the work of the focus groups. "I commend the employees who participated for their energy, organizational courage, obvious attention to the issues and their commitment to solving the problems they have identified."
The Grand Junction City Council will discuss the results of the focus groups in a workshop session on October 17th at 7p.m. The workshop will be open to the public.
So, are you in GJ then? We were there a couple of weeks ago. Hit a deer (thank you), looked at some farms out by Palisade, visited sisters, looked at some jobs. (Wait, are you my sister?? hahah).
LOL. Next time your going to be in the neighborhood, drop me a note!
BUMP!
Sure nuff.
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