Professional Documents
Culture Documents
TAKING COMMAND
TAKING COMMAND
Introduction ................................................................................................................................ i
SUPPORT SERVICES
Chapter XVI. Integrity – Citizen Complaints and Internal Affairs ........................... 186
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
This report presents the findings and recommendations of the Resource Management
Evaluation of the Alexandria, Louisiana Police Department (APD), conducted by the
International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). The goal of the evaluation was to
position city executives and the men and women of the APD with information, insight,
and an action plan to:
Measure the degree to which the APD’s philosophy, goals, objectives, and
operations conform to the expectations of the city’s governing body
Identify crimes, victims, and police operations that require more effective
response or emphasis
Evaluate how efficiently the APD is organized to achieve its mission and
to conduct current operations
Identify important police and security functions that are not being
performed by the APD
i
Specify number and types of personnel needed to conduct current and
future department operations at levels which meet professional standards
and community/governing body expectations
Assess the readiness of the APD to cope with the rapidly changing
cultural, programmatic, and technological environment of 21st Century
policing.
STUDY METHODS
There were four phases to the study, several of which overlapped. Phase 1 was devoted
to collecting information about operations and conditions. A combination of data
collection techniques and sources was used. Command and non-command police
department personnel were interviewed. IACP staff observed numerous operations.
Policy statements, rules and regulations, statistical reports, and other written
documents were gathered. Data collection was, in fact, ongoing until the end of the
study period.
ii
scrutiny of professional evaluators. This represents an act of professionalism of the
highest order. In doing so, the city has served its clientele well.
CHANGING CONDITIONS
The APD is a dynamic organization. Some conditions described in this report have
changed during the time that the study was being performed and the report was being
prepared. We have had to “freeze” conditions in order to prepare the report. The most
current information on the condition of the department resides with the APD, including
information on actions which would impact consideration and implementation of
recommendations.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Our ability to conduct this evaluation was facilitated by the participation and
cooperation of dozens of individuals. Our appreciation is extended to the men and
women of the APD who provided data, participated in interviews, and returned survey
questionnaires. Special acknowledgement is offered to those individuals with whom
we worked most closely.
IACP STAFF
Work was conducted by Palmer D. Wilson, Senior Associate Consultant; Dr. Robert
Ford, Senior Associate Consultant; Randall Dilling, Associate Consultant; Tracy
Phillips, Senior Project Specialist; and Jeanine Burchard, Technical Support Specialist.
Jerry Needle, Director of Programs and Research, managed the study.
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Current and future policing requirements of the city of Alexandria, APD goals and
objectives, staffing, programs and technology are heavily defined by population;
economic conditions; level and composition of crime in the community, region and
increasingly, around the globe; availability of resources; service demands; and trends in
each of these correlates.
The city has a stable population residing in low-density neighborhoods for the most
part. These are positives for introducing and managing crime control and institutional
(APD) change.
Crime Profile. Increase in overall crime was marginal (3.3%) from 2003 –
2007. This favorable record hosts, however, an 18.5% increase in violent
crime, dominated by assaults. Property crimes, decreased 5.47%
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
To a far greater degree than crime work, traffic work is elective (subject to
managerial decision).
Workload Indicators. The APD serviced just over 65,000 calls for service
(including self-initiated) in 2008. This consumed just over 87,000 hours of
patrol time.
Traffic-related calls account for the greatest number of calls for service and
are the leading consumer of patrol time (13%).
Reliable trend data is not available to measure calls for service. (This
seriously impairs staffing requirements forecasting in a number of areas.)
Training. In-service courses per employee each year average 2.45. Lower
ranks receive more than higher ranks. Distribution of training is stable
across divisions. Top executives and commanders are undertrained.
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
As the APD goes forward with servicing the citizens of Alexandria and those of the
region who contribute to and depend on the city, it can and will build on the following
conditions and assets.
Conditions which demand informed and immediate treatment by the APD, the
governing body of the city and the community are:
Violent Crime. Despite more favorable 2008 data, the five-year trend
remains troubling. Assaults and disorderlies arising, we suspect, from
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
economic and social dysfunction, are driving this class of crime and
victimization.
Managing crime and victimization is the responsibility of the governing body, the
community, as well as the APD. Still, the leadership obligation falls mainly to the
police. Our work has surfaced a number of APD shortfalls that we believe account for
current crime conditions.
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
We urge the city of Alexandria, with a mandate from the public, and a “charge” to the
department’s leadership, to undertake a radical reengineering of the APD. The
transformation we envision should be guided by strategic intents:
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Establish goals and objectives at three levels: the agency; all units; and
personnel.
Define/employ measurements.
Problem solving.
Reentry.
Crime analysis.
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Police/corrections partnerships.
Restructure organization:
- Consolidate units
- Eliminate questionable operations
- Eliminate fragmentation
- Strengthen coordination.
- Consolidate command
- Add new skills, knowledge, and abilities (SKAs)
- Civilianize.
VIPS models.
Reentry model.
Route 911 calls directly to APD dispatch centers (response time issue).
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Focus on dissatisfiers:
- Performance evaluation
- Discipline practices
- Transfers and special assignments.
Alarm calls (7,200 last year), thefts (2,700), burglaries (2,000), and
disturbing the peace (7,500) should be primary targets for evaluation.
Telephone and Internet report taking can also relieve burdens on patrol
and dispatch.
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Current and future policing requirements of the city of Alexandria, APD goals and
objectives, staffing, programs and technology are heavily defined by population;
economic conditions; level and composition of crime in the community, region and
increasingly, around the globe; availability of resources; service demands; and trends in
each of these correlates. Environmental conditions in Alexandria and the APD and
their implications are examined in this chapter.
Black 54.7%
White Non-Hispanic 42.0%
Hispanic 1.0%
Two or more races 0.9%
Other 1.4%
Land area of the city is 26.4 square miles. Population density, 1,736 persons per square
mile, is low.
The city’s education profile shows that of persons 25 years of age and over:
Housing starts, measured by building permits, are rebounding, although market prices
remain depressed:
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Table 1 displays the level of and trends in violent and serious crime in Alexandria for
the five-year period 2003-2007. Overall, these crimes have increased marginally, by 232
recorded offenses (3.3%) for the period, and an average annual increase of 58 (0.8%.)
Separating violent (crimes against persons) and property crimes for evaluation yields a
far different picture. Violent crime has increased by 476 offenses, 18.5%, with annual
averages of 119 and 4.63%.
While the total number of robberies is not to be dismissed, the occurrence and influence
of assaults is self-evident. In 2007, aggravated and simple assaults accounted for 93% of
violent crimes. Intrinsically violent, both a simple and aggravated assault have a
“gateway” dimension – they often escalate to the most violent of crimes – homicide. It
is important to recognize the increasing trend of assaults, both types having reached a
new plateau in 2005, and remained there.
The property category is dominated by thefts. Burglaries are frequent. Totals have
fluctuated annually during the years selected for analysis, decreasing for the period and
decreasing in 2007.
Six-month data for 2008 suggests that the year just ended may show improvement.
Homicide 2 3
Forcible Rape 10 17
Robbery 111 190
Assault – Aggravated and Simple 1,535 2,631
Burglary 573 982
Theft 1,624 2,784
Auto Theft 88 151
3,943 6,758
If the monthly averages hold, the APD will record 6,758 violent and serious crimes, 537
fewer crimes than in 2007, 7.4%.
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Table 1
Change – Change -
Offense 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Number Percent
Homicide/Manslaughter 8 3 12 5 8 0 0.0
Forcible Rape Total 13 17 21 29 16 3 23.1
Robbery Total 193 186 147 185 175 -18 -9.3
Aggravated Assault 755 687 845 836 866 111 14.7
Simple Assault 1,604 1,619 1,983 1,824 1,984 380 23.7
Violent Crime Total 2,573 2,512 3,008 2,879 3,049 476 18.5
Property Crime Total 4,490 3,723 3,787 4,495 4,246 -244 -5.4
Source: APD FBI - UCR Offenses Known to Police, Yearly Totals, 2003 - 2007
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Comparative rates of violent and property crime are shown in Tables 3 and 4. In this
array, Alexandria’s rates are compared to those of six Louisiana cities. For the past five
years, 2003-2007, Alexandria compared unfavorably with most of the selected cities.
By Uniform Crime Report (UCR) conventions, Part II crimes include all those that are
not included in the Part I, violent and serious class discussed above. Many of the
crimes in this class are, in fact, very serious in nature or consequence. Part II crimes are:
forgery and counterfeiting, fraud, embezzlement, stolen property, vandalism, weapons
violations, prostitution and commercialized vice, sex offenses (except forcible rape,
prostitution and commercialized vice), drug abuse violations, gambling, offenses
against the family and children, DUI, liquor law violations, drunkenness, disorderly
conduct, vagrancy, suspicion, curfew and loitering law violations, runaways, and all
other offenses of state and/or local laws.
Table 5 shows for the four-year period, 2005-2008, the number of Less Serious Offenses
recorded by the APD has increased marginally, 8.5%, an annual average of 2.8%.
Statistically, the total increase is accounted for entirely by 631 stolen property offenses
in 2008, compared to a previous average of 45 annually. (This may be a data system
error.)
The most prominent features of this class of offenses is the number of recorded
disorderly conduct incidents, consistently half or more of all less serious crimes.
Criminal Damage (occurs with great frequency). All Other Drugs, a self-initiated/
police-generated class of offenses is also prominent.
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Table 2
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Table 3
300.0
243.4
250.0
Rate per 10,000 population
221.9 232.9
210.9
195.4 Lake Charles
200.0 Kenner
Bossier City
150.0 Monroe
Alexandria
100.0 Houma
Slidell
50.0
0.0
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Year
Source: Crime in the United States, FBI, Offenses Known to Law Enforcement, by State by City, 2003 - 2007
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Table 4
1200.0
1037.6
1000.0 976.4
928.7
Rate per 10,000 population
809.7 822.3
800.0 Lake Charles
Kenner
Bossier City
600.0 Monroe
Alexandria
Houma
400.0
Slidell
200.0
0.0
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Year
Source: Crime in the United States, FBI, Offenses Known to Law Enforcement, by State by City, 2003 - 2007
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Table 5
Change – Change -
Offense 2005 2006 2007 2008 Number Percent
The number of and trends in recorded serious crime involving juveniles during the
2003-2007 period is summarized in Table 6. A pattern of rising juvenile offending is
distinct. A 40.1% increase has emerged from three successive annual increases.
2004 -3 -1.0
2005 45 15.3
2006 44 13.0
2007 33 8.6
Source: APD FBI - UCR Offenses Known to Police, Yearly Totals, 2003 - 2007
Thefts predominate, 176 in 2007, followed very closely by simple assaults, 160. As is
true for adults, assaults continue to remain high (aggravated) and increase (simple).
Thefts jumped noticeably in 2007, 45, 34%.
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Table 6
Change – Change -
Offense 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Number Percent
Homicide/Manslaughter 1 0 0 0 0 -1 -100.0
Forcible Rape 2 0 1 1 0 -2 -100.0
Robbery 3 1 6 3 4 1 33.3
Aggravated Assault 30 50 49 68 41 11 36.7
Simple Assault 89 78 132 137 160 71 79.8
Burglary 17 25 16 37 32 15 88.2
Theft 152 133 134 131 176 24 15.8
Auto Theft 3 7 1 6 3 0 0.0
Source: APD FBI - UCR Offenses Known to Police, Yearly Totals, 2003 - 2007
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
We were unable to acquire Part II and status offense data for juveniles, which is often
revealing. Vandalism and drug violations are among frequently occurring juvenile
crimes. Both would be recorded in the Part II category. We are also unable to assess
truancy violations, which are important for evaluation purposes.
Enforcement, measured by citations issued and traffic stops have received continuing
emphasis. Largely elective (as opposed to citizen demanded), citation activity has
increased continuously since 2005, almost 300 citations annually, 7.6%. Citation activity
by violation type (speeding, parking, etc.) were not readily available. The traffic stop
trend is more aggressive, a 56.6% increase, 18.7% annually. Most of the increase
occurred from 2005 to 2006 and 2006 to 2007.
DUI arrests are an important indicator of traffic performance. Since 2005 an increasing
number of DUI arrests has been recorded, rising from 242 in 2005 to 393 in 2008.
The APD engages in a range of resource-consuming activities, 700 escorts, almost 900
PDAs, and 326 tows (arranged for) in 2008. We are unable to separate work done by
Uniform Division/shift patrol officers and Special Operations – Traffic officers from the
data in Table 7. CAD data, used to calculate the number of first responders, (see
Chapter IV.) provides some further definition.
Arrest trends for 2004-2007 are displayed in Table 8. The period was characterized by
an increase, 28.5%, from 6,364 arrests in 2004 to 8,175 in 2007, an annual average of
9.5%. The 2007 total approximated the previous year, 2006. The change was powered,
numerically, by 722 additional arrests in the “All Other Offenses” category. Additional
increases of note are:
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Table 7
Change: Change:
Activity 2005 2006 2007 2008 Number Percent
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Table 8
Change - Change -
OFFENSE 2004 2005 2006 2007 Number Percent
Murder 2 6 5 3 1 50.0
Negligent Homicide 1 2 0 0 -1 -100.0
Forcible Rape 14 11 7 6 -8 -57.1
Robbery 41 28 43 30 -11 -26.8
Aggravated Assault 172 221 210 206 34 19.8
Burglary 127 134 160 159 32 25.2
Theft 543 504 576 686 143 26.3
Motor Vehicle Theft 9 11 21 18 9 100.0
Other Assaults 382 479 461 464 82 21.5
Arson 2 3 3 2 0 0.0
Forgery and Counterfeiting 52 31 46 37 -15 -28.8
Fraud 79 105 107 99 20 25.3
Embezzlement 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
Stolen Property: Buying, Receiving, Possession 21 24 64 48 27 128.6
Vandalism 152 132 126 134 -18 -11.8
Weapons: Carrying, Possession 101 115 120 99 -2 -2.0
Prostitution 21 9 34 41 20 95.2
Sex Offenses 29 34 37 32 3 10.3
Drug Abuse Violations 802 997 1,131 1,004 202 25.2
Gambling 0 2 0 0 0 0.0
Offenses Against Family 28 36 31 31 3 10.7
DWI 306 297 383 441 135 44.1
Liquor Laws 8 5 2 15 7 87.5
Drunkenness 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
Disorderly Conduct 782 938 1,103 1,179 397 50.8
Vagrancy 9 24 54 35 26 288.9
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Table 8
Change - Change -
OFFENSE 2004 2005 2006 2007 Number Percent
All Other Offenses (Except Traffic) 2,681 3,059 3,487 3,403 722 26.9
Suspicion 0 0 2 3 3 NA
Source: APD FBI Adult Arrest Reports, Yearly Totals, 2004 - 2007
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
DWI 135
Using 2007 as the measure, the highest volume arrest categories are:
No arrests are recorded for embezzlement, gambling, or drunkenness for any year. We
suspect that these categories are not used to record arrests.
Juvenile arrests also increased between 2004 and 2007, 2.7%, marginally compared to
adult arrests. The pattern also differs, all annual totals having been within a fairly
restricted range (Table 9.) Table 6, Juvenile Crimes, has no reference to activity beyond
Part I crimes. This table lends a bit more dimension to juvenile activity, showing arrest
for some Part II crimes.
SECTION 9: CLEARANCES
Crimes are cleared (closed) in several ways. Arrests are most common. Exceptional
clearances are those in which police believe they have identified an offender but for a
variety of reasons cannot arrest (or take other action). A victim chooses not to pursue
action, for example.
Clearance activity for the five-year period 2003-2007 is summarized in Table 10. The
number of clearances (the top table) declined for the period, due to an especially
sizeable number of cleared thefts (over 2,000) and cleared simple assaults (1,282). Since
2004, however, improvement has been progressive, leveling off/declining, slightly, in
2007. We speculate, but cannot confirm, that closure criteria/practice differed in 2003.
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Table 9
Change – Change -
Offense 2004 2005 2006 2007 Number Percent
Murder 0 1 0 0 0 NA
Negligent Homicide 0 0 0 0 0 NA
Forcible Rape 1 0 2 5 4 400.0
Robbery 11 5 5 14 3 27.3
Aggravated Assault 32 17 24 12 -20 -62.5
Burglary 31 22 32 42 11 35.5
Theft 185 149 144 137 -48 -25.9
Motor Vehicle Theft 6 7 14 13 7 116.7
Other Assaults 21 32 52 45 24 114.3
Arson 2 0 0 0 -2 -100.0
Forgery and Counterfeiting 0 0 0 1 1 NA
Fraud 4 6 1 3 -1 -25.0
Embezzlement 0 0 0 0 0 NA
Stolen Property: Buying, Receiving; Possession 6 1 5 4 -2 -33.3
Vandalism 12 24 29 17 5 41.7
Weapons: Carrying, Possession 3 3 2 5 2 66.7
Prostitution 0 0 0 0 0 NA
Sex Offenses 2 7 4 0 -2 -100.0
Drug Abuse Violations 32 26 45 39 7 21.9
Gambling 0 0 0 0 0 NA
Offenses Against the Family 0 1 1 1 1 NA
DWI 1 2 5 3 2 200.0
Liquor Laws 0 1 5 5 5 NA
Drunkenness 0 0 3 0 0 NA
Disorderly Conduct 40 43 46 44 4 10.0
Vagrancy 0 0 0 0 0 NA
All Other Offenses (Except Traffic) 44 74 70 64 20 45.5
Suspicion 0 0 0 0 0 NA
Curfew Violations 11 16 9 10 -1 -9.1
Runaways 8 13 0 0 -8 -100.0
* 2003 data was omitted from this analysis as only January and February 2003 figures were available.
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Table 10
Offense 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Change – Number Change - Percent
Homicide/Manslaughter 7 1 12 2 6 -1 -14.3
Forcible Rape 9 15 15 10 3 -6 -66.7
Robbery 53 62 81 71 50 -3 -5.7
Aggravated Assault 453 412 448 422 429 -24 -5.3
Simple Assault 1,282 498 731 862 818 -464 -36.2
Burglary 440 196 224 198 180 -260 -59.1
Theft 2,002 889 814 853 884 -1,118 -55.8
Auto Theft 127 90 93 106 86 -41 -32.3
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
The APD crime profile shows aggravated assault and robbery to be problem violent
crimes. The APD’s assault clearance rates are, comparatively, very low. Robbery
clearance rates, alternatively, have usually exceeded national averages.
Table 12 itemizes CFS, by crime and service call types, for the entire year of 2008. Forty
(40) types compose the crime and community service labor of APD field service
personnel. The clusters are as follows:
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Table 11
Murder and non-negligent manslaughter 33.3 62.3 100.0 58.1 40.0 63.8 75.0 60.5
Forcible Rape 88.2 38.3 71.4 38.3 34.5 37.0 18.8 34.3
Robbery 33.3 28.0 55.1 28.3 38.4 27.8 28.6 27.7
Aggravated Assault 39.4 54.8 41.7 55.5 48.3 54.7 43.9 54.1
Violent Crime 39.3 45.6 42.8 46.0 47.5 45.0 43.0 44.3
Notes: Bolded items highlight instances where the APD clearance rate exceeded the national rate for comparably sized cities.
The FBI does not calculate total Part I clearance rates by population group.
FBI clearance rates are only available by population group, not by individual city.
Source: APD Report A, 2004-2007; FBI Crime in the United States 2004 - 2007 (2008 not yet released)
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Table 12
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Table 12
TOTAL 66,550
_______________________________
Source: CAD
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Murder (184); Narcotics Violations (658); Rape (29); Sex Offense (98);
Weapons Laws (4); Fraud/Forgery (450).
Attending to minor accidents is the leading consumer of patrol time, 13% of all CFS
work.
Seven of the top 20 service call activities involve traffic regulation and
violations.
During every year of the decade now coming to a close, except for one, police
expenditures have increased, at an annual average of 12.4%. As is always the case, the
increases were fueled by city-approved salary and fringe packages. (Table 14.) The
trend will/should be halted. The administratively approved budget for the coming
year, 2009-2010, totals $16,916,815, a decrease of 4.01%. By major appropriations
category, reduction should occur as follows:
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Table 13
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Table 13
TOTAL 87,272
_________________________
Source: CAD
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Table 14
Description 2001/2002 2002/2003 2003/2004 2004/2005 2005/2006 2006/2007 2007/2008 2008/2009(1) Change
Salaries and Wages $ 6,291 $ 6,606 $ 6,644 $ 6,432 $ 8,740 $ 9,283 $ 9,915 $11,613 $4,524 (72%)
Fringe Benefits 1,237 1,255 1,493 1,883 2,438 2,493 2,543 2,776 1,839 (149%)
Operating/Contractual 1,600 1,598 1,565 1,608 1,698 1,973 2,332 2,712 5,166 (32%)
Capital Outlay 930 154 659 806 1,117 1,036 1,306 1,259 227 (24%)
Total Appropriations 10,058 9,623 10,774 11,139 14,405 15,194 16,497 18,769 $8,711 (87%)
(1,000s)
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Table 15
RESOURCES – STAFFING
2005-2009
Change – Changer -
Rank/Title 2004/2005 2005/2006 2006/2007 2007/2008 2008/2009 Number Percent
Chief 1 1 1 1 1 0 0
Assistant Chief 1 1 1 1 1 0 0
Captain 6 6 6 6 6 0 0
Lieutenant 11 11 11 11 11 0 0
Sergeant 36 36 36 36 36 0 0
Communications Officer 17 17 17 17 17 0 0
Corporal 35 42 51 63 52 17 48.6
Police Officer 56 55 61 49 60 4 7.1
Jailers 2 2 2 2 2 0 0
School Patrol 21 21 21 21 21 0 0
Records Clerk 14 14 14 14 14 0 0
Secretary 1 1 1 1 1 0 0
Accountant 1 1 1 1 1 0 0
Student Workers 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Turnover has been low-to-normal in the APD, ranging from 3.1% (2008) to 8.5% (2007).
