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  1. #11
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    California
    Posts
    20,594

    Default Re: Uniformed Police Officers Engaging in Political Activity

    Quote Quoting huntsab
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    Thank you.

    - - - Updated - - -

    His answer to overtime? Hiring more officers. The canned police chief thought he could manage with 6-7 additional officers. They can't afford one more. This is a 30 man PD. Also, the overtime went to only 7 cops in the POA leadership. One of them more than doubled his salary.
    Given a population of 38,000+ the city should have a police department of about 43 officers ... if they only have 30, it's no wonder they are understaffed and overworked. 6 additional officers would be a big help. Overtime would be insufficient alone to resolve any staffing issues. At 30 officers, I would not be at all surprised if the police were letting property crimes slide and not enforcing many of the quality of life and lesser offenses that the public tends to clamor for - traffic enforcement, graffiti, noise, inebriation, drugs, etc. It's probably all they can do to handle their calls and do basic follow-up on those offenses that are a priority.

    If overtime went to only a few officers, that can tend to show that the scheduling sergeant or lieutenant are helping their friends feather their beds. Or, it could be that those are the only officers able or willing to work the available shifts. In my department right now, there are three officers getting most of the overtime. Why? Because the rest of the officers are either unable to work the shifts because the OT occurs on their regularly scheduled work days already, or, they are unwilling to work the OT due to other needs such as daycare, etc. There can be more than one reason why OT goes to a select few. And with it going to 7 people, assuming it's largely patrol overtime, that probably represents almost 50% of the patrol staffing, so it would seem to make sense that it's limited to that number of people.

    If they had lieutenants working patrol and sergeants working admin in their stead - it either shows a lack of effective leadership by those lieutenants, or by the chief. Yes, it could be that the old chief was trying to get people out of the way that did not agree with him, or, it could be that the lieutenants were ineffective leaders and could not effectively manage their people so they chose to take to the field rather than manage their personnel. Hard to say from here.

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Posts
    1,279

    Default Re: Uniformed Police Officers Engaging in Political Activity

    California’s Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (MMB) allows labor officials to meet and confer with government representatives regarding wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment between public employers and public employee organizations. The phrase “wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment between public employers and public employee organizations” can be broadly interpreted to encompass a wide variety of areas.

    More often than not, when a POA president and city officials get together its usually to discuss MMB matters. This is a labor relations issue specifically authorized by law and not a political matter.

    Of course, there is always the possibility that they are just two friends sharing a meal together. During my career there were several people I was friends with who were my professional adversaries.

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    California
    Posts
    20,594

    Default Re: Uniformed Police Officers Engaging in Political Activity

    We have five members of our city council and I am friends with two of them, and well-acquainted with the other three. I see one of them almost nightly, and another with some frequency. When we get together we sometimes talk over coffee or even a meal, and the conversations often wander from work and city matters to the personal - how the kids are doing in college, grandkids (for one of them, not me), etc. The only time MMB came up was during a discussion about the city manager trying to prevent me (as association president) from attending council and budget meetings while on duty and in uniform in spite of what the MOU and MMB said on the issue. Fortunately, it has not yet been an issue, but the potential for conflict still exists.

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