Historical May 1980 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Low morale is a problem among police officers in the Seventh District, and it may affect the police service you receive. Although Sergeant Rooks of the Public Affairs Department believes that morale is a problem not only in the Seventh but throughout the Police Department, Frank Ginther, an officer in the Seventh, believes officers in the Seventh have specific reasons for being unhappy.
Said Ginther, “We have a problem because the officers don’t feel they are being supported by downtown and that hurts the morale. It causes problems: maybe now an officer just slides over a potential problem instead of reporting it.” The roots of the malaise can be traced back to early 1976 when Team Policing was implemented in the Seventh District as an experiment. Many changes were made in and out of the District to accommodate the new program.
The Seventh was removed from the normal chain of command under the Bureau of Field Operations and placed directly under the Chief of Police. In one stroke the District was isolated from the other districts freed from bureaucratic interference, and made self-reliant.
Within the District, Team Policing gave new duties and responsibilities to each officer. Ordinary patrol officers were expected to conduct their own investigations from beginning to end instead of calling in special investigative units.
All officers were expected to participate in the decision making process by identifying problems, and suggesting solutions, instead of by taking orders from decisionmakers downtown.
And each officer was expected to work with some community organization: a church, school, or community group, to improve communications and establish better relations.
After two years, the results were plain. The number of crimes committed in the Seventh had dropped as had the percentage of city-wide crime committed in the district. Internal complaints and citizen complaints had dropped, too, and tests administered to the officers to measure job satisfaction showed a steady climb.
When the department began assessing the program to determine whether it should be continued, the community expressed its feelings by lobbying to have the Team Policing made permanent.
In 1978 the experiment seemed an undeniable success.
But several factors have been at work to deteriorate the morale of the officers.
In 1977 the Seventh was taken from its unique position under the Chief of Police and replaced several tiers lower in the hierarchy under the Bureau of Field Operations.
Consequently, the Seventh lost its autonomy and some of its freedom. Concessions had to be made to the orders issuing from downtown.
Another unforeseen problem was that, Team Policing in the Seventh, had unintentionally made enemies of the surrounding districts. A government document, Team Policing: Recommended Approaches, suggests this may be a byproduct of limited implementation: “Problems have been intensified when team policing has been implemented only in experimental areas due to the resentment of those not involved in the experiment.” The resentment became evident when Ninth District officers charged that they were entering the Seventh District to answer radio dispatches that should have been handled by Seventh District officers.
That the charge was based more on feelings than on facts became apparent when statistics showed that officers from both districts were answering calls in neighboring districts and, that, in fact, seventh district patrols entered the Ninth more frequently.
A third factor in the deteriorating morale is created by insufficient manpower.
Based on the number of calls it is asked to respond to, the Seventh District should have 183 officers; it has 171. Eight positions are unfilled and four officers are temporarily detached to other city units.
Sergeant Rooks of Public Affairs says the Seventh is not the only understaffed district, but nevertheless some patrol officers feel that, undermanning is just another example of department indifference to the Team Policing program.
The unspoken fear among officers at the Seventh is that the Team Policing program is on its way out. The indifferent bureaucracy, the hostility of other districts, and the reduced manpower are factors that help that fear grow.
And another worry was added recently when the Police department announced that the Seventh district will take part in the federally-funded, experimental Integrated Criminal Apprehension Program (ICAP).
In March 1980 the Third District implemented the program; the Seventh District is next in line.
The question being asked at the Seventh District is what will happen to Team Policing.
Sergeant Rooks said that the two programs are not incompatible and share many concepts. But both he and Officer Ginther are uncertain about what will happen.
Next month the Paper will look at ICAP and how it might affect the Seventh District.
Originally published in The Paper, May 1980.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1980_05.pdf, printed page(s) 4; PDF page(s) 4.