The data in Table 16 shows a distribution of turnover that ranges across many position
classes.
Table 16
Assistant Chief 1 1
Captain 1 1 1 3
Lieutenant 1 2 3
Sergeant 1 1 1 2 5
Corporal 1 1 2
Officer 8 3 5 10 3 29
Provisional Officer 2 1 3
Communications Officer 2 1 4 7
Provisional Communications
Officer 1 1
Records Clerk 2 1 1 1 5
Student Worker 1 __ __ __ __ 1
TOTAL 17 8 9 19 7 60
(7.6%) (3.6%) (4.0%) (8.5%) (3.1%)
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Table 17
EXPERIENCE PROFILE
Rank 1 2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 11-15 16-20 21-25 26-30 31-35 35+ Total
Chief 1 1
Assistant Chief 1 1
Captain 1 3 2 6
Lieutenant 10 1 11
Sergeant 5 22 7 1 35
Corporal 7 7 5 12 30 1 62
Police Officer 17 14 12 2 1 1 47
Recruit 2 __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ 2
Total 2 17 14 19 9 6 13 35 22 19 5 3 164
Percent of Total 1.2 10.4 8.5 11.6 5.5 3.7 7.9 21.3 13.4 11.6 3.1 1.8 100.0
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Corporals (32) cluster in two categories, 11-15 years and 16-20 years.
Despite a nearly 30-year-old consent decree that requires the APD to report its efforts to
improve diversity, the racial and gender composition of the department continues to be
dominated by white males. Table 18 summarizes the gender and race profile of the
APD. As the department restructures, there is a strong need to improve racial, gender,
and ethnic diversity.
Table 18
Sworn
- Chief 1
- Asst. Chief 1
- Captain 1 5
- Lieutenant 1 1 8 1
- Sergeant 5 1 29 1
- Corporal 10 47 4 1
- Patrol Officer 9 4 25 3 1 _
Sub-Total 27 6 115 9 2 0
Non-Sworn
- Secretary (Chief) 1
- Jailer 2
- Dispatcher 7 2 7 1
- Records Clerk __ 8 ___ 6
Sub-Total 0 15 2 16 0 1
TOTAL 27 21 117 25 2 1
(Percent) (14.0) (10.9) (60.6) (13.0) (1.1) (0.1)
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Every APD officer has completed a basic/recruit training program, several hundred
hours (varying by time of hire). In recent years, all have successfully met post-recruit
field training requirements, approximately 24 hours. Two global views of in-service
training – ongoing career development education and work after the academy/FTO
sequence, are provided by the data in Tables 19 and 20.
Number of in-service courses per employee, each year, averages 2.45. By rank, the
number varies, and is inversely correlated. Lower ranks receive more than higher
ranks. (Table 19.) APD training records do not allow us to complement the average
number of courses with average number of hours. Table 20 displays average number of
in-service training courses by division. With the exception of Traffic, the number of
courses ranges little.
A later chapter addresses the amount and sufficiency of training for specialties/
specialists, such as community policing specialists and first-line supervisors. In this
overview chapter, we report on leadership and executive training. Briefly put, top
executives and commanders of the APD (ranks of lieutenant to chief) are glaringly
undertrained, formally in the skills and at the institutions that prepare individuals to
maximize the potential of police service.
Almost half of the APD workforce responded to a survey designed to elicit opinions
and perspectives on the agency’s effectiveness in servicing the public; the workplace
environment – policies, practices, and conditions; and opportunities for constructive
change.
The APD workforce feels that the safety and service needs of three community/citizen
groups are being met effectively: the mentally challenged; business; and the military.
Interestingly, captains and lieutenants responded less favorably. Not being serviced
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Table 19
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Table 20
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Table 20
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
effectively are a greater number of stakeholder groups: victims of crime; youth; the
elderly; minorities; and the homeless/indigent.
Four practice and condition areas are perceived as effective overall, by slight majorities:
understanding of job goals; understanding of APD goals; understanding of performance
standards; and quality of supervision. Not considered effective by 50-60% of
respondents are: training and policies and procedures. Not considered effective by
substantial majorities (66% - 83%) are promotional practices; IA/discipline practices;
performance evaluation; community policing practices; performance development
(individual); community trust; transfer and special assignments.
Each of the factors and trends examined above has implications for design and delivery
of police services to the Alexandria community. Either individually or collectively
considered, none strikes us as needing attention more than crime levels and trends.
CRIME CONDITIONS
While partial (seven months) 2008 violent crime data are promising, indicating a decline
of 208 recorded crimes, 6.8% for the class, the five-year trend remains troubling, an
18.5% increase. It is important to examine whether 2008 finishes as projected and the
significance of early 2009 recorded crime totals and composition.
Assaults are frequent. Less Serious Offenses are increasing in frequency. While not at
an alarming rate, an average of 3% annually, the 2008 increase approached 8%. We are
puzzled, however, by 2008 data. The increase was powered by what seems to be an
abnormal and dramatic increase in recorded stolen property offenses. This needs to be
examined and explained by APD management.
Of great import for the future, almost half of Less Serious/Part II offenses are disorderly
conduct incidents. This reinforces an inescapable conclusion that the city of Alexandria
hosts far too much disorder and dysfunction.
A pattern of rising juvenile crime emerges clearly from the data – four successive
increases, an average of 10% annually. A below-average increase in 2007 is the only
positive to emerge from these data. Again, 2008 data is needed to sharpen evaluation.
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CRIME CONTROL
Evaluation of APD programming, policies, and practices reveals both explanations for
current crime conditions and the building blocks of an action program to address,
stabilize, and hopefully reverse the crime record of the past five years.
Functioning without the benefit of intricately drawn goals and objectives and associated
measures of achievement, the APD lacks the diagnostic fundaments to craft a coherent
data-driven strategy for crime prevention and control, Intelligence-Led Policing (ILP),
as well as the capacity to select essential police services for maximum impact. Crime
analysis and CompStat programming are absent. Community policing assets have
atrophied. Community engagement, problem solving, and partnerships, the three
pillars of COP, are glaringly underutilized.
INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE
RESOURCES
Although we call for action to acquire essential SKAs (skills, knowledge, and abilities)
not currently present, the APD is well resourced to pursue new directions.
Appropriations have been generous for many years. The staffing level, flat-lined for
this entire decade, is quite reasonable. The APD is not understaffed in the conventional,
global sense, and is, in fact, overstaffed in some ranks, captains and sergeants.
Population data, the little we know about the economic future of Alexandria and
Central Louisiana, and calls for service trends, three primary indicators, suggest
measurable externally-driven workload growth or a need for a concomitant resource
augmentation.
PRODUCTIVITY OPPORTUNITIES
Resource acquisition that we do recommend can be met in several ways, the most cost-
effective being reallocation of and greater productivity from current resources. High
payoff resource recovery options immediately available to the APD lie in workload
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
reduction for first responders. Alarm calls (7,200 last year), thefts (2,700), burglaries
(2,000), and disturbing the peace (7,500) should be primary targets for analysis
(causation), problem solving, programming, educational, and/or technological fixes.
Programming may have to include policy initiatives/changes by city government
and/or the criminal justice system.
Telephone and Internet report taking and assistance should relieve burdens on patrol
and dispatchers.
ASSETS
Moving the department forward depends on more than selecting and successfully
implementing informed policy, staffing, and operational improvements. It relies upon
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visionary leadership and the capacity of leaders to rally the governing body, the
communities that compose the city, and the workforce.
The workforce regards a greater number of conditions and practices that compose the
APD organizational culture to be less than satisfactory or effective than the number
considered to be satisfactory and effective. We find neither these results nor attitudes
we witnessed firsthand (on-site) to be a daunting obstacle to positive change. In fact,
survey data notwithstanding, we regard the workforce to be the department’s strongest
asset. Morale is solid. Motivation awaits “triggering.”
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The Rules and Regulations Manual hosts the APD’s Mission Statement and the Law
Enforcement Code of Ethics.
The APD does not have a formal goals and objectives setting process. It has been
reported that during 2008 at least one objective was established, a five percent reduction
in burglary. Current practice was described as “we try to (set goals) on an annual basis
– not always in writing.”
The APD should be able to infer directions and expectations from administration’s
statements in the City Progress Report 2008. The Public Safety section (page 13) states:
The following statement under Immediate Goals (page 31) sets forth an ambitious
agenda for APD attention:
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SECTION 3: EVALUATION
Objectives are ultimate ends or outcomes that police agencies strive to achieve.
Objectives define what an agency is supposed to achieve not the processes undertaken
to accomplish them. To prevent crime, to apprehend alleged offenders, to clear crimes,
to recover property, to locate missing persons, to minimize use of force, and to protect
constitutional guarantees are examples of ultimate ends that have long characterized
the police function. To patrol, investigate, dispatch, staff, and train are not ultimate
ends. These are activities undertaken to achieve ends. Although core objectives are not
immutable, they do not change substantially over time.
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Having no formal system of goals and objectives setting and measurement, and not an
easily identifiable informal system, the APD is totally unprepared to reap the benefits of
this crucial management capacity or to remain properly accountable to the governing
body. We are not prepared to comment on the degree to which governing bodies have,
by inattention or insufficient attention, allowed or nurtured the current condition. (The
“condition” did not develop overnight.) More important, the current administration
seems intent on correcting the accountability gap.
At this juncture the only course is to develop a system which meets professional law
enforcement standards. This will contribute, simultaneously, to the design and
functioning of the crime prevention, crime analysis, and CompStat capacities
recommended elsewhere in this report. This assignment should be centered in the
proposed Training and Planning Division, with periodic audit support by the proposed
Inspections function within Professional Services.
SECTION 4: RECOMMENDATIONS
The following actions should be taken to strengthen objectives setting and measurement
practices:
The structure must include objectives for the department and each division,
section, and unit. Objectives must specify the outcomes that the department,
division, section, and/or unit want to achieve. All objectives must be
measurable. Personnel from all major units in the department should be
involved in the development process.
2. Ensure that members of the governing body and the community participate in
objectives setting.
6. Ensure that objectives and measurements are used for planning, decision-
making, and performance evaluation at all levels of the APD.
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
12. Perform periodic audits of program progress and effectiveness using the
Inspections capacity within Professional Standards.
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
During these initial meetings the study team also asked for and reviewed what was
indicated as both the current and proposed (2007 version) written directive system and
both were found to have conflicts with the supplied charts. In addition to
understanding the organization structure, the study team needed to take a snapshot of
the current staffing profile, marrying that to the organization charts and written
directive system. Given the level of confusion, the team decided to prepare its own
composite chart from those in conflict and, with the aid of several agency members,
developed an accurate view of the organization upon which to validate the staffing
profile. The results of this effort are shown in Figure 1 and became the baseline for the
team to begin its analysis.
The department was found to have a very narrow funnel-styled organization that
operationally terminates at the Assistant Chief level, where more than 10 units, along
with their commanders, report directly to him in a stove-pipe fashion. It is quickly
apparent that such an arrangement can only result in supervisory overload as it exceeds
normal span of control recommendations. Several areas of common function lacked
joint or coordinated command (e.g., Patrol, Traffic, and Street Interdiction), and to some
degree may compete with each other. This absence of coordination and consolidation
of command would perpetuate throughout the study.
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Figure 1
This office houses the Chief and the Assistant Police Chief. Under the current structure,
the Assistant Chief of Police has direct reports from 10 subordinates. Reporting directly
to the Chief of Police is a lieutenant (Professional Standards), the Assistant Chief of
Police, and a research and planning lieutenant. Currently, the Chief is supported by an
executive secretary. The volunteer chaplain reports directly to the Chief of Police
ASSISTANT CHIEF
Immediately below the Chief and his office, is the Assistant Chief, who essentially
oversees day to day operations of the department. In addition to his secretary, the
Police Accountant, and two officers assigned to local task forces (a total of four FTE), the
Assistant Chief has all remaining units in the department reporting directly to him. In
order to illustrate their relationships, we have grouped them by functional area, which
eventually became the format for the recommended changes.
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PATROL OPERATIONS
Patrol and other associated direct field operations are currently shared by a number of
divisions. The largest of the divisions is the Uniform Division. Also providing patrol
services are the Special Operations Division (traffic) and Special Interdiction Team (SIT)
(street crimes). A Community Policing unit is also housed in the Uniformed Division.
Actual staffing of the current Uniform Division’s (April, 2009) shifts was:
• Captain 1
• Lieutenant 5
• Sergeant 11
• Corporals 26
• Officer 37
• Lieutenant 1
• Corporal 3
• Officer 4
• Captain 1
• Lieutenant 1
• Sergeant 1
• Corporals 11
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
In addition, the assigned lieutenant staffs the department’s supply function on a part-
time basis. This unit supports both individual officer organizational and personal
equipment issue and routine administrative supplies (paper, pencils, etc.)
Street Interdiction Team and Special Response Team (SIT/SRT). The SIT/SRT
is a street crimes unit that provides a tactical presence for patrol on the streets of
Alexandria. It also provides a special response unit for emergency situations. The
SIT/SRT is commanded by a captain. The captain reports to the Assistant Chief of
Police.
• Captain 1
• Sergeant 1
• Corporal 6
INVESTIGATIVE SERVICES
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
• Lieutenant 1
• Sergeant 7
• Corporal 11
• Officer 1
• Civilians 4
• Sergeants 3
• Corporals 1
• Officers 3
• Clerk 1
Administrative and support functions are widely scattered throughout the department.
Administrative activities can be found in the Chief’s Office (Research and Planning), in
the Special Operations Bureau (Department Property), and in a number of stand-alone
units reporting directly to the Assistant Chief of Police.
• Captain 1
• Lieutenant 1
• Sergeants 5
• Dispatchers 17
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
• Sergeants 4
• Corporals 2
• Clerk 1
• Captain 1
• Sergeant 2
• Corporal 1
• Clerks 7
• Captain 1
• Jailor 2
• Clerk 1
SECTION 2: EVALUATION
From a functional viewpoint, the current structure of individual units does little to
enhance an organized or cohesive response to criminal activity. In the case of CID, the
Narcotics Unit operates independent of any planning and coordination of everything
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
from informants to complex investigations. The Street Interdiction Team (also known as
the SWAT or CRT unit) does not coordinate with Narcotics and has only marginal daily
interaction with CID. The two officers assigned to parish level federal task forces are
believed to report to the Assistant Chief, stifling information flow to other investigative
units. Juvenile investigation activity has been limited to reactive investigation, with
only minimal counseling being conducted, while juvenile crime has been rising. The
result is an uncoordinated investigative function that, in some instances, can lead to
mistakes and serious injury under high risk situations. At the very least it is not
addressing the data identified serious crime issues.
On the first responder side, the Uniform Division shifts cover calls for service. Units
assigned to the Special Operations Division (motorcycles and DUI enforcement
vehicles) are only assigned shift calls if they accept them and deployment is not
coordinated other than shift hours. The subordinate Community Policing Unit, while a
direct report to the Uniform Division commander, in reality operates independently
and without a formal or department-wide strategy. At the same time, the Community
Services officer, located in the Training Academy, is performing community policing
functions that are duplicative or in place of those of the Community Policing Unit.
There is little or no coordinated effort at reducing violent crime, specifically that
associated with assaults.
The administrative duties of the department are fractured among several units, some at
the division level and commanded by captains. There is an absence of professional
civilian support staff throughout these units. Police officers currently staff many jobs
that could be performed by civilians. In some cases, this has been a historical
development and in others due to a lack of staffing review by the department. As an
example, a lieutenant performs technical maintenance services for the department’s
CAD and administrative computer system. Meanwhile, a captain oversees the Support
Services Division, responsible for vehicle and building maintenance, with a staff of one
clerk and three jailers. Detective personnel oversee the evidence room, clearly a civilian
position, while other property is handled by a lieutenant in the Special Operations
Division. Finally, a sergeant handles the UCR reporting, while a civilian clerk handles
warrants. Clearly, there is little rationale behind most of these assignments and little
leveraging of civilian professional strengths for assignment continuity and subordinate
development.
The Research and Planning Unit, located in the Office of the Chief, appears focused on
grant reporting and management with little research or analysis being conducted. The
department’s written directive system lacks coordination with oversight of it vested in
the UCR sergeant in the Records Division. No annualized goals or objectives are
developed for any unit. The flow of information, by the nature of the individualization
of the department organization, is stymied and no active intelligence gathering or
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
From a proactive standpoint, there are no units actively assigned programs such as
offender reentry monitoring, domestic violence prevention and follow-up,
neighborhood engagement and partnerships, or proactive juvenile counseling.
Volunteer programs do not operate within the department, although several staff
members have received training in their development. Many direct service or
administrative/support positions are ripe for a proactive volunteer program.
Leadership training and development is stagnated by the current promotional and
staffing policies. Inter-unit coordination is almost non-existent. In the opinion of the
study team, the current organization mix and functional responsibilities frustrate
development of these essential programs.
Patrol
Investigations
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Crime scene unit needs increasing forensic focus with civilians staffing.
Civilianization would reduce costs, add continuity and skill building, and
in some instances inject professional level skills into the department.
SECTION 3: RECOMMENDATIONS
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Unity of command
Accountability
Civilianization.
While each of these requires attention by the department and city management, the
basis upon which all will be built is the department’s organizational structure. The
present structure, as outlined above, is not conducive to needed change and thus must
undergo change itself.
This model reduces the span of control at the upper levels of the department and places
responsibility for each functional area in one person rather than the previous multi-unit
model. The recommended department organizational chart is shown in Figure 2.
This organizational concept creates three major bureaus within the department, with
the commander of each reporting to the Chief of Police. In line with objectives to
nurture leadership capacity, we recommend the city petition the Civil Service Board to
create the bureau commander position as an exempt rank that allows the Chief to
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Figure 2
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
appoint without civil service restrictions. The Chief’s immediate office staff was kept at
three, plus the Chaplain. We have added a staff inspections function to Professional
Standards to enhance department-wide accountability and support recommendations
for monitoring of unit level goals and objectives, as well as to ensure accountability and
compliance with policy.
• Chief 1
• Lieutenant 1
• Sergeant 1
• Civilian 1
The proposed Field Services Bureau will house what are currently known as the
Uniform Division, Special Operations Division (SOD), Community Policing Unit,
Community Services, and Street Interdiction Team/Special Response Team (SIT/SRT).
The Field Services Bureau Commander will be a key policy maker. It is critical that this
position be filled with a person with leadership and administrative skills. It is
important that this choice be carefully made. As a key policy maker we recommend
that this position be exempt from the current civil service rules.
Presently, promotion is based on seniority. We believe that time in grade is far too
narrow a factor upon which to base a promotion of this importance. It is recommended
that promotion of this policy maker be at the discretion of the Chief of Police.
• Commander 1
• Secretary 1
It is proposed that the Field Services Bureau be made up of three divisions, Uniform
Division, Special Operations Division, and Community Affairs. Figure 3, below depicts
that organization:
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Figure 3
• Captain 1
• Lieutenant 4
• Sergeant 12
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
• Corporals 29
• Officers 46
Total 92
• Lieutenant 1
• Sergeant 3
• Corporal 16
Commanded by a lieutenant, this unit will report to the Field Services Bureau
Commander. Community Affairs will be responsible for establishing a community
policing program for the patrol force. It will provide programmatic direction to
community policing officers assigned to the shifts.
In addition, the Community Affairs Unit will be responsible for crime prevention
programming in the community, coordinate police volunteers, and develop juvenile-
based community programs. The current DARE program will also be administrated by
this unit. Community Affairs will be also responsible for developing, monitoring and
maintaining records on all community initiatives by the Alexandria Police Department,
including citizen (field) contacts and public information requests.
• Lieutenant 1
• Sergeant 1
• Corporal 1
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
• Officer 1
The Investigative Services Bureau encompasses the old CID and Narcotics Units. In
addition, there is a re-engineered Family and Juvenile Investigations Unit that is more
proactive, and a Forensics Unit that is minus the evidence custodial function. Civilian
professional staff has been added where appropriate to re-assign sworn personnel to
positions requiring sworn authority. The Bureau would be commanded by a
commander supported by a secretary. Two clerks would maintain the Investigative
Services desk.
As with the Field Services Bureau, the Commander of Investigative Services will be a
key policy maker. It is critical that this position be filled with a person with leadership
and administrative skills. It is important that this choice be carefully made. As a key
policy maker we recommend that this position be exempt from the current civil service
rules.
Presently, promotion is based on seniority. We believe that time in grade is far too
narrow a factor upon which to base a promotion of this importance. It is recommended
that promotion of this policy maker be made at the discretion of the Chief of Police.
We recommend reducing the Criminal Investigations Division from five units to four
units by combining financial crimes with property to reduce inefficiencies and
supervision expenses. Units within the proposed CID include:
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Figure 4
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
• Lieutenant 1
• Sergeant 4
• Civilian Supervisor 1
• Investigators 13
• Civilian Professional 3
• Clerk 3
• Lieutenant 1
• Sergeant 2
• Investigators 4
• Clerk 1
The Administrative and Support Services Bureau, currently shown with a sworn
Commander in charge, has the flexibility to be directed by a civilian professional in lieu
of the sworn rank. Proposed staffing for the Office of Bureau Commander is:
• Commander 1
• Secretary 1
• Department Accountant 1
The Commander of the Administrative and Support Services Bureau will be a key
policy maker. It is critical that this position be filled with a person with leadership and
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
administrative skills. It is important that this choice be carefully made. As a key policy
maker we recommend that this position be exempt from the current civil service rules.
Presently, promotion is based on seniority. We believe that time in grade is far too
narrow a factor upon to base a promotion of this importance. It is recommended that
promotion of this policy maker be made directly by the Chief of Police.
Figure 5
It is recommended that the Support Services Bureau be subdivided into four divisions:
Communications Division
Training Division
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• Lieutenant 1
• Communications Supervisors 5
• Communications Officers 17
• Lieutenant 1
• Sergeant 2
• Corporal 1
• Civilian Planner 1
• Clerk 1
• Lieutenant 1
• Corporal 2
• Civilian Record Supervisor 1
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
• Crime Analyst 1
• Information Management Technician 1
• Record Clerks. 6
• Civilian Supervisor 1
• HR Technician 1
• Property and evidence custodians 2
• Maintenance Specialists (previous jailers) 2
• Clerk 1
This reorganization takes into account both unit and staff restructuring and recognizes
that an orderly replacement plan will be required to accommodate the new allocations
of certain ranks such a captain, lieutenant, and sergeants. This schedule should also
include reversion to a lower rank should that be necessary in lieu of waiting for
retirements or other separation activity. Since this problem bottoms out at sergeant,
supervisors should fill the positions available with the lowest seniority sergeants
serving as corporals. Further, the recommendation includes conversion of the captain
position to an exempt rank of commander. Required legislation must be processed
prior to any implementation.
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Responding to calls for service is the preeminent function of the Alexandria Police
Department’s Uniform Division. It is the direct link to the public, the primary provider
of services, and the heart of the agency’s crime control effort. First response patrol
commands the largest portion of the Alexandria Police Department’s resources. For this
reason alone first responders must be managed with the utmost skill.
This chapter will recommend staffing levels for patrol’s first responders. Based on an
internationally-accepted patrol staffing standard, this report will analyze current first
responding patrol officer workload. Based on this analysis of Alexandria’s calls for
service and other crucial patrol information, this report will recommend staffing levels
for first responders needed to meet professional standards. Staffing and deployment
analysis will not directly address patrol specialty units such as street crimes, traffic,
community policing, DUI and other patrol related units. Staffing of these units will be
treated in a further section of the report.
SECTION 1: OBJECTIVES
First response staffing, deployment and scheduling objectives are to ensure that a
sufficient number of officers and supervisors are available to:
Staffing, deployment, and scheduling plans must comply with officer safety
requirements (backup) and maximize cost-effective use of patrol resources.
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“Ready-made” universally applicable patrol staffing standards do not exist. Ratios such
as officers per thousand are totally inappropriate as bases for staffing decisions.
The primary classes of data that must be gathered to define patrol staffing and
deployment requirements concern (1) availability and (2) workload. Availability is the
number of hours that the officers actually work, straight time, each year. Availability
data accounts for days off, vacations, sick leave, holidays, compensatory time, and
training. Workload is the amount and type of labor engaged in by officers when they
do work.
To define the patrol staffing requirements of any law enforcement agency, the following
factors, the mix of which is unique to each locality and agency, must be considered:
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Patrol methods and experience and productivity of supervisors and officers should also
be considered.
Equally important in terms of land area, in Alexandria, natural barriers such as the
interstates and the Red River can provide minor barriers to some police responses.
However, throughout most areas of the city, officers in adjacent zones, can respond
quickly to calls and backups in adjacent zones. East-West and North-South corridors
permit easy access for responding patrol units. Some of the newer subdivisions in the
city’s Westside have road grids whose complexity may pose a minor hindrance for
response. Overall, geographic features are not such that they severely limit the ability
to adjust call distributions for zones.
Ready-made population based staffing standards also ignore other important attributes.
For example, Alexandria is a regional center, where people from outlying areas come to
work and shop. While its residential population is near 50,000, during the work day
non-residents can swell the city’s population as they come to work or shop. The
presence of an airport, port, and a college campus also has important impacts. Another
city of comparable size, for example, Port Orange Florida, is a suburb and does not have
the additional daytime visitors that Alexandria has. Comparisons of per capita officers
often neglect such important differences in duties and service populations.
SECTION 3: AVAILABILITY
Due to a variety of factors, including days off, vacation, sick leave, compensated time,
and training, patrol officers are not always available to work. To calculate patrol
staffing needs, deploy officers properly by time of day, day of week, and geographical
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area, and to evaluate productivity, the actual amount of time an officer works
(availability) must be calculated. Alexandria Police Department (APD) field patrol
officers (first responders) actually work an average of 1,680.62 hours annually, 140.05
shifts. (Table 21).
Availability was calculated based on actual use of sick time and use of some other
leaves (military leaves) by officers assigned to the shifts (first responders). These data
were largely assembled by the Police Department from payroll records. Sick time
appeared particularly high with an average sick time of 107.05 hours per year per
officer. (It is important to note that the high average sick time is a product of a few
officers using large amounts of sick time.)
Estimation was required for use of vacation time since such data was not readily
available. Officers earn 180 hours a year for vacation in years one to nine. During years
10-20 officers earn 216 hours of vacation time per year. The majority (68.8%) of officer in
patrol have between one and nine years on the job.
Review of vacation time banks suggest that officers bank a portion of their vacation
time. Banking of vacation time is particularly evident among those with more than 10
years of service. Based on yearly grants of vacation time, the size of current vacation
banks, and the distribution of officers by years of service, we estimate that on the
average 180 hours of vacation are used per year.
Military leave – given the fact that a number of police officers are active members of the
National Guard and the reserves – has important implication for availability. Military
leave includes two components, time off for routine military training, and extended
leaves to serve in either Iraq or Afghanistan. Routine military leave involves an average
of 5.33 hours per year per officer.
The roster provided to us for the patrol shifts had no officers listed on long-term
military leave. However, informally it was relayed to us that two officers once assigned
to patrol are currently serving full-time in the military. Currently patrol has no officers
on its roster assigned full-time to the military. It is important to note that officers on
long-term assignment to the military should not be counted as staff for first responders.
To have adequate first responders, they should be replaced while on long-term military
leave.
The specific type of revolving 12-hour shift utilized in Alexander results in 84 hours of
officer time in a 24-hour period. While FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) permits 85.5
hours in a two week period for police personnel without the payment of overtime,
Alexandria does pay overtime (compensated time) beyond 80 hours in a two week
period. As a result each patrol officer working more than 80 hours in a two week
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Table 21
140.05 shifts
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period receives six hours of compensated time (K time) to be taken at some point in the
future. As a result the type of 12-hour shift utilized in Alexandria is somewhat less
effective than for example an eight hour, five day a week schedule. However to be fair,
the difference is in the range of less than 2.5% decrease in efficiency.
Officers can take K-time off, when permitted. K-time is only gained when officers work.
It is our estimate that officers earn approximately 125 hours of K time per year.
The union contract calls for all officers who are scheduled off on a holiday to receive a
day of leave in lieu of the holiday. There are 10 holidays. On the average officers on
the 12-hour shift would be off every other holiday, this results in an average of five
holiday leave days per year.
The union contract also provides for one day of incentive leave (eight hours) for every
four months without use of sick leave. Reviewing use of sick leave, it is estimated that
this results in approximately eight hours per year per first responder.
Overall, Alexandria Police Patrol availability (38.4% of the time) is lower availability
than most departments we have analyzed. This is due to three factors. The city has
fairly liberal leave policies. Instead of paying overtime the department has generally
granted compensated time at time and one half. Finally, there is a heavy use of sick
time by some first response patrol officers.
Use of compensated time as opposed to payment of overtime may often appear initially
appealing to municipal policy makers. However, in the long run since patrol shifts
must be staffed at specific levels if the public is to be properly served, over reliance on
compensated time leads either to the need to hire additional officers or a degradation of
services to the public.
SECTION 4: WORKLOAD
Workload data from the computer aided dispatch system (CAD) were gathered for a
one-year period, January 2008 through December 2008. CAD data accounts for all calls
for service and officer-initiated activities for all field operations. Information includes
the time calls and activities were received by Communications, time to process calls,
time calls were dispatched, time officers arrived, and time calls were completed. CAD
also provided information on the nature of an activity, some very limited information
on the location of activity, and responding units and officers. Data was provided on
units assigned a call or units initiating an activity and on multiple responding units
(back-ups).
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Alexandria does not have a formal system of directed patrols and collects
only limited information on directed patrol items. Only two categories
were used in CAD to track directed patrols. These were Keep Watch (754)
and Check Building (206). In another section of this report we will
recommend the institution of a formal system of directed patrols.
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Information on reports written, citations given and arrests made from other data
sources was considered.
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Time calculations for each of these categories include travel time to the incident and
time spent directly on the incident. If further investigation is associated with a specific
event, that time was also analyzed. If an arrest is made the time to transport a prisoner
to the jail and time spent processing a warrant request are also included. Time is also
included in those categories that involve report preparation.
DATABASE PREPARATION
Calls for service and self-initiated activities from CAD logs were sorted by unit. Using
unit designators, a refined database was developed to address only activities conducted
by primary response units, defined as a unit with primary responsibilities to answer
calls for service, patrol, and conduct community policing activities within a specified
zone or district. Units whose responsibility was traffic, community policing, special
operations, traffic, or DUI were not considered as primary units.
Canine units were not included as primary response units since canine units, while they
answer calls from time to time, are selective in the calls they answer and do not
generally serve as first response units.
Only workload addressed by shift officers was analyzed. Supervisors, detectives in the
field, Street Crimes officers, traffic, Community policing officers, canine officers, and
DUI officers were not included in this patrol workload analysis.
To support analysis, and match staff allocations and deployment to demand, data were
sorted by time (day of week, and hour of day) and responding unit.
Coding errors (null values), duplicate entries, and missing data were repaired when
possible. Two common dispatcher/report time entry errors – zero time entries and
failure to enter a completion time, were corrected by inserting mean times for specific
activities.
The database was reformatted from CAD source data into Excel, sorted and analyzed.
For certain analysis, SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) was employed.
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ADMINISTRATIVE TIME
This is often surprising to those not acquainted with the patrol function. However, a
review of patrol activities supports this average:
Two factors associated with administrative labor are often of concern in police agencies
such as the Alexandria Police Department. In Alexandria which is currently hiring new
officers, Field Training of new officers (FTO) consumes considerable officer time. With
two officers working the same calls, the use of one officer is basically lost. We did find
this to be a problem with the APD. The number of new officers undergoing field
training during the time surveyed was moderate (four officers were either cadets or
involved in Field Training in December of 2008). This does have a significant impact
upon Patrol’s ability to address workload.
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Uniform Services officers participate in CIT team. Presently, there are 15 members of
patrol that are involved in the CIT team. These training activities are necessary.
However, these endeavors demand extensive and frequent training as well as call outs.
Our analysis in agencies similar to Alexandria where data was available, suggests that
the time available to specialty officers to patrol is reduced by as much as 10% to 15%.
The CAD does not provide specific data on such training so it is difficult to assess the
exact impact. Our review of APD patrol found it not to be a significant problem.
However, it is important that these positions be closely monitored to ensure that they
do not reduce the effectiveness of the squads of which they are a part.
Special events are an important component in any analysis of patrol operations. How
many and how special events are addressed has important implications for police
staffing. Alexandria’s police provide security only for a limited number of special
events. In a number of instances on duty officers do not provide direct support to these
events. Such events are largely handled by use of overtime, using off-duty officers.
Those events that do utilize patrol resources do appear to be limited, and in terms of
impact upon workload fall within the 30% guideline for administrative time.
Overall, our assessment based on CAD analysis, field observation, and interviews with
key staff is that administrative time falls within the IACP guideline of less than 30%.
Our estimate is that administrative time consumes about 20-25% of officer time. In a
further section of this report, we will be recommending a formal process of directed
patrols and increased accounting of administrative duties through CAD to better track
and organize use of administrative time by first response officers.
Administrative time, however, does not cover lost time due to resignations,
terminations, and retirements. Department turnover of sworn officers is a major
problem for most patrol operations. In many departments, vacancies caused by
turnover are disproportionately held on the patrol roster reducing the number of first
responders. Most retirements come from positions other than patrol. However, since
patrol is nearly always the first assignment of new officers, and the source of officers to
be transferred into other assignments, patrol is generally impacted by retirements,
resignations, and terminations in non-patrol assignments.
In a further section of this report the implications of officer turnover upon patrol
staffing will be treated in greater detail.
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Measurement factors and standards describe the patrol work setting and make it
possible to evaluate and define patrol staffing needs and deployment requirements with
precision. The two employed for the Alexandria Police Department study are:
Operational labor
Uncommitted time.
Operational labor is the aggregate amount of time consumed by patrol officer to answer
calls for service generated by the public and to address on-view situations observed by
officers. It is the total of criminal, non-criminal, traffic, and back-up activities initiated
by a call from the public or an incident an officer comes upon.
Expressed as a percent of the total labor in an officer’s work day, operational labor of
first response patrol officers in Alexandria should not continuously exceed 30%.
Recommending this specific standard for Alexandria are several factors.
The workday must not be so filled with operational labor that officers are unable to
respond to emergencies in a timely fashion or engage in elective activities. A proportion
of the workday must be uncommitted to any other type of labor. Uncommitted time
allows:
For a jurisdiction the size of Alexandria, a maximum of 30% uncommitted patrol time is
also recommended. Uncommitted time is that period of time left over after both
committed time and administrative time have been deducted. To achieve a 30%
uncommitted work time one must not only ensure that operational labor does not
exceed 30% but also check that administrative time also does not exceed 30%.
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For patrols between the hours of 10:00 pm and 6:00 am it is recommended that
uncommitted time be no less than 40% of an officer’s time. This permits more rapid
backups during the more dangerous early morning hours, and permits more aggressive
patrolling of closed businesses for burglary prevention. Our review of officer
availability under the 12 hour shifts in Alexandria found that no additional action was
needed to ensure 40% availability during the early morning hours. We also found that
administrative time was less than the 30% maximum on day shift. We did found
however that operational labor did exceed professional standards.
First responders are housed in the Uniform Division. The Uniform Division is
commanded by a captain. The Uniform Division captain reports to the Assistant Chief
of Police. First responders in patrol are subdivided into four shifts, each of which is
commanded by a lieutenant. There is an additional lieutenant who serves as the relief
lieutenant, providing shift supervision when the primary shift lieutenant is on leave.
At the time of the deployment study the patrol shifts (first responders) had an actual
sworn staff of 75. This staffing did not include officers assigned to specialty units such
as traffic, canine, community policing, or special operations. Authorized staffing just
for first responders including field supervisor assigned to the shifts was:
Lieutenants 5
Sergeants 11
Corporals 23
Officers (Patrol) 36
Patrol is commanded by a captain. The Patrol force is divided into four shifts, A, B, C,
and D. When one day shift (A) is on the other (B) is off. A similar profile can be found
for the C and D shifts.
Each shift is supervised by a lieutenant. Supporting the shift lieutenant and providing
direct field supervision on each shift are three sergeants (there is one sergeant vacancy
on the D shift). In addition each shift is staffed by a canine officer. Canine officers
were not included in our analysis since they are not first responders. While they do
answer calls from time to time, first response is generally left to regular officers.
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Corporals and police officers assigned to Patrol serve as first responders. Corporals
serve essentially as senior officers, receiving the designation of corporal after a number
of years of service.
Combined first responder staffing for all shifts was (April 2009) 36 police officers, 23
corporals, officers, 11 sergeants, and five lieutenants. At the time of our count four
additional officers were in the academy. Two additional officers were on extended
military leave. These officers were not factored in our analysis. Our analysis is based
on actual staffing.
Patrol officers work a 12-hour shift. They work two consecutive days on and then have
two days off, they then work two days on and have three days off. The final sequence
has them working three days on followed by two days off. This day off sequence
repeats every 28 days. Every week, the shift changes from days to nights.
Change of shift occurs twice a day at 5:45 am and 5:45 pm. Shifts do not overlap. Calls
occurring during shift change are either held or an officer is called out of briefing if the
call is of an emergency nature. Since the two shifts are 12 hours in length, this is
sufficient to cover a 24-hour day. Briefing generally takes about 15 minutes and
involves line up (information presentation) and equipment exchange. During the
change of shift in the evenings, community policing officers address calls for service
while shift officers are in briefing.
During 2008, the time frame for which our CAD analysis took place, staffing for patrol
shifts averaged 14-15 corporals/officers assigned to each of the four shifts. Since
assigned officers receive leave, it is common for patrol shifts to operate with fewer
officers than assigned. Turnover, field training, leave taking, and temporary
reassignments reduce patrol staff below assignment.
Our analysis of officer availability during the time frame in question found that while
15 officers are assigned to a patrol shift, use of leave time reduces available officers by
an average of 11.6%. As a result, with leave time averaged, during 2008 one would
anticipate that the average of availability of officers to answer calls was 13.04 officers
per shift.
However, actual observation of shift staffing found actual first responders (not
including canine) between nine to ten officers per shift. This is not surprising, given the
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large amount of varied types of compensated and leave time that is provided officers.
Officers must be provided with an opportunity to use this accrued time.
Since shifts rotate from days to nights, staffing is consistent across day and night shifts.
APD has no formal programs to reduce workload for patrol by employing civilians to
cover patrol calls that are service oriented. APD does not provide for telephone or
Internet complaint processing. However, a number of calls for service, particularly
emergency calls, are addressed by officers other than Patrol.
Workload addressed by community policing officers, canine officers, SOD, SIT, and
supervisors was not included in the workload calculations for number of patrol officers
needed. Each officer has a unique three digit identifier in CAD. The department also
provided a patrol schedule and a listing of three digit identifiers. This permitted the
identification of patrol officer workload and the separation of first responder workload
from traffic units, canine, community policing officers, DUI officers, SOD officers, and
supervisors.
Table 22
There are no formal written minimum staffing standard. However, the captain in
charge of Patrol has implemented a standard that calls for a minimum of eight officers
and two supervisors on day shift and nine officers and three supervisors on night shift.
If daily personnel fall below this standard, positions are filled either by overtime or shift
switching. Our review of deployment in CAD found that this standard was honored.
There is no formal policy on the length of time an officer can work. This will be
discussed in greater detail in our evaluation section.
One problem encountered by Alexandria is that during vacation season, during holiday
seasons, and on weekends both calls for service and requests for leave can be high.
This is a common problem in police agencies. Requests for time off are not random,
requests for leaves are more common on weekends and during holidays and traditional
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
vacation periods. This generally corresponds with times of greatest demand for police
services. As a result, staffing minimums often coincide with times of greatest demand
for police services. Overall, our review of CAD logs found that Patrol did ensure
minimum staffing levels on weekends and holidays.
While CAD provided address information, it did not link those addresses to police
zones. For purposes of patrol assignment, the city is broken into nine zones. Zones are
further grouped into three districts. Zones 1, 2 and 3 are assigned to the Eastside
(downtown) district, Zones 4, 5, and 6 are assigned to the Central district, and Zones 7,
8, and 9 are assigned to the Westside district. A shift sergeant is assigned to a district
and supervises officers assigned to the three zones within that district.
There is no formal policy on the length of officer assignment to a district or zone. While
officers are generally expected to stay within the boundaries of their districts, their
assignment patterns appear to vary by officer and supervisor. Interviews with officers
revealed that a number of officers are assigned to the same zone designations over a
long period of time. Other officers frequently changed designations. Some squads
appear to have somewhat more stable zone assignments than others.
While approximately 59 officers were assigned to the patrol shifts not all these officers
are fully available to respond to calls. As noted earlier, a number of officers are off sick,
on leave or in training. Many departments also assign patrol officers to addition non
call-related duties. APD has been judicious in its secondary assignments for patrol
officers, with no desk assignments etc., for first responders. However, APD Patrol is
experiencing higher levels of sick leave than those of many other departments. At the
time of the initial analysis of staffing, two officers in Patrol were on extended sick leave.
The CAD recorded 71,948 police activities for the January 1 through December 31, 2008
period. Some activities involved response by units other than first responders.
Removing these calls left 66,622. Patrol first responders also answered an additional
20,459 calls as back-up units. In 2008, 52,378 events, 72.8%, were addressed by first
responder patrol units, 27.2% calls by non-patrol units, supervisors, community
policing officers, traffic officers, and command staff.
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Crime related calls (including back-ups) involved 34,978 incidents or 52.2% of total
responses. This category includes responses to suspicious persons, burglaries, stolen
autos, and checking suspicious autos and persons, addressing robberies and rapes,
disorderly conduct and domestics. The majority of these incidents originate as
dispatched calls for service.
Table 23
Traffic activities were the second most common source of work, 16,122 responses
(18.5%). Of these activities, traffic stops are most common, responding to accidents the
second most common. There were also 539 traffic escorts.
Service activities were the least common event, 15,866 responses, 23.7%, includes
checking the 2,397 assists to the public, answering alarms, dealing with juveniles, and
filing reports on behalf of the public.
Each incident takes a certain amount of time to address. As Table 23 details, crime
incidents take more time on the average than traffic or service calls. To address
workload, the actual time spent addressing incidents must be calculated.
Table 24 profiles the hours of work that compose time spent on answering calls by call
type for the 12-month sample period.
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Table 24
The 66,966 crime, traffic and service responses and backups consumed a total of
31,358:27:43 patrol hours of operational labor, an average of 37:10 minutes per initial
response for the officer assigned the call, and approximately 16:35 minutes per backup
officer. Crime-related work consumed 19,844:14:57 hours of officer labor (63.3% of total
officer operational labor). Traffic work involved 6,176:26:02 hours of officer labor
(19.7% of total operational labor). Service labor involved 5,337:46:44 hours of officer
labor (17% of operational labor).
In 2008, APD addressed 31,358:27:43 hours of operational labor with 59 first responders.
Fifty-nine (59) patrol officers for 2008 total time availability would be 99,156.58 hours
(1,680.62 yearly availability x 59). At the recommended guideline of no more 30%, 59
officers would have 29,746.97 hours available for operational labor. Current workload
of 31,358:27:43 exceeds available time. Dividing operational labor by available patrol
hours, an operational labor rate of 31.6% is realized. This rate is higher than the
standard. Additional officers will be needed to staff APD Patrol.
To address 31,358.5 hours of operational labor with a target of no more than 30% of
operational hours per officer (504.19 hours per year, per officer), the APD will require
64 officers to staff the patrol shifts. (The actual mathematics call for 62.2, officers, given
the nature of the 12-hour revolving shifts, it will require 16 first responders to be
assigned to each shift for a total of 64 first responders.)
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These 64 officers are required only for first response patrol. These 64 officers do not
include officers required for specialized traffic, DUI enforcement, Street Crimes Units,
or other patrol support units. We strongly recommend that the APD continue to staff
Street Crimes, Traffic and DUI units, but staffing for these units must be in addition to
the 64 officers and 12 sergeants that we recommend be assigned to primary call
response and preventative patrol.
The city of Alexandria is divided into nine zones and three districts, with an East
District (Zones 1, 2, 3), a Central District (Zones 4, 5, 6) and a West District (Zones 7, 8,
9). The three districts vary in size/acreage, population, and police activity levels.
The CAD data provided does not have addresses linked to zones. However, the CAD
data does identify call loads by the car assigned to a zone. Number of calls addressed
by an area car is an imperfect measure of call load by zone or district since police units
are frequently dispatched outside of their assigned zones. However, call volumes by
zone and district are instructive since they do contrast differences between zones and
districts.
Table 25
1 4,774 10.40%
2 4,922 10.72%
3 5,251 11.44%
4 6,558 14.28%
5 5,632 12.27%
6 5,487 11.95%
7 4,602 10.02%
8 4,372 9.52%
9 4,312 9.39%
The districts vary in call volumes with the Central District (Zones 4, 5, 6) having more
numerous and more serious calls. The Eastside District (Zones 1, 2, 3) encompasses the
older city areas, along the river, and the port area. The Eastside District is the second
most active district in the city. District 3 encompasses newer areas of the city and is
experiencing growth and call volumes while lower, appear to be increasing. Call types
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also vary significantly by district with more serious calls in the central and eastside
districts. District 3 also has a number of newer stores and commercial space which is
workload intensive providing numerous shoplifting calls.
Table 26
Officers are generally assigned daily to a patrol zone within a district. Generally, one
officer is assigned to each zone, once all nine zones are filled, officers are assigned
generally to a second zone car, most commonly as CAD demonstrates, in the central or
east districts. These second cars will often operate zone or city wide. Officer assignment
to these second cars is generally based on supervisor’s estimation of need. Generally,
more officers are assigned to the more active districts and zones.
Zone cars vary by size of area, and by population. Zone cars also vary significantly in
activity. High activity is particularly evident in Zone 4 in the Central District (6,658
calls; 14.28% of all calls), Zone 5 in the Central District (5,632; 12.27% of all calls) and in
Zone 6 in the Central District (5,487 calls; 11.95% of all calls). The least active zones are
in the Westside District with Zone 9, the least active with 4,392 calls (9.32% of calls
citywide) and Zone 8 also in the Westside District with 4,372 calls (9.52% of citywide
calls). The Eastside District cars account for 32.6% of all calls, Central District cars,
38.5%, and the Westside District cars, 28.9%. It is important to note that the Westside
District cars are more commonly called to answer calls out of their zones in the Central
District than are Central cars called to the Westside.
Zones also vary by types of calls. Reviews of call types by zone are instructive. More
serious calls, batteries, burglaries, disturbances, fights, and drug calls are more common
in the Central District’s 4, 5, and 6 zones. Westside Zone 7 with a large number of
shopping plazas and high volumes of traffic, fields a large number of shoplifting calls,
and traffic accidents. Calls in Zones 8 and 9 were not only low in volume, but tended to
be less serious in nature. Residential alarms were common in these zones.
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Table 27
The 30% standard for deployment does not require that every time period during a shift
meet the maximum. Officers, for certain duties, have the ability to transfer workload to
a later hour – for example, wait to complete written reports until the number of
incidents decline. On night shift, with a significant decline in activities in the early
morning hours, officers can use such slack times catch up on their paper work and other
administrative tasks.
It is instructive to calculate staffing levels needed to achieve the 30% level per hour, to
better deploy officers. To staff patrol positions by shift, the average daily operational
labor was divided by officer availability at the 30% level to establish required staffing
per hour.
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Table 28
100.0% 48,819
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Table 29
Calls for service for Alexandria are relatively consistent in volume throughout the
morning and early afternoon hours, then moderately increase when school lets out. The
increase peaks between 7:00 pm and 8:00 pm and evening hours, with calls for service
beginning to increase shortly after shift change (7:00 am) and increasing until 4:00 pm.
Call loads remain high throughout the afternoon and evening hours, decreasing
significantly after midnight and declining until 5:00 am.
Calculating activities for the two shifts, one finds calls for service heavier on days with
49% of activities on night shift and 51% of activity on day shift.
Currently, night and day shifts are staffed evenly with similar number of officers.
Given the similarity of workload on both shifts this is an appropriate distribution of
officers.
To identify activities by day of the week, an analysis of calls for service was conducted
by day of the week for 2008.
Activities proved relatively stable throughout the sampled week ranging from an
average a low of 13.2% of total activity on Sunday, to a high of 15.5% on Saturdays.
Given the limited range of variability by day of the week, special deployment by day of
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the week is not required. Most of the increase in call loads occurs on Friday and
Saturday nights. Special attention needs to be paid to limiting leaves or making
additional staff available during weekend nights.
Table 30
Table 31
Communities such as Alexandria often find that their workload and calls for service
vary by month and by season. Analysis was conducted of activities by month of the
year, to assess whether APD Patrol is impacted by seasonality.
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Table 32
Table 33
Analysis of activities by month found that July was the most active month followed
closely by May, August, and December. Summer is the most active season in
Alexandria. The graph above does accentuate the differences, the difference between
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the most active month and the least active month is 835 calls or approximately 28 calls
per day. The differences are not sufficient to necessitate, differential staffing by month
of the year.
Patrol supervision is an important topic for any patrol analysis. Patrol – first responders
are on the average younger and less experienced than officers in other police units.
Patrol is generally the entrance path for new recruits. A positive for Alexandria Patrol
are its experienced officers. Nonetheless, even patrols with experienced officers benefit
from reasonable level of field supervision.
Direct field supervision of patrol officers is provided by sergeant. At the time of this
analysis, there were 11 sergeants, and one vacant sergeant’s position. Each shift had
approximately three sergeants. Each sergeant on a shift is responsible for a district and
supervises the officers assigned ton that district.
IACP recommends, particularly for patrol forces with a mix of experienced and some
newer officers, a first line supervisory ratio between five and eight officers per field
supervisor (sergeant). Currently, Alexandria patrol fields three sergeants per shift.
There are 11 sergeants currently assigned, and one vacant sergeant position. Generally,
a corporal serves as an acting sergeant when necessary to cover this vacancy. Our
review of CAD logs found generally two sergeants were on duty on most shifts.
At the time of our analysis, with approximately 59 first responder officers, the ratio of
sergeants to first responder officers was 5.36 officers per sergeant. Field sergeants were
also responsible for supervising canine officers. This increased the supervisory ratio to
5.72. This is within professional guidelines.
Our recommendation calls for an additional five officers beyond current allocation
(April 2009). This would provide for 64 officers total and 16 officers per shift. In
addition field sergeants would be required to supervise canine officers as well. Our
recommendation will be for 12 sergeants to supervise 68 officers, a ratio of one first
supervisor for each 5.6 officers. This is an acceptable ratio for proposed staffing.
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The basic principle behind patrol scheduling is that patrol personnel should be
deployed where they are needed, when they are needed, and in proportion to the
workload. There are two aspects of scheduling. One must first determine the shift
schedule that has the best fit with workload. Then, a determination must be made as to
the number of officers assigned to a shift.
APD patrol currently operates on a 12-hour shift on a two week repeating schedule. To
cover the 24-hour clock, APD officers are assigned to four shifts in equal numbers.
Overlap periods are not covered in the morning. For the more active evening overlap
community police officers are required to respond to calls originating during the
overlap. A more effective way to address coverage during shift change will be
discussed in the evaluation section of this report.
There are over 1,000 shift variations possible. Most shift variations are modifications of
day off groupings or minor modification in length of 8-, 10-, or 12-hour shifts. The
effectiveness of a shift for a department is generally a function of two factors, efficiency
and employee satisfaction. Efficiency is simply the effectiveness of a shift schedule in
assigning the correct number of officers to the times when they are needed.
In most situations, shifts that are directly divisible into 24 are the most efficient. They
do not have extended overlap periods where officers from multiple shifts are on duty.
While there are situations where schedules which feature overlap periods can be
effective, these situations are unusual. Rarely do the overlap periods fully coincide
with demand for service. Periods where more officers are available than needed result
in unnecessary personnel expenses for a department. In the specific case of Alexandria,
current workload patterns do not justify the use of an overlapping shift schedule such
as that provided by 10-hour shifts.
APD’s 12-hour shift for patrol provide for a relatively efficient use of personnel. The
use of time and one half compensated time to cover the four hours above 80 hours in a
two week period does reduce the efficiency of the shift when contrasted with an 8-hour
shift. The reduction in efficiency is modest, ranging from a one to two percent loss in
efficiency.
Concern is often raised about the length of 12-hour shifts and the potential for accidents
and the loss of productivity later in the shift due to officer tiredness. Research has
generally not found this to be a significant factor. However, it is important that when
this shift is used, that a policy be in place that limits the amount of hours an officer can
consecutively work to 16 hours. Such a policy is not currently in place and we
recommend that a formal policy be instituted.
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The 12-hour shift also fits well with the demand for police services in Alexandria which
is fairly constant throughout much of the day and night shifts. This 12-hour shift is
generally popular with officers, particularly since it is configured with every other
weekend off.
Alexandria’s patrol schedule has officers moving from day to night patrol every other
week. Considerable research questions the wisdom of such swings from days to nights.
Research suggests that abrupt changes in sleep schedules interferes with the body’s
biorhythms and leads to tired and frustrated officers. Research also suggests long-term
use of such schedules may have medical consequences. It will be recommended that
changes from nights to day work occur, at most, twice a year.
With some modest modifications in officer assignment (the development of late and
early cars) which will be proposed in the evaluation section and a change in the
day/night scheduling, the current 12-hour shift serves Alexandria Patrol well. It is our
recommendation after review of alternative shift schedules that the current 12-hour
shifts be maintained.
While being equally divisible into 24 hours makes a 12-hour shift efficient since there is
no overlap when multiple shifts are on duty, it also poses another problem. Without
shift overlap, there is no coverage for calls occurring during change of shift. While units
are transferring equipment, servicing vehicles or attending briefing, calls for service are
difficult to address in a timely manner. This has been addressed for the more active
afternoon period, by having community policing officers cover calls during change of
shift. In the evaluation section, other options for covering shift change will be
discussed.
Yearly availability of officers (1,680.62 hours) is below average. This is a result of three
factors, generous leave time policies, use of compensated time to pay for the additional
four hours per two week period, and heavy use of sick time by some patrol officers.
The heavier use of sick is aggravated by a state law that permits basically unlimited use
of sick time.
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Patrol administration has taken action to reduce sick time abuse. This effort should be
continued. Management and labor should work to develop strategies to reduce abuse.
Abuse of sick time most impacts those responsible officers who come to work, who then
must work harder and serve with less back-up. There are several strategies that have
been employed in other departments that have successfully reduced abuse of sick time.
A staffing of 64 patrol first responders does not include vacancies or officers in training.
The 64 officers called for by this standard must truly be available. While our formulas
do compensate for short-term disabilities, varied leaves, and training, they do not
include long-term leave (military leaves to Iraq or Afghanistan), or vacancies caused by
retirements or resignations.
It is important to note that first responders do not include officers assigned to canine,
traffic, DUI, Street Crimes, or other specialty positions. A staff of 64 officers is required
to patrol zones, and serve as first responders for calls for service.
PATROL SCHEDULE
Patrol schedules can have a significant influence on staffing levels. Different schedules
provide for varied amounts of time when officers are available to answer calls. The
current APD patrol schedule provides about 15 workdays a month with a 12-hour
workday. A number of alternative work schedules were reviewed. Based on our
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
review of the current distribution of labor, issues of employee morale and overlap, it is
our recommendation that the current shift and schedule be continued. The current
schedule is relatively efficient in providing maximum availability of patrol officers.
Overall, the current deployment of officers by shift probably works as well with
observed workload variations as any alternative. There are a few concerns that do need
to be addressed and some minor changes that should be considered to deploy officers in
a manner more consistent with workload.
Day and night shift address similar workloads, with day shift addressing a slightly
higher level of activity (49% nights versus 51% days). However, the workload is slightly
higher on nights since calls take slightly longer at night than during the day. The
difference between night and day workloads is not sufficient to require differential
staffing.
Currently, APD has a four shift configuration. We recommend that APD continue this
configuration with one important change. Shifts would not change from night to days
and days to nights every week. Instead two shifts would be assigned to nights and two
shifts to days, and these shifts would alternate from days to nights every six months.
This would permit officers to better adjust their sleep cycles. Shift changes from days
to nights should coincide with local college campus schedules so as not to impede an
officer’s ability to further his/her education during time off.
Table 34
A 16 officers; B 16 officers
3 sergeants 3 sergeants
C 16 officers; D 16 officers
3 sergeants 3 sergeants
Difference in workload by day of the week is not sufficient to justify deploying officers
differentially by day of the week. However, administratively the department should
develop a formal written minimum staffing policy to ensure that sufficient officers are
on duty on Friday and Saturdays, particularly on night shift.
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Difference in workload by month of the year is not sufficient to justify seasonal staffing,
however, special attention should be paid during the summer months of July and
August, and during December that leaves granted to officers be limited.
GEOGRAPHICAL DEPLOYMENT.
Currently APD patrol shifts staffs two districts divided into nine zones. Day shift also
staffs a post at the call center. Districts and zones currently vary by size, workload, and
neighborhood characteristics. Workloads are unequally distributed across districts and
sub districts.
Given the city’s land area and configuration, the current 9 zone configuration makes
sense. In addition, with little natural barriers, officers in adjacent zones are readily able
to back up and respond to calls in the bordering zones. Nine zones are sufficient for a
city the size of Alexandria. The zones appear properly configured and while some
minor changes could equalize the calls somewhat, overall the current configuration of
zones is acceptable. Given that the average number of officers deployed would be 10-
11, nine assigned zones makes sense, with one or more cars assigned district wide to the
more active areas (Central District). Assignment of second cars to the Central District
would also mean that these additional units are centrally located to respond to scenes
on either the East or Westside.
Finally, to ensure adequate coverage during shift change, it is recommended that two
officers be required to work from 6:45 am to 6:45 pm and two officers be assigned to
6:45 pm to 6:45 am. These late cars would provide coverage during shift change.
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alternative ways to address workload employed. Second, Patrol efforts can be made
more effective by use of more directed strategies and more reliance on information.
APD Patrol has not developed a number of strategies to augment and free up its forces.
For example, a number of departments utilize community service technicians to address
non-critical calls, thus freeing up officers to address the more serious matters.
In recent years, police agencies are providing access to online complaint forms so
citizens can directly file a complaint over the Internet without having to have an officer
dispatched.
While it is clear at the moment that APD patrol needs additional first responders, and
supervisors for those first responders, for the future APD must also look to alternative
actions that will reduce the need for additional increases in officers beyond what is
presently being proposed. Strategies that other departments have found to reduce
workload include:
Alternative call service: Reports are taken over the phone by dispatch or
alternative report center. Departments either use citizen personnel,
volunteers, or officers on light duty to take such calls.
To strengthen patrol staffing and deployment, the following actions should be taken:
This is an increase of five positions above the current staffing for patrol of 59.
These 64 officers should only be assigned as first responders (primary patrol
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officers) and not include the staffing of specialty patrol units such as canine,
traffic, DUI, Street Crimes, or other units.
Given the long period that it takes to hire and train officers, consideration should
be given to overfilling positions, when academy classes are available, by five
officers.
5. Two late cars should be deployed to provide consistent coverage during shift
change. These cars would overlap by one hour the Day and Night Shifts.
Current practice of assigning an officer to each zone, with higher activity zones
receiving two officers and float officers available should be continued.
8. At least one officer should be assigned to each zone for an extended period of
time.
One to two year assignments should be the minimum time frame. This will
permit officers to develop the community relationships needed to sustain
community policing.
This call management program could reduce time officers spent responding to
minor calls for service. Teleserv could work in conjunction with the department’s
new Internet reporting system.
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12. A written policy limiting the number of consecutive hours that can be worked
should be instituted.
13. Establish a formal process and policy to address excessive sick time use.
14. When the economy improves, pay overtime as opposed to compensated time.
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In this section of the report patrol practices will be evaluated and a series of
recommendations made. Since patrol practices are a product of a number of units
within the Alexandria Police Department, the staffing and organization of these units
will also be evaluated. Another section of the report addresses patrol staffing,
scheduling, and deployment. Reference to the Patrol Staffing and Deployment Chapter
will be made frequently in this chapter.
Uniformed patrol services are provided by three divisions of the APD, the Uniform
Division, Street Interdiction Team, and the Special Operations Division. First response
and basic patrol is provided by the Uniform Division. A unit within the Uniform
Division, the Community Policing and Weed and Seed Unit provide community
policing and problem solving services. Canine services are also provided by the
Uniform Division. Street crimes and interdictions are provided by SIT, (Street
Interdiction Team) a separate division. The Special Operations Division (SOD) provides
traffic, marine and DUI enforcement. SOD is also responsible for special event
coordination.
SECTION 1: CANINE
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Currently, there are four canine units. One canine unit is assigned to each patrol shift.
By policy canine units are not first responders. They generally do not respond to
routine dispatched calls. They do respond to specific calls, alarms, burglaries, and
robberies. The dogs are tripled-trained (drug detection, patrol, and tracking). The four
canine units also commonly serve as back-up units.
Canine units report to their shift lieutenant. Canine units work the same shift schedule
as shift offices except they work only a 10-hour shift. The two hours reduction in work
time is to compensate the officers for the time spent for the care of their animals. Canine
officers train approximately once a week.
Canine units in 2008 were involved in 3,480 incidents, the most common of which was a
self initiated traffic stop. Review of CAD (computer aided dispatch) revealed that
canine units were particularly active in backing up other officers.
SECTION 2: SIT
The Street Interdiction Team (SIT) is commanded by a captain and staffed by a sergeant
and six corporals. SIT is essentially a street crimes unit providing a proactive presence
on the streets of the city of Alexandria.
SIT officers primarily work a 2:00 pm to 2:00 am shift. However, they frequently vary
their shifts as needed for special operations. They also serve as a back-up unit for
special department operations. However, there is limited cooperation with the
Narcotics Unit and they are generally not used for such operations.
SIT is available for call out for special operations. This unit also serves as the
department’s Special Response Team. As a streets crimes unit, SIT was active in both
traffic stops and field interrogations. In 2008, SIT made 1,023 traffic stops and
conducted 1,409 field interviews. They made 122 misdemeanor arrests and 96 felony
arrests. They also made 162 drug arrest, six weapons arrests, and 107 warrant arrests.
SECTION 3: SOD
SOD is a patrol-related uniform division that operates separately from Uniform Patrol.
The Special Operations Division is commanded by a captain. The captain is supported
by a lieutenant and a sergeant. Eleven (11) corporals are assigned to this unit. The
captain reports to the Assistant Chief of Police.
SOD most significant tasks involve traffic duties, traffic control, accident investigation,
and DUI enforcement. In addition to traffic, the unit is also responsible for organizing
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and staffing special details. SOD also administers a traffic grant and directs APD’s
limited marine efforts. Traffic officers by policy investigate all accidents involving
department vehicles. Traffic officers are also called out to all serious accidents where
death or serious injuries have occurred.
The unit is further subdivided into a motors and DUI components. Six corporals are
assigned to traffic duties (one of which is on military leave) and four corporals are
assigned to DUI enforcement. There is one corporal assigned to day shift in the
Downtown area for parking and other traffic enforcement.
Traffic units work generally from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm. DUI units work from 4:00 pm to
4:00 am.
Workload. While traffic activities for the entire department were available,
specific data on SOD’s enforcement activities was not available. However, utilizing
CAD, statistics on SOD’s traffic duties (motor officers) could be isolated by unit
number. The Computer Aided Dispatch Systems reveals the following activities for the
six person’s motors unit in 2008:
DWI 6
General Invest. 30
Traffic Problems 412
Traffic Stops 772
Speeding 10
Direct Traffic 36
Hit and Run 176
Accident 1,620
Stalled Car 201
Abandoned Vehicle 158
Traffic Escort 323
General Calls 61
TOTAL 3,805
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With five officers assigned (sixth officer on military leave), working an average of 140
shifts per year, motor officers address 5.4 activities per 12-hour shift. Information was
difficult to assess for the SOD unit. While we know the overall traffic enforcement
activities in the city, we found it difficult to distinguish citations, accident
investigations, DWI, and other traffic activities performed by SOD as contrasted with
other patrol officers.
SOD is also responsible for coordinating special operations and events. In 2008, 33
special events were coordinated. Most of these events utilized officers on an overtime
basis. A sampling of the events coordinated by SOD is as follows:
Traffic officer’s patrols are based on officer judgment. SOD does not currently analyze
crash data to deploy traffic enforcement officers. There is no STEP program (Selective
Traffic Enforcement Program) in place.
The department has a Community Policing/Weed and Seed Unit functionally located
within the Uniform Patrol Division. The Community Policing Unit operates largely
independently of patrol. As a result, this unit will be discussed in another section of the
report. Some issues, involving the community policing unit, will be addressed in the
evaluation portion of this chapter. A complete discussion and evaluation of this unit as
well as the department’s approach to community policing is included in Chapter __:
Community Trust.
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The organization, staffing, scheduling and deployment of Uniform Division Officers are
addressed in the chapter on patrol operations deploying and scheduling. This section
of the report will review key patrol practices, equipment, policies, and procedures.
Patrol Methods and Techniques. Day shift comes on duty at 5:45 am. Night
shift comes on duty at 5:45 pm. There is no shift overlap. Calls occurring during shit
change are covered by community police officers. Most work shift begins with a line-
up. The line-ups are directed by the district sergeants. These shift meetings are where
assignments are given, complaints are discussed, community problems discussed, and
information transferred. Roll call training may also occur. Officers are briefed on the
events of the prior shift. Events for previous shifts are reviewed. Patrol line-ups are
generally informal and vary in content from shift to shift.
Patrol generally deploys one person cars. Non uniformed patrols in unmarked cars are
utilized on an as needed basis by SIT officers. There are no formal walking beats. There
is no routinely staffed prisoner transport vehicle.
A canine unit is available most days and nights. Canines are triple trained to search,
drug detection, or for patrol. Canine officers generally do not respond to routine calls
when canine services are not required.
A communication policy is in place which controls and directs officer radio conduct and
reporting. The policy meets professional guidelines. A policy is in place which directs
emergency (code response). This policy provides a three code response standard,
which meet professional guidelines.
The pursuit policy was reviewed. While the policy had some excellent guideline, there
was insufficient guidance as to when a pursuit is justifies. A proper wrecker policy is in
place.
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The department has no formal written minimum staffing policy. However, the patrol
captain informally has set a standard of a sergeant and eight officers as the minimum
staffing level. If staffing falls below this level, additional officers are called in on
overtime. For night shift nine officers and a sergeant are required.
There is also no formal policy that limits amount consecutive hours of work. Such a
policy is particularly important in departments that utilize 12-hour shift. Officers
should generally not work longer 12-16 hours consecutively. A formal policy is needed
to limit any department related assignment that has an officer working more than 16
hours. This would include special assignment, and extra duty assignment provided by
the department.
Facilities. Patrol staff line-up for briefing and to swap out equipment, batteries,
and air cards in a back classroom at Headquarters. The line-up area is a large room with
ample whiteboard space, it adjoins the locker rooms and the back door area. Line-up
occurs twice a day for approximately 15 minutes. Information and assignments are
provided to officers during lineup. The facility is sufficient for conducting lineups.
Office areas for the lieutenants and a break room also adjoin the line up area.
Patrol command staff is sited in a series of offices on the third floor of headquarters off
the main hallway. An office is allocated for the uniform commander and a second
officer is provided for the administrative staff. Close by are the officers of the SOD and
SIT captains. Shift lieutenants have an office in proximity to the line-up area.
There are no staffed substations. Facilities are adequate, although they could use a little
sprucing up.
For major offenses, the department’s Crime Scene Search Unit will be alerted and will
take over the crime scene relieving patrol. Subsequent follow up investigation on major
cases are generally addressed by detective units. Patrol officers may, however, be
called upon to assist in investigations by detectives.
Directed Patrols. The APD conducts a mix of random and directed patrol. The
vast majority of unassigned time is used for random patrol. In many agencies directed
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patrol target specific locations, specific problems, and features pre-arranged strategies.
In the APD a formal system of directed patrol is not used as a formal aggressive
proactive patrol technique. APD does have directed patrols that are informally initiated
by citizen request and department concerns. They are not formally tracked or routinely
developed by crime analysis.
Traffic. Traffic control and enforcement is an important part of both patrol’s first
responders and SOD’s workload. Traffic duties consume 24.1% of total obligated time –
time officers are busy with patrol work for first responders. Traffic work involves four
major elements – response to accidents, traffic direction/control, responding to citizen
complaints, and self-initiated traffic enforcement work.
Total traffic work for all units in the department including supervisors is as follows:
DUI 103
Abandoned Vehicle 428
Accident 4,434
Hit and Run 587
Speeding 55
Stalled Vehicle 1,052
Traffic Escort 721
Traffic Problem 1,881
Traffic Stop 12,316
Direct Traffic 98
TOTAL 21,675
The majority of traffic work is accomplished by Patrols first responders, and by the SOD
unit.
APD does not fully employ a formal STEP (Selective Traffic Enforcement Program)
program (an anti accident strategy). There are no regular, formalized and specific
analysis conducted on all areas and all accidents, as a STEP program would require.
The traffic unit does, however, from time to time identify high crash locations and
assign officers to address these problems. For example, presently, intersections are
being identified that have a high incidence of red light running related accidents.
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Formal community and problem solving initiatives for shift officers appear quite
limited. Generally, most community policing efforts are seen by patrol’s first
responders as the duty of community police officers. There is some animosity between
regular shift officers and community police officers. Shift officers feel that community
police officers do not do their fair share of the work. Shift officers interviewed and in
the department questionnaire did note that levels of community policing activities by
shift officers were far higher in the past, and are currently quite limited.
Community activities by shift officers are not formally tracked. No formal evidence of
problem solving efforts was found for shift officers. In addition, crime prevention
efforts also are not formally tracked.
Community policing officers as previously noted are assigned specific areas of the city.
They are assigned to these areas for lengthily periods of time so the officers get to know
the residents. Community policing officers engage in a wide array of activities ranging
from participating in the Sheriff’s Department Clean Sweep (a warrant enforcement
activity) to attending block parties. It is difficult to assess both workload and the
overall impact of community policing and problem solving efforts, since there are no
specific goals and benchmarks identified upon which to gage success.
The community policing effort would profit from more clear goals and objectives and
the use of formal problem solving. A community policing plan would be an important
component of an overall patrol plan.
Arrests and Detention. In 2008, APD made 8,175 arrests. The vast majority of
these arrests were made by patrol officers. Officers generally transport their own
prisoners with each patrol unit outfitted with a prisoner transport cage.
Arrestees by patrol are transported directly to the county detention facility. It is located
in the city of Alexandria, adjacent to the downtown area. It is a short drive from all
zones to the detention facility. APD does not have its own detention or booking facility.
The county jail also provides a booking facility to process arrestees.
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Calls for Service and Response Times. The most common activity performed by
Alexandria’s shift officers is responding to calls for service. Calls for service are
received, screened and prioritized at the Communications Center. The Communications
Center is located at APD headquarters and is a separate division.
It is APD policy to respond to all calls when the citizens specifically request an officer.
CAD confirms that an officer is dispatched to the vast majority of citizen requests.
Alexandria Police Department does not utilize alternate handling of calls for service.
Response times were analyzed for 2008 by call type. Calls were analyzed by the amount
of time it took from the time APD Communications received the call to the time the
officer arrived on the scene. However this is only part of the picture, because the call
first goes to the county dispatch center, and then is sent to the APD. So the wait
experienced is longer than what is recorded.
It is estimated that, in most situations, county dispatch took less than one minute to
transfer the call. Citizen wait then would average about a minute longer than the time
recorded here. It should also be noted that city dispatchers have advised that county
time may be far more than a minute during the busiest periods.
It normally takes dispatch one to two minutes to process and dispatch a call. However,
if officers are busy on other calls, since no officers are available, calls are held until an
officer becomes available. For emergency, in progress calls, dispatchers will request
that officers break off what they are doing and respond immediately. For less serious
calls dispatchers will wait until an officer is available.
Death 10:47
Rape 6:21
Sex Offenses. 7:52
Robbery 7:20
Assault 8:35
Battery 8:41
Burglary 11:52
Burglary I/P 4:22
Theft 11:45
Disturbing the Peace 7:26
Public Service 10:05
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While there is no absolute standard for response times, a review of target response
times adopted by a number of agencies suggests that an average response time of
between six and eight minutes for more serious calls and a response time of 15 minutes
or less for less serious calls is appropriate. Alexandria response times are just a little
higher for serious crimes than is generally preferred. Response times for less serious
offenses are good.
A second talk group is used as the secondary frequency for patrol operations. Tactical
talk groups are also provided for special operations. A mutual aid channel is also
provided to contact other agencies. Ten codes are utilized.
Officers were interviewed and radio traffic was monitored during ride-a-longs. Radio
traffic appeared disciplined and appropriate. In general officers reported being
satisfied with communication quality and availability. Units to dispatcher ratios
appeared within guidelines. Air traffic appeared to be acceptable. Some complaints
were made relative to the experience levels of some of the dispatchers. This is a
common complaint in policing.
The officers have the ability to track dispatches and calls through in-car computers.
Police laptops also have the capacity to directly inquire into information databases,
significantly reducing workload for dispatchers, and reducing air traffic on the radio.
This system does not currently provide the capability for silent dispatch, although it
may be utilized in the future.
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Vehicles appear well maintained. Vehicles are well equipped with emergency lighting,
including take down lights. Each patrol vehicle is equipped with a two way radio and
siren. First aid kits are provided, as are flashlights, fire extinguishers, fingerprint kit,
blankets, and reflective vests. Patrol officers, until recently, had take home vehicles.
Due to budget limitations cars are no longer taken home. Each vehicle is clearly
marked, numbered, and has a prisoner screen and shotgun.
Patrol vehicles are also equipped with mobile data computers (MDC). These MDCs are
currently used for dispatch (silent and combined with voice) for MV checks, warrants
and wants checks, and stolen vehicle checks. The units are also used for communication
with dispatch and other mobile data computers.
MDC are used for report entry. MDCs are used by supervisors to track officer
status/location. Cars also have a video camera mounted that records all stops.
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Beat structures
Call priorities
Backup policies
Arrest/non-arrest discretion
Domestic abuse arrest discretion
Pursuit, arrest and use of force policies
Training objectives, needs and schedules
Traffic enforcement plan (STEP)
Equipment requirements and care
Vehicle plan.
The APD does not have a comprehensive patrol plan. While APD does have some
aspects of a patrol plan in place, most elements are absent. There are no performance
goals and objectives or effectiveness measures for officers, squads, or shifts. Crime
prevention or community engagement policies are limited.
SECTION 6: EVALUATION
Alexandria has a mature and well equipped patrol force. Patrol’s first responders, the
patrol shifts, provide adequate response and, with several modifications, we believe,
could provide truly excellent services to the citizens of Alexandria. Patrol’s specialized
squads are generally performing adequately. However, lack of accountability/
information, questions about scheduling and focus for specialized patrol units suggests
that modifications in unit design, schedule, and accountability could increase
effectiveness.
Shift lieutenants, the watch commanders, have little or no knowledge of what other
uniformed units are planning or doing. Community policing units, while reporting to
the same captain as regular patrol, generally operate independently as well from patrol
shifts.
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All of these uniformed units operate on the same streets, without coordinated command
and, equally important, without a shared plan or focus. Further, information sharing
among these disparate units is limited, contributing to inefficiencies and confusion, in
fact or potentially. (We cannot absolutely confirm that confusion occurs.) Sorely
needed, are supervisory coordination, common focus and direction, and enhanced
information sharing.
The Uniformed Services, SIT, and SOD captains all report directly to the Assistant Chief
of Police. Several other units – in fact the entire department – reports to the Assistant
Chief as well. This is simply too many separate units, with special unique concerns and
needs, for a single Assistant Chief, no matter how hard working, to manage and
coordinate effectively.
Commanding the Field Services Bureau will demand a high level of administrative
ability and leadership skills. Currently, promotion to all positions other than the Chief
of Police is determined largely by seniority. Seniority is not a good predictor of either
leadership or administrative abilities. It is our recommendation that a legal change be
made to make the position of commander exempt. This appointment should not be
limited by seniority.
Special Operations generally connotes more than just traffic/DWI officers. SOD
currently, in addition to traffic duties, coordinates special events and directs marine
operations. It is our belief that the SIT (Street Interdiction Team) would fit well in the
context of a Special Operations Unit and we recommend that the SIT be made a unit in
SOD commanded by a sergeant, reporting to the SOD lieutenant. This would result in a
reduction of a captain’s position.
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While the supervisors of these specialized units would provide general direction to
these units, address administrative paperwork, and set schedules, the watch
commander would provide immediate supervision to these units while on the street.
The watch commander would also have the authority, as the need arises, to redeploy
specialized units. It would be the responsibility of specialized units to provide
schedules, and operational information in advance of activities to watch commanders.
The canine unit is currently staffed by four officers. Our review of workload found that
a staffing of one canine unit per shift is warranted. We would recommend continued
staffing of canine at four officers. Additional staffing is not warranted at this time by
workload. Canine units, given their shorter work periods, the extensive training in
which they are involved, and the costs of maintaining the animals are relatively
expensive to field. Current staffing is optimal.
SIT is currently staffed by a captain, a sergeant and six corporals. Our review of
workload found this unit to be properly staffed. It is recommended that in the
proposed consolidation of units, the captain’s position be removed. It is also
recommended that an additional sergeant be added to this consolidated unit to ensure a
proper span of control.
• Lieutenant 1
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• Sergeant 3
• Corporal 6
With new direction, clearer goals, and a series of program innovations, a currently good
patrol function can be brought to unprecedented new levels of performance, in citizen
engagement, service levels, and productivity. Measurable improvement is available
with regard to:
Call Management
Patrol Plan
Objectives
Community Policing
Response Times
Supervision
Patrol Methods
Policies and Procedures
Information Production and Management.
A patrol plan need not be complex. It must, however, set standards and policies, be
dynamic and open to change as conditions and crimes vary, and be data-driven, based
upon information generated by crime and accident analysis. Most crucial, it must be
communicated clearly to street supervisors and officers and constantly reinforced
through training, performance evaluation, and corrective counseling.
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Directed Patrols. Since the ground breaking Kansas City Patrol study, it has
been clear that random patrols alone are not an effective vehicle for crime fighting and
prevention. Directed patrols, however, have been found to reduce and prevent crime
when designed and utilized properly. Presently, in Alexandria, most directed patrols
are reactive – responses to citizen requests. Moreover, the CAD suggests that directed
patrols are not frequent. While the APD does have some directed patrols, they are
limited in scope and the process needs to be more formalized.
A directed patrol initiative would serve the city well. Crime analysis, problem solving
by officers, citizen requests, and community-specific goals are required to mount this
capacity. Patrol supervisors play the key role. In addition to utilizing crime analysis
information, as the department develops this capability, they must review calls for
service, complaints, diagnose problems, problem areas, hot spots, and citizen concerns,
and then design strategies to respond – time and target-specific directed patrols. To
some extent, such efforts are already occurring in the Central District by community
policing units. The patrol commanders should review problems, analyses, and
proposed strategies of supervisors to ensure proper coordination. Hot spot analysis
should receive special attention.
The proposed crime analyst/intelligence unit, working with field supervisors, should
identify problems and problem neighborhoods census tracts, then develop directed
patrol responses. Directed patrols should be monitored for compliance and be
reviewed regularly to ensure that they are still relevant. All directed patrols should
have sunset dates. Directed patrols when appropriate should be specific, that is they
should identify actions to be taken by the officer, beyond “patrol the following
address.”
STEP. The traffic unit conducts surveys from time to time and engages in
informal analysis of crashes at the most accident-prone intersections. These efforts are
applauded. Random enforcement of traffic infractions normally has minor impact on
accident rates. Directed enforcement efforts against traffic violations, linked to accidents
at specific locations, have proven to be more effective in reducing traffic accidents.
Formal analysis of violations leading to accidents coupled with increased and directed
enforcement are often component strategies of Selective Traffic Enforcement Program
(STEP).
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While an information system exists and has the potential to provide the information
necessary for crime analysis and patrol support, a number of factors impede its
potential. Decision makers are not trained in its use. The current system is not as user
friendly as it should be. Many databases are not linked to supervisor’s computers. Staff
is needed to become conversant with the system and capable of generating the full
range of reports needed for patrol.
In another section of this report, it has been recommended that a crime analyst/
intelligence capacity be established. Software such as GIS mapping software, and other
crime analysis software should be purchased for this unit. In addition, the staff of this
section should receive advanced training on both the CAD and the RMS. Training such
also take place on a database management tool such as Crystal Reports.
Lieutenants and captains should be trained to use the police information system as
immediately as is possible. Later, officers and sergeants should receive similar training
to assist them in problem analysis and problem solving. In addition, as part of the
record system redevelopment, information should be abstracted on officer productivity.
Patrol vehicles are equipped with laptops. These laptops are networked with the CAD
to provide dispatch information to officers. Officers can also check warrants and wants,
license and vehicle registrations. Officers are also able to directly enter reports into the
system. We recommend that as officers become more conversant with the laptops, the
ability to directly inquire into the record system and CAD be provided.
Minor reprogramming of the records and CAD system should occur to put officers and
daily shift activity reports online. Officers should be able to directly enter information
into the laptop making review of directed patrols and community policing activities
easy to assess. Ability to access department databases could empower problem-solving
activities by officers.
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The laptops should also be provided with the capability to access an indexed copy of
APD policies and procedures as well as Louisiana’s criminal and traffic laws. A daily
activity report should be provided by the Communications Center that provides to the
oncoming unit a summary of the previous week’s activities, subdivided by zone and
district. Crime analysis-based information, hot sheets, and BOLOs should also be
provided on a daily basis to each officer.
Policies and Procedures. Another section of this report assesses policies and
procedures in detail. As is also recommended in the general policy review, the pursuit
policy should be reviewed and rewritten – specifically addressing when and how a
pursuit is permitted. A number of other policies that direct patrol officers are also
inadequate. The Policies and Procedures Chapter does discuss these in detail.
We conclude this section with one caution. Currently off duty employment of police
officers is organized by the department, and officers working off duty are permitted to
utilize department uniforms and equipment. It is our recommendation that this
practice be reviewed by the city’s legal staff, because we believe the city may be open to
liability under this arrangement, even if the officer is directly paid by the off-duty host.
A key patrol practice not discussed in this section has been community and problem
solving policing. This topic and related recommendations are addressed in a specific
chapter on community policing.
SECTION 7: RECOMMENDATIONS
This bureau would direct and coordinate all uniformed field activities, including
SOD, SIT, Uniform Patrol, and Community Policing Unit.
The Field Services Bureau Commander would report directly to the Chief of
Police.
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4. A captain should remain in charge of the Uniform Division and report to the
Field Services Bureau Commander.
The rank of captain is justified based on the number of officers and supervisors
in the Uniform Division.
5. The Special Operations Division should be made a unit in the Field Services
Bureau (proposed) and a lieutenant place in charge of the unit. The SOD
lieutenant would report to the Bureau Commander.
6. The SIT (Street Interdiction Team) should be made a unit within SOD. A
sergeant should be placed in charge of this unit. The SIT sergeant should
report to the lieutenant in charge of SOD.
The duties are basically the functions addressed by a clerk in most agencies.
Shift commanders should be responsible for all uniformed units that operate
during the shift commander’s tour of duty, including SOD, SIT, Canine, and
Community Policing Units.
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The plan must establish measurable objectives for the division, each shift, each
squad, supervisors and officers.
This plan should also have a STEP (Selective Traffic Enforcement Program)
component to organize traffic enforcement by field service officers as well.
13. Utilizing the field laptops, daily reports should be provided to update officers
when they come on duty as to events in their zones and districts over the past
24 hours and during the previous week.
14. Officers should be provided with the capability to inquire into the
department’s RMS and CAD for information to assist officers in problem
solving.
16. Current practices of assigning officer for off-duty work utilizing department
uniforms and equipment should be reviewed with the city’s legal staff.
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However, the APD Mission Statement pledges to provide the highest level of
“professional, caring policing service to our community.” The Code of Ethics, in Article
7: Conduct Towards the Public, directs the law enforcement officer to be “mindful of
this responsibility to the whole community” and to “deal with individuals of the
community in a manner calculated to instill respect for its law and its police service.
[…] The officer will give service where he can, and will require compliance with the
law. He will do neither from a personal preference or prejudice but rather as a duly
appointed officer of the law discharging his sworn obligation.”
The Community Policing/Weed and Seed Unit is directed by a lieutenant, who reports
to the captain in charge of Uniform Patrol. Three corporals and four officers staff the
unit. The lieutenant reports three vacancies. Racial/ethnic composition of the staff, an
important matter for this unit in a racially diverse community, is one white female (the
commander), two African Americans (one male, one female), and five white males.
Tenure of staff in the COP Unit ranges from two to five years.
COP officers function from a separate facility. An office at headquarters is reserved for
the COP lieutenant but is not used frequently. Officers work in uniform and are
equipped with take home cars, cell phones, and bicycles. COP has its own roll call.
History is instructive in regard to this unit and APD community policing philosophy
and style. A centralized/specialized community policing unit was started with four or
five officers funded from 1994 Crime Control Act funds.
Each was assigned to a zone. The program was taken city-wide shortly thereafter. The
Council authorized 10 additional sergeants to supervise a 16-district patrol-based
operation. In 2005 the APD received a federal Weed and Seed grant. The COP program
was restructured, focusing activities on crime reduction in Zone 4. Weed and Seed
operations spawned the current model.
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Today, reported COP activities include: liaison with the Communications Center; work
with/service to the elderly. The stated goal is to engage in some combination of these
activities in each of the four zones targeted by the unit (Zones 1, 4, 5, and 6). It is
reported that COP personnel also respond on “hot calls.” These are individual
decisions. COP officers are not dispatched.
Community policing officers work one of two eight-hour, five-day a week shifts
(Monday –Friday), 6:00 am to 2:00 pm and 11:00 am to 7:00 pm. Community policing
officers generally work Zzones 1, 4, 5, and 6. Community officers work independently
from shift officers and, in fact, there seems to be some “conflict.” The hours worked by
community policing officers is not consistent with hours worked in other community
policing settings. Most citizen meetings occur in the evenings.
The selection process is not formal. When openings occur candidates declare interest
through a letter to the Community Policing Lieutenant. The lieutenant talks to the
supervisors of an interested candidate, then to the chief. For this assignment, the APD
is looking for individuals who are personable, articulate, and even-tempered; can
function independently – with less supervision than is received in Patrol; who are
without prejudice and can relate in a diverse environment; and who have or can
develop prevention skills. In the APD, the capacities of most individuals are already
well known to decision makers. It is reported that a Transfer Board was employed in
the past to help special assignment selections.
There appears to be no requirement for a basic community policing course for newly
assigned personnel. Only three of the eight training records for COP officers show
credit for some sort of community policing-related training.
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SECTION 4: EVALUATION
Community and problem solving policing have much to offer to citizen service and
workforce motivation and satisfaction. Community policing involves citizen activism,
identifying and addressing neighborhood problems, serving as liaisons to other area
agencies, neighborhood organizing, working with youth, arbitration of citizen disputes,
counseling troubled families and individuals, gathering intelligence, setting up anti-
drug programs, establishing neighborhood watches and other anti-crime programs.
While APD’s Mission Statement asserts community and problem solving policing as the
department style, most APD patrol practices are traditional – reactive and call-driven.
The APD was more active in community policing in the 1990s. Community policing
was never meant to be a long-term unit operating independently of Patrol. It was
argued that as community policing units evolved they would gradually become tightly
integrated into Patrol and gradually transform regular patrol to the community policing
philosophy. It was anticipated that the department would move from having
specialized community policing officers to having all patrol officers conduct community
policing activities. This has not occurred.
In recent years, driven by calls for service and growth-related demands, APD patrol
philosophy and practice have become increasingly reactive. Officers frequently
mention the lack of community policing involvement as a concern. Current community
policing efforts, while laudable, lack focus, a consistent plan, documentation,
accountability, and coordination with other police efforts. Problem solving activity is
not fully documented. Community policing in the APD needs revitalization.
We would start by integrating (or reintegrating) the Community Policing Unit. The six
community policing officers should be more fully integrated into patrol shifts and
report to the on-duty lieutenant and work overlapping 12-hour shifts from 11:00 am to
11:00 pm. It is important that patrol officers be assigned for extended periods of time to
the same zone. This permits the officer to get to know the neighborhood and its
residents and allows the neighborhood to develop trust in the officers.
While responsible to the lieutenant during their shift, community policing officers
should not be employed as first responders, unless needed, but should focus on
community policing and problem solving. They would also receive direction and
support from the Community Policing Coordinator (proposed). Community policing
officers would also be available to address regular patrol responsibilities permitting
zone officers to involve themselves in community policing and problem solving
projects.
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The role of the Community Policing Lieutenant should be recast as the Community
Policing Coordinator, managing a new Community Affairs Unit, reporting to the
Commander of the Field Services Bureau. Community Affairs will be responsible for
establishing a community policing program for the patrol force. In addition to program
direction to the community policing officers assigned to the shifts, the Community
Affairs Unit will be responsible for crime prevention programming, coordination of
police volunteers, the Citizens Police Academy, and developing juvenile-based
community programs. The current DARE program should be administrated by this
unit. Community Affairs should develop, monitor, and maintain records on all
community initiatives by the Alexandria Police Department, including citizen (field)
contacts and public information requests.
Prepare brief community policing training modules for roll call training.
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Taking Command: New Directions for Policing the City of Alexandria
Personnel selected for community policing should receive standard training. Likewise,
each officer should receive some training in community and problem solving concepts,
either through roll call or in-service. Semi-annual refresher courses are also
recommended to ensure COP remains at the forefront. Development and delivery of
this training should be the responsibility of the Community Policing Coordinator in
conjunction with the Training/Planning Division.
We recommend that one of the current community police officers be assigned full-time
as a Volunteer Coordinator. This officer would be assigned to work directly for the
Community Policing Coordinator and develop a volunteer program for the Alexandria
Police Department. IACP will provide a number of resources that can help jump start
this effort.
• Lieutenant 1
• Sergeant 1
• Corporal 1
• Officer 1
SECTION 5: RECOMMENDATIONS
These officers should report to the on-duty lieutenant and work overlapping 12-
hour shifts. They should not be first responders but should work on community
policing and problem solving. These officers should be assigned to the same
zone for extended periods to facilitate trust building between the neighborhood
and the officer.
3. Consolidate the existing functions of the Community Policing Unit and the
Community Services Unit into a newly created Community Affairs Unit
within the Field Services Bureau.
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This unit will be responsible for training officers on COP, setting goals and
objectives for COP, developing and maintaining the community policing plan.
Coordination of crime prevention efforts, Neighborhood Watch, DARE, citizen
contacts, and public information officer duties will also be the responsibility of
this unit.
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A search of the most recent directives produced only occasional references to the
polygraph. These include:
The unit has several functions: Neighborhood Watch, a crime prevention activity;
public information; police academy operation; and training.
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The Community Services sergeant reviews citizen contact forms generated by patrol
primarily to identify issues that need attention and routes the findings to the
appropriate person or unit. Citizen contact forms also go to the second floor
receptionist for input into a Lotus Approach database, which is accessible via the
department’s computer systems. The sergeant does not use the database. CID will use
this database occasionally for possible links to cases. The newly assigned deputy
commander in CID has also advised that detectives appear to make little use of these
slips, despite the fact that they can contain valuable information, leads and citizen
contacts for future investigative needs. The CID sergeant is increasing the pressure for
the detectives to build relationships with the community and to use these slips as leads.
The forms, the equivalent of field interview or contact forms, do not appear to be used
by COP officers. The sergeant responds to items such as street corner activity, loud
music, and quality of life issues. Records of responses are not kept except on the
sergeant’s calendar.
The sergeant serves as the department Public Information Officer. He does respond to
crime scenes as required to prepare press releases. There is no protocol on what he
responds to or his authority to release information.
A text search of the most current written directive system revealed only limited
references to the PIO function and in most cases only in terms of listing his membership
on some response team, without benefit of describing the functions or guidelines of
those assignments. There are one or more references to officers and supervisors
releasing information under certain situations, with the directives providing broad
guidance for these personnel. As PIO, the sergeant might prepare a release on a crime
but does not prepare releases on incidents where internal operations are at question,
such as the recent shooting. The chief prepares and releases those.
There are three media outlets in the city, two electronic (TV) and one newspaper
(TownTalk). He does not attend department staff meetings on a routine basis.
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Community Services supervises the Citizen’s Police Academy and a second training
product focused on teenagers. The Academy was previously conducted twice a year
but reduced to once in 2008. The Academy is conducted two nights a week for five
weeks and one Saturday for five hours, with a class capacity of 30 to 35 students. Most
classes are taught by department personnel. The department training facility is used.
This academy accepts students from surrounding police agency jurisdictions.
During the summer, when schools are out, Community Services conducts a modified
Academy called the Teen Academy. It focuses on high school students, 13 to 19 years
old. This course somewhat mirrors the basic Citizen’s Academy content.
The sergeant teaches the report writing and note-taking portion of recruit school (a 20-
hour block spread throughout the entire 13-week course). He uses the state POST
materials, supported by a reference book. The material is not specific to the Alexandria
Police Department report system (e.g., how to fill in the blocks on the actual report) and
does not address how to complete the various reports. That material is covered by
representatives from the Communications and Records Division in a separate set of
classes. It focuses on the narrative and ability to describe what is found during
investigation.
The Community Services sergeant was the sole department polygraph operator for
several years. Currently, he does pre-employment screening or Internal Affairs
generated requests. CID has moved toward the Voice Stress Analyzer (VSA) for most
other investigations although occasionally he gets some work from them. He keeps
logs of these activities.
SECTION 7: EVALUATION
Community Services appears to function randomly, based upon the creativity of the
sergeant. There is no documentation for its assigned functions or goals, nor any other
evidence of formal direction. There appears to be an overlap between Community
Services functions and those of the Community Policing Unit, especially with regard to
neighborhood group meeting attendance and follow-up. Such duplication of effort is
wasteful and could result in confusion in the community, degrading the program.
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To more clearly focus community-based efforts, the department should integrate all
community-based support programs: Community Services, Community Policing,
public information, and crime prevention. We recommend consolidation of these
functions into a newly created Community Affairs Unit under the proposed Field
Services Bureau.
The PIO role is blurred and not fully developed within the department. It is not making
a contribution to the overall image and effectiveness of the agency. The few directives
that in some fashion reference the media services function do not provide a clear
protocol for the PIO’s services, authority to act, call-out responsibility, nor formulate a
“one-voice” concept or presence for the APD. Directives give the impression that there
is no PIO and that line officers and their supervisors are responsible for release of
information to the media.
The department should develop the PIO concept organizationally, determining lines of
authority, call-out guidance, one-voice concepts, and other guidance on where the PIO
fits within the organization.
The Training Academy and Citizen’s Police Academy roles do not appear to be a heavy
tasking and should be reviewed in the context of any expanded role in the two primary
functions of Community Services and PIO, once those functions are fully developed.
Activity related to the conduct of polygraph operations appears minimal and non-
intrusive to other responsibilities. It is essential that workload for these and the
community policing function be documented. The polygraph function needs to be
reflected in the written directive system.
SECTION 8: RECOMMENDATIONS
4. Develop a system for recording workload for all community oriented policy
functions and services.
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The Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of the APD reports directly to the Assistant
Chief of Police. It is composed of several sub-units.
Table 35
Unit Capt. Lt. Sgt. Cpl. Officer Sworn Civilian Total Commander
Lieutenant
CID Management (1) 1 1 2 3 5
(1)
Crimes Against
3 1 4 4 None (2)
Persons
Crimes Against
5 1 6 6 None(2)
Property
Juvenile
1 2 3 3 Sergeant
Investigations
Financial Crimes 1 1 2 2 Sergeant
Crime Scene
__ __ 1 1 __ 2 1 3 Sergeant
Search
Total (1) 1 7 10 1 18 4 23
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At the initiation of the study, CID was commanded by a captain with a lieutenant as the
deputy. In February 2009, both were replaced, with a lieutenant and sergeant,
respectively. Only three of the five sub-units had identifiable supervisors, all sergeants.
Three civilian clerks serve as receptionists, clerk typists, or secretaries for the entire
division, while an additional civilian serves as the department’s evidence and property
custodian. The Juvenile Investigations Unit was short one investigator. Otherwise, CID
was at full-authorized strength.
Each sub-unit specializes, with the exception of Crime Scene Search, which supports
investigations at crime scenes and conducts limited evidence processing/forwarding
activities. The Juvenile Unit investigates only juvenile criminal behavior, with little or
no prevention activities. CID units investigate felonies, with the exception of Juvenile,
which may investigate other classes of offenses.
A call-out detective works during the evening and midnight shifts and over the
weekend. On-call detectives come from all units and may handle a case outside of their
assigned specialties, except homicides or serious rapes. In these instances, a Crimes
Against Persons investigator will be called to work with the call-out investigator.
Two units, Crimes Against Persons and Crimes Against Property, do not have formally
assigned supervisors, while the remaining three do. In the two units, the most senior or
experienced investigator has, at his option, assumed limited supervisory responsibility
but is not evaluated on supervisory skills. The overabundance of sergeants in Crimes
Against Persons is traceable to former community policing. The city was divided into
18 or 19 beats, each with a sergeant in charge. Once the beats were reduced to the
current (smaller) number, the sergeants remained.
SECTION 2: WORKLOAD
For the four-year period (2004-2007), caseloads per investigator increased measurably,
from 14 in 2004 to 35 in 2007. The four-year average is 24 cases per investigator.
These data come from paper files, maintained monthly, for the entire CID. Data are not
broken down by unit or by individual investigator. Thus, an accurate individual or unit
workload analysis could not be performed. A primitive analysis, removing the Crime
Search personnel from the equation, reveals that individual investigators carried an
average monthly caseload of 23.9 cases. Data may be low because of the questionable
numbers in 2004 and might be higher if the total juvenile caseload was factored in.
Only the Juvenile Investigations Unit has detailed workload data (displayed later in the
report). There is little or no victim follow-up conducted except from a case
enhancement standpoint to determine if there is any further information available.
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Table 36
(1) Average per month for 15 assigned investigators; may not include some juvenile crimes not classified
as felonies.
(2) Thru October 2008.
Table 37
2007 2008
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The balance between line/patrol arrests and those made by detectives as the source of
case closure appears skewed toward patrol, with 2007-2008 rates showing more from
patrol. While in many cases detectives are necessary to finish a felony-based patrol
arrest, these numbers are troubling in terms of investigator workload. Again, the
absence of quality data thwarted our analysis, and we cannot form an opinion of what
unit this is related to as data was not available at the sub-unit level.
No call-out records, either case activity or overtime based, are maintain at the unit level.
Overtime is tracked by the department payroll system. No analysis is conducted by
CID staff.
Cases are received in one of three ways. One, initial reports are taken by patrol officers
and loaded into the department’s computerized records management system (RMS).
Two, walk-in cases are reported directly to CID, and the investigator takes the entire
initial report. Three, an investigator is called in or assigned a case at a crime scene and
handles the case from the start with the responding officer preparing any needed
supplemental reports. The majority of the cases are received under option one.
Assignments are made by the Deputy Commander, daily, for cases received the night
before. Weekend cases are assigned on Monday. Cases are taken from the ADSI/RMS
system. A review of each case is required to determine if it is a felony. Reviews are
paper-based. No computer-based analysis is conducted.
The Deputy Commander records assignments on a paper-based log. He holds a roll call
with all personnel of a unit and issues the cases to the individual investigators.
Assignment/distribution criteria are investigator caseload and expertise. Solvability
factors are not employed to make decisions. Once assigned a case, an investigator is
required to make an entry in the ASDI/RMS indicating he is the primary officer on the
case. Once an investigator assumes responsibility, the original reporting officer can no
longer modify a case record or input or update supplemental reports. This reduces the
initiative patrol officers may have to follow-up an investigation or provide additional
information about a case.
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As indicated by their names, these units handle cases that impact either people or
property. The larger percentage of cases is in the Property Unit, but the investigation
workload is greater and more complex in the Persons Unit. Neither unit has an
assigned supervisor. The persons unit is predominantly staffed by sergeants. Given the
lack of data, a detailed workload analysis of both units was not possible. Caseloads are
estimated from review of paper-based monthly statistical data maintained by the CID
deputy commander and are summarized in the data in Section 2. In addition, based on
investigator expertise, the Persons Unit also handles auto theft, generally assigned to
property investigators.
The Financial Crimes Unit is staffed with two investigators, one of whom is the unit
supervisor (a sergeant). The unit focuses on various frauds including credit card fraud,
identity theft, and misuse of social security numbers to obtain credit cards. Most credit
card fraud involves the purchase of items for re-sale. Investigative work centers on
reviewing store videos for fraud activity and visiting pawnshops where items may have
been purchased. Bad check cases involving insufficient funds or closed accounts are
redirected to the District Attorney’s Office for action and are not investigated by the
unit. It will, however, investigate where the blank checks themselves have been stolen.
The unit also participates on a small Secret Service Task Force regarding counterfeiting
(the unit supervisor).
The unit’s activities are not proactive and not coordinated with any crime prevention or
community policing-focused educational efforts. Staff was not able to provide any
workload data or case clearance information.
What is not depicted by this closure rate is the amount of time involved in both
offender and offender family counseling. While counseling is conducted in all cases,
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The unit is collocated with the rest of CID and utilizes the same interview rooms. The
individual investigators have small offices and in some cases will use them for the
interviews.
Statistical data for Juvenile Investigations Unit referrals is displayed in Table 38. The
data show that the primary clients of this unit are African American males and females.
While probably a reflection of the city’s demographics, this should be a beacon for
prevention activities. Furthermore, as noted in Chapter I., reported offenses involving
juveniles reflect a clear and concerning pattern of rising juvenile crime, an average
increase of 10% annually from 2003 - 2007. Although the unit works closely with Parish
level intervention professionals, there is no specific department prevention activity
directed at this population.
The Crime Scene Search Unit is staffed with two sworn and one civilian and provides
immediate crime scene search support and follow-on evidence forwarding services. It
also provides the department with photographic support and print processing. It does
not conduct any advanced chemical or scientific analysis of evidence, but rather
packages and forwards same to either state or federal laboratories for analysis and
return. In addition to assisting the criminal investigation units, the Crime Scene Search
unit will respond and assist the accident investigators where fatalities are involved,
generally supplying photographic assistance.
During a typical year, the unit handles a variety of evidentiary requests. Table 39
summarizes the 2007 requests.
In addition to assigned staffing, the unit receives part time assistance from an
investigator in the Property Unit, who also handles all computer forensics.
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Table 38
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Table 39
Item Quantity
A civilian unit member acts as the department evidence and recovered property
custodian. The department has an adequately sized and secured facility to store these
items. All evidence and recovered property is logged into a module of the ADSI/RMS
system after being processed by the recovering officer. Separate and adequate storage is
available for all sensitive items such as weapons, drugs, and money. Access to the
storage facility is limited to the civilian custodian and the unit commander. No periodic
audits are conducted except by city finance who audits the stored cash funds.
The ADSI/RMS system has no built-in report writer and thus periodic reporting is
limited to pre-formatted reports. During the review, we tried to produce several
common evidence activity reports without success; the volume of activity was obtained
by scrolling to the last record in the database and using the record number as there was
no query available for annual activity volume.
Digital photography requests continue to rise as all patrol sergeants have cameras and
they are used on almost all crime scenes. Patrol personnel also have latent print
recovery capability and that fluctuates in terms of demands on unit workload.
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Statistical data provided by the unit was estimated, but since they changed to digital in
2007, prints and Compact Flash processing has increased. The unit commander feels
that he needs an additional person to handle the part-time load of the borrowed
property investigator.
SECTION 8: FACILITIES
CID units occupy space on the second floor of headquarters, which is secured by
electronic entry. These quarters vary from individual offices to cubicles, with varying
levels of privacy. Individual filing cabinets are provided to each investigator, with unit
files maintained in the front area where the receptionists and administrative aides sit.
CID has a more than adequate roll-call room located within their complex that appears
to be used for the morning case assignment meetings. There are several interview
rooms scattered throughout the complex, but only one is equipped with full audio or
video taping capability. Most do not have monitored panic alarms. There is no
provision for securing prisoners in these rooms. Chairs and tables are easily moved
about. On several occasions, we observed both supervisors and investigators using
their office space to conduct interviews.
During the initial visits, we observed piles of case folders, case jackets, video tapes, and
related items that appeared to be investigative case-related, all of which were unsecured
and in piles or falling out of cabinets. When several investigators were asked what
these items were, we got varied answers. Generally, they were old case files from
previous members of the unit, possibly containing active warrants and evidence. When
command staff was asked we were told they were just old trash. The combination of
these piles along with assigned investigator files strewn on the floors near their desks,
posed serious questions about unit morale, efficiency, and command oversight. After
the transition in February, the new command staff conducted an inventory and did, in
fact, find old case files, active warrants, and evidence in the collection. Almost all of it
belonged to previously assigned personnel who apparently just added to the pile on
their way out.
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Records reveal most training is skill-based, such as crime scene search or homicide
investigation techniques. There appears to be no requirement for a basic investigative
course for newly assigned personnel. Training overall is inconsistent with some officers
receiving more numerous and more relevant courses than others do. Some officers
appear to have no apparent training in their area of specialization or in investigations in
general.
Of these, we can only apply the first, and not as surgically as we would like.
As noted in Chapter I., when compared with other cities of similar size, APD violent
crime clearance rates are below those of comparison cities, while property crime
clearance rates exceed those of comparison cities. The APD crime profile shows
aggravated assault and robbery to be problem violent crimes. The APD’s assault
clearance rates are, comparatively, low. Meanwhile, robbery clearance rates have
usually exceeded national averages.
We can be more insightful regarding current management and operations and offer a
series of recommendations designed to promote the effectiveness and productivity of
the CID.
Several of the units do not have assigned supervisors, except on an ad hoc basis,
reducing oversight and frustrating periodic performance appraisal process for
subordinates. Interviews with assigned personnel indicated a level of dissatisfaction
with the current management and policies, which all felt were not conducive to
effective investigations. There is an overstaffing of sergeants, an artifact resulting from
a previous department-wide community policing program. Overall staffing may or
may not be appropriate, but effective analysis was not possible due to the nature of the
data.
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The CID Division appears to be void of any ongoing workload or case clearance
analysis at any level. Data is maintained in paper-based records, which do not lend
themselves to ongoing effective analysis. The assignment, investigation, and
disposition of cases are not supported by an effective computer-based case management
system, but rather are merely the extension of the reporting function found in the
department’s ADSI/RMS system. Little use is made of solvability factors in the initial
or dispositional actions of management. The exception is a points system introduced
several years ago that stops investigation when leads are exhausted and holds the case
open, but not actively worked, until receipt of further information. While this is a form
of solvability, it appears to be used after the investigation has begun as opposed to
before assignment is made.
The limited workload data supplied seems to indicate low caseloads for all
investigators, with the possible exception of juvenile, and high clearance rates.
Clearance rates seem inflated due to the inclusion of the Juvenile Investigations Unit
with its 100% clearance.
CID lacks access to any link analysis software to determine trends or links between
cases and suspects or to identify where multiple criminal acts might be serial in nature.
While they have an informant file and it is properly maintained, there is little analysis
as to its effectiveness or linkage to a similar file separately maintained by the Narcotics
Unit. As found in other units, there is little exchange of information between external
units and CID. In fact, there was no coordination at all between CID and Narcotics,
except on a personal basis and that was extremely limited.
Crime Scene Search oversight of the evidence function takes away valuable supervisor
time for related operations. The function requires no sworn status and is more
appropriately located within a staff support section of the department. The software
used does not lend itself to workload analysis, and no periodic audits to confirm
security of the storage are performed by either internal or external personnel.
The Juvenile Investigations Unit is focused on investigations with little time or formal
programs aimed at prevention. While unit personnel express a desire to be more
proactive, the department culture of reactive enforcement does not encourage such
activity. The data, limited as it might be, does identify the client population and there
are numerous programs and grants available to attack the problem. It merely needs the
decision to move in that direction, even if it might mean reducing investigations
somewhat. The data shows an apparent preference for court which could easily be used
as a yardstick for prevention efforts as the swing moves to parental involvement.
CID would profit from the addition of functions that have been proven essential in most
investigative settings. Pawn shop details have been generally found effective for
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We also recommend combining the former Financial Investigations and Crimes against
Property Unit into the Crimes against Property/Computer and Financial Crimes Unit.
Increasingly today, fraud and financial crimes are using computer systems and the
Internet to defraud. A second benefit of such an alliance is that it would bolster the
department’s computer forensics capability.
Unit facilities were disorganized and what appeared to be case materials were strewn
about in an unsecured fashion; later investigation revealed many of these items to be
components of past cases that should have properly filed.
As noted, in February 2009, the department initiated staff changes to the CID command
unit, replacing both officers. The new staff has begun to implement its own changes,
many of which mirror IACP recommendations.
2. Establish bureau level goals and objectives on an annual basis, with periodic
monitoring by staff throughout the year.
6. Remove the evidence and recovered property function from the Crime Scene
Search unit and reassign it to a newly created unit within the Administrative
and Support Services Bureau.
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Interview experience and strengths from specialized training will not be lost by
reassigning the former investigator back to this position
9. Obtain case management software that monitors case progress and assesses
solvability at the assignment stage as well as throughout the investigative
process.
10. Once created, utilize the department intelligence and crime analysis capacity
to determine trends and suspect relationships as an investigative tool.
11. Upgrade interview rooms to provide for video and audio recording as well as
the installation of panic alarms.
Secure furniture to the floor in rooms used for interrogations and provide a
method for securing persons in custody to prevent their escape. Provide for gun
drops near all such rooms or at a central point before access to the area for safety
and liability reasons.
12. Create a civilian position of victim’s advocate within the Persons Unit to act as
an on-scene counselor, death notification specialist, witness assistor, and focus
for improved victim services. Use this victim’s advocate to follow-up on all
case victims within the CID.
13. Combine the former Financial Investigations and Crimes against Property
Unit into the Crimes Against Property/Computer and Financial Crimes Unit as
recognition of the increased use of computer systems and the Internet to
defraud the public, while bolstering the department’s computer forensics
capability.
14. Reassess investigator staffing against workload once adequate systems are in
place to ensure data availability and comprehensive analysis.
15. Discontinue the current point system for stopping case investigative work in
favor of a more broadly-based set of solvability factors that will eliminate
assignment if appropriate rather than wait for leads to end.
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Such a system will evaluate if the case can be solved up front. Use the new case
management system to make this call as well more closely monitor open cases, so
that resources can be redirected as necessary.
16. Initiate an active Pawn Shop Detail, initially using available staff within the
CID and evaluate effectiveness within one year.
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There is no policy which governs the Narcotics Unit. Equally important there are no
policies governing the use and treatment of informants, the accounting of buy money,
or the seizure of crime related assets. Such policies are important to maintaining the
integrity of anti drug operations.
The APD Narcotics Unit formally reports to the Assistant Chief of Police. Interviews
suggest that in practice the unit commander reports and coordinates directly with the
Chief. Unit staffing is 10 authorized, eight actual:
The unit commander, a sergeant, has been assigned to the Narcotics Unit for about 18
years, progressing up the ranks from within. He has been the commander for about six
years. Most remaining members of the unit have fewer than three years in the unit.
Narcotics is divided into teams. One sergeant (assistant commander) supervises a
corporal and one investigator. The other sergeant supervises two investigators,
prepares documents, and disburses asset forfeiture actions and seizures. The team
corporal maintains the electronic equipment assigned to the unit, the quantity of which
seems quite abundant. Asked if the unit needed equipment, the commander stated that
he had all that is needed and is usually able to purchase through the asset forfeiture
system.
Ranks do not reflect jobs/responsibilities. There are three sergeants within the unit.
One is the commander, the second the deputy commander, and a third sergeant is a
team leader. The deputy commander title is really not needed in such a small
organizational element
The clerk supports all personnel, with some administrative assistance from the LANG
sergeant. There do not seem to be reporting requirements for the LANG assistance.
Records are not kept other than for attendance.
Narcotics is scheduled Monday through Friday dayshift. They work an eight-hour day
and a 40-hour week. Investigators frequently flex their hours as needed. Generally at
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least one investigator is on duty on Friday and Saturday evenings. Overtime records
are not kept by unit. Investigators did suggest that overtime was common, except later
in the fiscal year, when the department ran out of overtime funds.
SECTION 2: WORKLOAD
Table 40
These numbers reflect only cases handled by the Narcotics Unit and not activity of other
units such as the Uniform Division or SIT. Data for other units actively involved in
drug suppression is presented in the following chart.
Table 41
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Table 42
SEIZURES 2004-2007
Marijuana Plants 4 33 1
Weapons Seized 57 13 31 15
Vehicles Seized 13 9 19 3
2008 data are not available. The commander feels the pattern of 2007 remains intact in
both cash seized and the increased incidence of weapons accompanying illegal drug
activity. While hydrocodone briefly dipped in 2007 from a high in 2004, he believes that
2008 should reveal an increase back to levels equaling 2006. Noted also is the increase
in Xanax activity between 2006 and 2007; 2008 should be equally popular. The
commander advised us that he will provide 2008 data as soon as it is validated. Cash
seizure appears low against case volume, but that may be reflective of the overall area
economy, people, and volumes of drugs involved, or that most cases have little actual
cash associated with them. The unit commander advised that he actively seeks out all
possible forfeiture opportunities.
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As in most APD units, no goals and objectives have been established for unit
operations. Accordingly, no monitoring and evaluation of success is conducted. This
reduces the ability to evaluate progress and effective use of its resources in the most
productive manner.
The Tip Line is not used as much as the unit would like. Many tips do generate good
cases. All tips are investigated, but no case is opened unless information is proven
valid. The unit advertises the Tip Line on the department’s Web page, as well as on all
calling cards used by the unit members. There is an email address to use to report tips.
However, it utilizes an alternative address for the unit commander and mentions his
name as part of the address.
The unit occupies office space in an office/warehouse park approximately five miles
from headquarters. The size and organization of the facility appears adequate for its
intended use. There are no signs outside. The facility is cleaned by trustees, who were
observed moving through the facility unescorted. The commander maintains there are
adequate safeguards in place to protect case information and documents that might be
in use, although no coversheets or other provision were observed. Numerous pieces of
information, the sensitivity of which is unknown, were observed on white boards in the
office complex while the trustees were cleaning.
The unit has trained entry teams. It does not use the department SWAT team. The
teams are fully equipped and have been trained by DEA to conduct threat assessments
for building or site entry for high risk targets. Training records list several courses
specific to entry activity: High Risk Entry, Officer Safety, High Risk Event Planning
System, and Tactical Drug Enforcement. Unit equipment is comparable to that of the
SWAT team. There appears to be limited coordination or information exchange
between SIT/SWAT and CID and Narcotics. Training records also indicate a focus on
narcotics training. Unit members have attended 44 classes since 1989, the bulk of which
(37) have taken place since 2002. The unit appears well qualified in terms of
understanding the interdiction of narcotics and dangerous drugs.
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Narcotics does not have a specialized computer system other than one to run the dial
number recorder. There is no case management support except that provided by the
RMS system (not the case management being tested by CID) and it provides case status
only. There is no intelligence system except for the Tip Line. The unit does not use link
analysis products to investigate mid- to upper-level conspiracies. Most computer
activity is associated with criminal history lookups or use of office automation software.
The unit has worked with the Parish Drug Task Force in the past. It has no members
permanently assigned at the present time.
SECTION 4: EVALUATION
The Narcotics Unit focuses on street level dealers. It has a modest caseload ranging
from 3.4 to 3.9 cases per month. Current caseloads do not justify the filling of the vacant
positions. The unit does not have goals or objectives. Information on cases and
caseloads needs improvement, as does the management of intelligence/tips. Better
coordination with other department units, and neighboring departments could also
improve this unit’s effectiveness. It is recommended that the staffing of the unit remain
at eight. The two vacant positions should not be filled.
The formal location of the unit as a direct reporting element to the Assistant Chief and
alleged direct access to the Chief, does little to achieve coordination and acceptance by
department units that share the obligation to keep Alexandria as drug free as possible.
Rather this gives rise to accusations of special status and lack of coordination. This is
further exacerbated by the fact that much of the crime investigated by other criminal
investigative units is generated by a need for money to buy drugs or as a byproduct of
the drug trade. Many offenders and their associates have interlocking relationships that
include a drug nexus. The co-use of, or at least access to, informants could result in
improved closure rates for all concerned. Electronic and other technical investigative
aids would be more available across the investigative family.
Both Narcotics and the SIT/SWAT/ERT unit/teams have the same capability and
equipment. This amounts to duplication of equipment purchases, training requirements
and impacts skill of the Narcotics personnel in other areas to retain competency. The
Narcotics officers appear well trained in “threat assessment” as pioneered by the DEA
and should be allowed to continue practicing it in the raid preparation phase in
conjunction with the SWAT teams, but actual initial breaching and entry should be a
SWAT function.
The absence of complex conspiracy investigations and larger seizures of drugs and
money, while somewhat indicative of the economy and home grown nature of the city’s
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drug problem, may also be the result of such cases being handled by the Parish Drug
Task Force (PDTF). While it is reported that Narcotics still do some case activity with
the Sheriff’s Office (SO), it is contended that the limits on overtime placed upon SO
personnel (none allowed even when case investigations dictate it) reduces that unit’s
effectiveness. The study team did not conduct an evaluation of PDTF operations, but
one can assume given the broader geographical area and access to information, more
trafficking cases are likely. In addition, there may be more access to informants and
information/tips (the SO also runs a tip line), even though the unit commander stressed
that they generally receive referrals from the SO. Participation should also reduce
duplication in equipment purchases, increase coordination, and better focus financial
resources again the entire area drug problem.
Software is limited to office automation and normal law enforcement database access.
There is no capability to conduct link analysis on case relationship or monitor
investigator workload or unity activity. There are numerous off-the-shelf software
products that can monitor case progress and compare productivity that will assist the
unit to monitor its own success.
Whether accurate or not, a significant rationale for the lack of coordination, beyond that
already addressed, is the fact that the separate unit is commanded by a sergeant while
others are usually commanded by captains and in some cases lieutenants. While rank
should be based upon responsibilities, one cannot dismiss its impact in rank and
protocol conscious agencies. The unit location and direct reporting chain also supports
this prejudice. The real problem though is the internal chain of command relationship
as well as the message to the community about how serious the department takes the
drug problem. In these cases, the change in rank for the commander from sergeant to
lieutenant merits consideration. This would better align the teams with sergeants as
supervisors, place the commander on a better rank based relationship with other CID
units and department units in general, while also signaling the community of the
department’s increased concern and commitment to addressing drug problems. It
should also enhance relationships with other agencies and specifically the PDTF.
The use of trustees to clean the covert Narcotics Unit facility seems counter-productive
to the understood need for a covert facility. The fact that they clean it when undercover
personnel are present, information is readily visible, and covert vehicles are in the
parking lot does not make any sense. This practice should be rethought with the goal of
replacement with a non-trustee workforce to reduce exposure of investigators.
Replacing trustees with a commercial crew, under proper supervision and working
when no investigators are present makes far better sense and should enhance officer
safety.
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The absence of any goals and objectives inhibits the unit from self evaluation of
effectiveness and reflects a common failure throughout the agency. This inhibits agency
wide evaluation of effectiveness and thus makes the agency slow to change in response
to threat variations. This is a serious issue throughout the agency and if left
unaddressed, will continue to impact progress.
The Narcotics Unit should be directed by a lieutenant. The Narcotics lieutenant would
report to the commander of the Investigative Services Bureau. The Narcotics Unit
would consist of two teams, each comprised of a sergeant and two investigators.
Providing staff support would a clerk. Two sergeants and four investigators should
provide sufficient staff.
• Lieutenant 1
• Sergeant 2
• Investigators 4
• Clerk 1
This is a reduction in staff of two vacant positions. Current workload can be addressed
with a staff of eight.
SECTION 5: RECOMMENDATIONS
2. Eliminate the Narcotics Unit high-risk entry team activity that duplicates
SIT/SWAT/SRT capabilities already present in the department.
3. Explore options to participate actively in the Parish Sheriff’s Office Drug Task
Force.
If there remains a continued problem with the overtime authorization under the
SO policies, the chief may need to sit with the Sheriff and explain the need for
flexibility. The focus of parish-wide operations should be on the dealer at higher
levels than capable by the department, thus the number of more complex cases,
yielding higher amounts of illegal drugs as well as forfeiture potential should
increase.
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6. Increase the rank of the unit commander to lieutenant to make the unit on par
with other operating units in the department to demonstrate to the community
the seriousness of the commitment to reduce the availability of drugs in the
city.
This will realign the current supervision levels in the unit (sergeants as team
leaders) with the unit command.
9. Establish annual goals and objectives for the unit and monitor them
throughout the year in order to better determine unit effectiveness.
10. A policy defining the organization and mission of the Narcotics Unit is
needed. Policies are also required at a minimum to direct the handling of
Confidential Informants, dispersal of buy monies, and forfeit seizures.
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The Support Services Division houses several functions traditionally and properly
classified in the support category: the jail, the headquarters facility, and vehicles.
The unit oversees the maintenance and engineering requirements of the police
headquarters facility, including preparation of work orders for city agency handling.
The unit transports incarcerated city arrestees/prisoners from the parish jail to court
and coordinates maintenance and removal/replacement of fixed mount radios for
department vehicles. Programming and procurement of laptop equipment, as well as
portable radios, are handled through the Communications Division. On two occasions,
study staff observed the captain physically removing fixed-mount radio equipment
from police units. While the department has a contract with a local company for initial
installation of radios and emergency equipment in place, there is no provision for the
periodic removal and repairs that may be required, perhaps explaining unit
involvement here.
The jailer function is a holdover from a period before arrestee booking was consolidated
at the parish jail and responsibility assigned to the Sheriff’s Office. Currently, arresting
city officers transport prisoners to the parish jail and complete the booking process
there. Jailers transport prisoners arrested by city officers from the jail to court. They
also transport witnesses on request. They pick up jail trustees for maintenance
assignments at headquarters and narcotics offices and return them to the jail at the end
of the work day.
Department supply functions (office supplies, limited uniform accessories, and leather
gear) are handled by a lieutenant assigned to the Special Operations Division. Actual
ordering of uniforms is accomplished through a uniform retail store in town.
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SECTION 3: EVALUATION
Much of what is done by this unit appears to be historically assigned or left over from
previous operational requirements. The captain has been in his position since he was a
sergeant, the position reclassified each time he was promoted. This is particularly
apparent with the bifurcated approach to the entire communications equipment
procurement and maintenance process which involves two captains and, now, two
lieutenants to accomplish.
The jailer positions are holdovers from operations that are no longer primary to the
APD, making them no longer justifiable. Considering the jailers are civilians and thus
have no arrest authority, their ability to prevent escape of trustee is questionable. The
use of trustees to maintain city facilities, while having merit from a fiscal standpoint,
needs review from the operational control view. Since jailers do not remain with the
prisoners while they work, further questions arise regarding the need for their services.
Although the transportation of prisoners appears more custodial, their level of custodial
control does not appear to increase. Transport requests from witnesses should be
handled through a taxi company as needed with reimbursement or the use of
volunteers; special situations may require the original investigating officer to handle
those requests.
SECTION 4: RECOMMENDATIONS
The personnel assigned to the in-house side of this function should be properly
qualified civilian staff. The assigned sworn positions to should be reallocated to
line functions as needed or abolished.
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The APD Warrants and Records Division itself is not the subject of a department rule,
regulation, or comprehensive policy directive. Procedures for processing reports and
records are covered in sections 511.1 – 511.7. The warrants and wanted file is discussed
in section 619.
The Warrants and Records Division reports directly to the Assistant Chief of Police and
is staffed with a captain, two sergeants, one corporal, and seven civilian clerks (one
assigned to warrants, two for UCR/LIBRS, and four for records).
The division has several formal or informal sections operating within it, including
Warrant Control, Misdemeanor Investigators, Digital Transfer Section, UCR Reporting,
and General Inquiry and Walk-in reception.
Records. Report flow can start at one of three places: CAD dispatch and
clearance, walk-ins (misdemeanor or felony), or officer-generated (initial or follow-up
case activity). Once the report is completed, a member of Records validates the
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dispatch record against the report completion notification by the ADSI/RMS system.
There is no formal process to review written reports for proper classification and
clearance. Only the existence of a report for a specific event number is checked. The
writing officer’s supervisor must review and approve the report to clear it for Records
processing. Interviews and observations by staff indicated this review varies greatly by
supervisor. Once approved, the report is available in RMS for review and further
processing.
In the case of paper records, an additional step is required for scanning and digital
update of the report into the RMS system. These paper reports follow a similar
validation process as the digital version. Copies are then forwarded either electronically
or via mail to the appropriate external agency that is the proponent for the form. In the
case of citations, many are also forwarded to the court system for further processing
and action.
While the majority of event reports have been automated and are electronically
prepared, transmitted, and digitally stored, some paper reports continue to require
processing and storage. These include, among others, vehicle storage, DUI, some arrest
components, and citations. Many of these are state-required reports and are completed
on specific forms that are not part of the in-house automated system. While some paper
based preparation of arrest records has been mitigated with the assumption by the
Parish Sheriff’s Office of all prisoner processing, many still and will for the immediate
future, remain a requirement. These are processed against CAD dispatch or walk-ins,
and ultimately forwarded for scanned input into the department’s digital system.
The UCR sergeant is also responsible for the review, publishing, and distribution of the
department’s written directive system. In 2007 the department submitted a complete
revision of its written directive system to the city administration for review and
approval by the Mayor. It was received back during the course of this study. The UCR
sergeant was assigned the responsibility of updating the WordPerfect version to
Microsoft Word and distributing of the final copy. When asked why Records was
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tasked with this requirement, he advised that Records has always handled the
distribution of the written directives. The UCR sergeant has not been trained in the
development or maintenance of directives nor does he appear to have time for the task.
There are no historical files of directives within the Records area for judiciary review on
demand of case actions.
Warrant Section. The Warrant Section is responsible for the recordation and
storage of warrants issued by the court system that are related to department cases. In
most cases these are duplicate warrants as the issuing court may retain the original.
Whether the warrants are received by mail, inter-office mail, electronically, or from the
Misdemeanor Investigator Section, they are reviewed for completeness and input into
the RMS system by the assigned clerk. If not electronic, a copy is scanned into the RMS
by the Digital Scanning Section. The warrant clerk will also retrieve paper copies of
warrants in response to department member requests.
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SECTION 3: WORKLOAD
No workload data other than that associated with the number of reports generated by
CAD or the RMS section is maintained, thus no analysis was performed. Anecdotal
observations by the IACP seemed to indicate no lack of work for the assigned staff and
the unit commander indicated that any additional staff would be assigned to the
historical records digital entry project. Space assigned to the unit appears adequate for
customer service and ease of citizen response for assistance.
SECTION 4: EVALUATION
Staffing seems appropriate for the division. Interviews with other department
personnel did not reveal any deficiencies or failure to provide internal records retrieval
services, however this workload is rather light due to comprehensive access from most
desktop computer workstations.
The concept of the misdemeanor investigation component has limited efficiency, while
providing direct customer service at the same time. Unfortunately, little workload data
is maintained on operations, which limited any cost efficiency analysis against field unit
assumption of the activity. In addition, the requirement for sworn personnel to provide
this service appears limited to the need for arrests subsequent to warrant issuance,
another activity that could be performed by field personnel.
SECTION 5: RECOMMENDATIONS
The staffing of the Warrants and Records Division appears sufficient and operations are
functional and supportive of department needs, however some changes are
recommended. These include:
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1. Rename the division the Information Management Division and reduce the
sworn commander (captain) position to that of lieutenant.
2. Continue the Misdemeanor Investigator program for the time being, but
reduce the staff to two corporals and initiate workload data collection to
facilitate future analysis of staffing, need, and functional operation.
3. Re-emphasize accurate and timely UCR production and monitoring for trends
and realignment of department programmatic focus.
This would also include coordination of periodic reviews and maintenance of the
historical records for directives. This function would be closely aligned with the
inspections activities of the Professional Standards Division.
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The information infrastructure of the APD, both hardware and software, is listed below.
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Software Components:
- RMS, CAD,
- AVL-Mapping, Mobile Data Force, Outs-NCIC interface,
- Tow Rotation, Warrant Control, Arrests Control, False Alarm
Billing, Property and Evidence,
- Crash-Accident Reporting (pending deployment)
- Police Training System (not used; see notes in Training Section on
non-linked Approach databases)
- Case Management System (under testing, May 2009, for adoption
by CID; based on interim IACP recommendation)
- Field Interview/Citizen Contact (under test by CID based on IACP
interim recommendation)
-
Client machines utilize:
Repair services associated with these items are provided by sworn personnel assigned
to either the Communications and Technical Services or the Support Services Divisions.
They remove and re-install equipment in vehicles and perform first-level trouble
shooting of both equipment and software. Actual technical repair is accomplished by
outside contract vendors.
Although there is an installation contract in place for fixed mount radios, there is no
similar contract for repair. This forces the captain in charge of Support Services to act as
a radio repairman and physically remove the radios and send them out for repair on an
individual basis. He also provides primary maintenance duties for the building security
cameras as well as those mounted in the patrol vehicles.
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Contractor support for the major computer software systems is with ADSI located in
Southaven, Mississippi, with limited local support from an ADSI sales representative.
The city’s information technology department is ultimately responsible for computer
services to city agencies but has essentially taken a hands-off approach toward the
police department.
We reviewed all components of the major software system and found them to be
focused on serving the department’s basic needs such as CAD dispatch and records
management. While the ADSI system has an acceptable array of sub-modules available
within it, most require separate licenses and at the time of the study only a few such as
those associated with property and evidence, arrest tracking, and warrant control, were
licensed. In all, the current system offers up to 18 modules in a variety of areas:
Accident Reporting
Arrest Control
Batch Reporting
Case Management
Community Safety
Confidential Info
Domestic Violence
Field Interview
Incident Reporting
Pawn Shop
Personnel
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Personnel Training
Police Inventory Control
Police Training System
Property & Evidence
Warrant Control
Of special interest are the case management and confidential information modules, both
under CID evaluation toward the end of the study, and may have value to the Narcotics
Unit as well. Additional modules worth consideration include domestic violence,
personnel (HR), and training. If implemented, these could either replace existing local
desktop databases with little functionality (training), as well introduce critically needed
data (domestic violence and personnel).
The department suffers from a somewhat universal failure to make use of available data
to monitor unit and departmental effectiveness. Capacity to perform advanced
computer-based data extracts beyond pre-packaged reports, particularly for CAD and
UCR data, is lacking. As a result, very little workload data is available at the
department or individual unit level, a deficiency that frustrated our analysis. The
difficulty the study team experienced in obtaining basic data from CAD/RMS indicates
that few if any managers use this data to evaluate department responses to rising trends
in several crime categories.
The workload activity that is captured is usually in the form of individually developed
paper-based products. Where computer programs are being used, it is on the local
desktop level, independent from other workstations, and with primitive program
design. In many cases, these programs are of use to no one but the immediate user of
the workstation. An example of this is the Field Interview Report database. Paper
copies of field contact data are sent to a Records Division receptionist who inputs them
into a locally developed Lotus Approach database accessible from a limited number of
other computers. This database contains information on citizen problems as well as
linkages between people, places, and times that could be valuable to investigative
personnel. Interviews revealed that little if any use is made of this data except on a
limited basis by the Community Services sergeant and occasionally by a detective or
two who were aware of the program’s existence. No broad-based analysis, access, or
oversight was in place. In fact, discussions with technical staff revealed no controls
regarding ad hoc database creation and maintenance, nor any review of potential
duplication of data collection, storage, or retrieval.
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The IACP found many of these stand-alone databases throughout the department in
areas such as Training, Narcotics, Communications and Technical Services, as well as
those associated with agency crime, event, and workload. In each case, it was difficult
to determine the purpose and intended use of these files. Data was found in Excel
spreadsheets, Lotus Approach and Notes files, word processing documents, and other
assorted computer-based products. Many of these files were spread out on various
desktop computers with no general access or validity controls. For example, when we
asked for overtime data, we received it from several sources with no confidence in its
accuracy. Further, we could not find any formal department policy on development of
these data sources.
SECTION 5: EVALUATION
The department as a whole is not monitoring program effectiveness and workload, and
what little effort is made here is usually based upon unreliable data. In addition, where
data does have a high degree of reliability, most managers lack training on the software
needed to access the data or the software is too complex for their use. This is further
complicated by the absence of a unit or personnel tasked with analysis responsibility
and support for department managers.
The department lacks dedicated crime analysis software or personnel. While our
recommendations in other areas of the report have made arguments for specialized
software to support narrow needs (such a link analysis in CID and Narcotics) those
recommendations should not be construed as encouraging the creation of the same type
of local databases we have criticized. We do see the need for these narrow use
programs, but only under the oversight of both operational (Crime Analysis Unit) and
technical (Information Technology) personnel.
We found far too many instances of duplicative and un-verifiable data stored on local or
system equipment that contained programmatic data. Many areas of this report lack
quantitative analysis of staffing, evaluation of command guidance and direction, and
recommendations for change that are directly related to the absence of verifiable data.
This lack of reliable data also frustrates confidence of the managers in using data as an
evaluation tool on a routine basis. For the department to improve its response to
changing crime patterns and adequately evaluate those responses, accurate, timely, and
reliable data, that can be easily accessed by non-technical personnel is essential.
For the department to stay ahead of ever-changing computer technology and related
innovations for use in reducing crime and increasing the quality of life, technical
knowledge and understanding of computer systems and their related capabilities is
critical. Reliance upon non-technical, sworn staff to perform this function is not cost
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SECTION 6: RECOMMENDATIONS
To restructure the APD information management capacity for data-driven policing, the
following actions should be taken.
The unit should be tasked with both current system maintenance and support, as
well training of department personnel in the access and use of the available data.
2. Create a crime analysis capability within the division, with user- friendly data
analysis tools.
5. Constantly monitor UCR and LIBRS reporting systems for compliance and
accuracy.
Make the underlying data available for unit level analysis and monitoring
through availability of more user-friendly and intuitive ad hoc reporting
systems.
6. Provide units requiring routine query of data for effectiveness analysis with
either macro-based queries or pre-formatted output reports from with the RMS
system.
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9. Seek commitment from ADSI to make data more accessible to the non-
technical person.
At the same time, maintain compliance with LIBRS data collection needs and
reporting requirements. Review the current report writer for user friendliness
and provide more training to users to increase use of data to evaluate program
effectiveness.
10. Provide access and availability of specialized software such as link analysis
tools, to units requiring it such as CID and Narcotics.
Provide extensive training and periodic review of use for all personnel that need
these programs on a routine basis to ensure maximum use.
11. Implement review of ADSI sub-modules for continued use and future
licensing to support unit levels and department-wide operational needs.
While some of this is already underway in the CID, this review should be
department-wide in focus and stress use at unit level for both workload and
crime trend monitoring. The crime analysis and technology units should lead
this review. The department must refocus management oversight of workload at
the unit level and can only do so with accurate and comprehensive data
availability.
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The APD does not have a staff attorney. The City Attorney provides professional legal
support through contracts when requested by the APD. This occurs periodically, case-
by-case. Three suits against the department are currently being handled by contract
legal professionals.
On-call assistance, particularly for criminal matters, does not seem to be available.
Westlaw information can be accessed electronically. Reading and dissemination of
legal bulletins does not seem to be routine.
SECTION 2: EVALUATION
Absence of even a modest legal support capacity is not tolerable. This condition is a
disservice to the public and the men and women of the APD. Immediate correction is
called for. The amount of “undone” legal work justifies appointing a full-time staff
attorney or the equivalent through a contract arrangement. A staff arrangement
promises better continuity. Ensuring that written directives meet legal standards,
reviewing and strengthening training curricula, developing legal update bulletins, and
being available to command and first-line officers to guide decision-making are general
categories of essential activity.
IACP’s Legal Officers Section can provide guidance and models for establishing the
function.
SECTION 3: RECOMMENDATIONS
To professionalize APD operations and minimize risk and liability to/for officers,
supervisors, and commanders, the following actions should be taken:
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2. Prioritize workload and activities, especially major projects, for the new legal
officer.
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Neither planning nor research is the subject of a policy or directive. Its responsibilities,
activities, and productions are not treated in the APD or city budget documents.
Planning and Research is a one-person office (a lieutenant) that reports directly to the
chief of police. Work hours are standard day shift hours, Monday through Friday.
Training records document 31 courses for the lieutenant, 1978 through 2008, including
five entries for grant management.
The lieutenant’s duties include grants management, officer recruitment, and consent
decree compliance monitoring. The lieutenant teaches cultural diversity in the
academy.
JAG (Justice Assistance): Anti drug; $100,000 for overtime and equipment.
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Grants management duties include periodic filing of progress and financial reports,
training, and evaluation.
SECTION 4: EVALUATION
Unlike many police planning and research units, this one does not manage policy and
procedures updates, conduct evaluations, or special projects. These functions are
diffused in the APD. The chief is responsible for deployment. The Assistant Chief is
responsible for the policy manual, although we also found the sergeant in Records
heavily involving. Innovations, equipment studies, program/strategy development is
expected to occur agency-wide.
An agency the size of APD requires a planning and evaluation capacity. It is our
recommendation that the planning function be combined with training to form a
training/planning division. The following functions in addition to training should be
delegated to this division:
Special projects.
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Recruitment
Research
• Lieutenant 1
• Sergeant 2
• Corporal 1
• Civilian Planner 1
• Clerk 1
SECTION 5: RECOMMENDATIONS
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Offender reentry and sex offender monitoring are not the subject of a department rule,
regulation, policy, or directive.
Under provision of state law, the APD receives notification from the Louisiana
Department of Corrections on the release of any inmate who was arrested by the APD
or who had indicated as part of his release processing that he will be a resident of
Alexandria. This notice is received and processed by the Records Division and a copy is
forwarded to the Criminal Investigations Division. Interview with staff indicates
neither division has any further use of this information, except occasionally by a
detective who may check on a specific person on the list. There is no formal program in
place for any follow-up face-to-face visits. Notification documents are maintained by
the Warrants and Records Division in an Excel spreadsheet locally within the unit.
Sex offender monitoring programs differ somewhat in that the focus is more toward
prevention of future sex offenses. Recidivism rates for serious sex offenders are
dangerously high. The federal program was authorized by the Adam Walsh Child
Protection and Safety Act of 2006. That program provides guidelines for registration
and monitoring, as well as residency restrictions, which include face-to-face follow-up
visits. This has resulted in a National Sex Offender Registry and additional guidelines
by each state to implement the requirements of the law. A byproduct of the prevention
aspect of the original legislation is that the face-to-face visits offer law enforcement an
opportunity to apply some aspects of reentry programming to sex offenders,
employment and community interaction, and STET treatment, for example.
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Reintegration of sex offenders can be problematic given the stigma society associates
with the original acts as well as residency issues.
SECTION 3: EVALUATION
Of note during the study the only initiative (other than what was discussed above) that
personnel could point to was an effort by the State Probation and Parole Office to round
up all sex offenders and confine them to a building on Halloween night. This was given
as an example of prevention efforts that the department supported.
SECTION 4: RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Transform both reentry and sex offender programs from record keeping to
proactive crime prevention efforts that support and interact with overall
department goals for crime prevention and community policing.
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2. Ensure that all active field units (patrol, investigations, narcotics, and
communications) have electronic access (radio/computer) to current residency
of all former offenders as well as sex offenders as both an officer safety issues
as well as for investigative use.
3. Specifically focus on the reentry efforts, which are not part of the Sheriff’s
active sex offender monitoring, and link re-integration into citywide efforts at
job building and economic development.
4. Establish yearly goals and objectives for these programs, track information
within the department’s information system, and evaluate effectiveness
annually.
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The Communications Center is the Public Safety answering point for calls requiring
police, fire, or emergency medical assistance. Calls are received on E-9-1-1 transfers from
the Rapides Parish Dispatch Center or 7 digit non emergency lines. This center serves a
population of approximately 47,000 (estimate 2008).
The Communications and Technical Support Division is headed by a captain. The captain
reports directly to the Assistant Chief of Police. The captain is supported by a lieutenant.
The lieutenant’s role largely involves support of department technology.
Communications and Technical Support has an authorized staff of 24. Current staff is
comprised of a captain, a lieutenant, five sergeants, and 17 communication officers.
The current center provides several radio dispatch consoles and telephone answering
points. Generally two dispatch consoles are staffed around the clock, one dispatch console
for police and one dispatch console for fire and emergency medical. Two phone answering
sites are also staffed around the clock with call takers.
SECTION 2: WORKLOAD
Calls for service for Alexandria are relatively consistent in volume throughout the
morning and early afternoon hours, then moderately increase when school lets out. The
increase peaks between 7:00 pm and 8:00 pm and evening hours, with calls for service
beginning to increase shortly after shift change (7:00 am) and increasing until 4:00 pm.
Call loads remain high throughout the afternoon and evening hours, decreasing
significantly after midnight and declining until 5:00 am.
Calculating activities for the two shifts, one finds calls for service heavier on days with
49% of activities on night shift and 51% of activity on day shift.
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Currently, night and day shifts are staffed evenly with a similar number of staff. Given
the similarity of workload on both shifts this is an appropriate distribution of officers.
Calls come to this dispatch center in two ways. Regular seven digit calls come directly to
the center and are answered by a call taker. E-9-1-1 calls first go to the Parish dispatch
center, are answered, information from the caller is entered into the Parish’s CAD
(Computer Aided Dispatch System) and then the caller is transferred to the city’s dispatch
center. The caller is then interviewed again by the city’s call taker and the information
reentered into the city’s CAD.
All calls coming directly into or transferred from the county are first answered by a call
taker. The call taker receives the necessary information, address, nature of the call, and
any additional information needed by police or fire personnel. They then enter this
information into the Computer Aided Dispatch System.
This information is then forwarded by the computer to the appropriate dispatcher (Police
or Fire). The dispatcher receiving this information then dispatches the necessary personnel
or apparatus and adds additional information into the CAD on the nature of the response
and on the progress of the call. The CAD links each call entered into the system with a
unique identifier. All further actions related to that call will be traceable through this CAD
initiated identifier.
SECTION 3: PRACTICES
Ten and signal codes are used for dispatch and response. The specific codes used are
enumerated in General Order: 605.12.
Dispatching for emergency and alarm calls are governed by department policy. An alarm
policy (General Order 609.6) establishes multiple car response, and identifies when
emergency responses are appropriate. Emergency response (code calls) is further
governed by General Order 605. Officers determine their level of code response. A pursuit
policy also guides officer and dispatcher roles in pursuits (General Order 608). The pursuit
policy does have some glaring omissions. Elsewhere in this report we recommend a
thorough review of the pursuit policy.
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Information is transmitted by the dispatcher to police and fire over the radio. The same
information is also available to an officer on the computer in his patrol vehicle. The officer
can recheck the address or other information provided by dispatch on the screen in the
patrol vehicle. The current system of wireless laptops tied to the CAD will permit silent
dispatch (dispatch entirely over the computer) but this option is currently not used.
All department staff are provided a unique identifier which is listed in the computer aided
dispatch system. This unique identifier permits all calls and activities to be traced to the
initiating employee. By policy all officers must report to the dispatcher upon coming into
service. They are also required to acknowledge in a timely manner when they are assigned
to a call, when they come on the scene of a call, and when they clear a call. When an officer
leaves/returns to their vehicle, they are responsible to notify dispatch. Officers are also
responsible to notify dispatch when they stop a vehicle, check a building or a suspicious
person or serve a warrant (General Order: 607).
To provide this information the Communications Center also interfaces with NCIC
(National Crime Information Center), NLETS (National Law Enforcement Tele-
Communication Systems), LLECCS (Louisiana Law Enforcement Computerized
Communications System), the Louisiana Operators License Information, and the Motor
Vehicle Registration File. Dispatchers also provide information for officers from the
department’s RMS (Records Management System).
For warrant inquiries dispatchers must not only check the RMS system, but when a
warrant is found, the dispatcher must also ensure that the warrant is still active.
Officers do have the capacity to do many of these checks themselves on their field laptops
and some do. At this time the majority of computer inquiries needed by officers continue
to be done by dispatch staff.
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The Communications Center dispatched a total of 71,948 calls for service for police and
fire in 2008. Police dispatches accounted for 65,683 dispatched calls, while Fire and EMS
numbered 6,265.
While there are no standards for the number of officers or the number of incidents a
dispatcher can manage, there does appear to be an emerging consensus that a dispatcher
can generally effectively manage between 20-25 officers at a time.
A 1995 study of dispatcher workload in Kings County Communications also found that 11
to 13 incidents per hour were generally the maximum one dispatcher could effectively
manage. Our own analysis suggests that up to 15 calls per hour – all else being equal – is
the upper limit of what a dispatcher can effectively address. One further factor – talk time
levels are also considered in determining proper staffing levels for dispatch points. It is
generally thought that 30%-35% talk time is as high as talk should go on a dispatch
channel.
Data is not available on talk time. The number of dispatch calls overall is averaging 8.2 per
hour. Fire calls account for approximately 10% of calls, leaving police dispatch with
around seven calls per hour. This is well within guidelines. Officers managed, the other
indicator for dispatch workload is also well within guidelines.
It is important to further note that calls per hour and officers on duty are not randomly
distributed across the day. Calls for service tend to be higher during the afternoon to early
evening.
All calls for service are dispatched. With the exception of a few calls informally
transferred to the desk officer, there is no differential response system for Alexandria.
Communication Officers work a 12-hour shift. Dispatchers are assigned to one of four
shifts. Day shift begins at 5:00 am and extends to 5:00 pm. Night shift extends from 5:00
pm to 5:00 am. There is equal assignment to shifts.
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system appears excellent with coverage describes as “96% coverage for handheld radios
and 99% coverage for mobiles.”
Communications operates on a main dispatch talk group which is used for all patrol.
Back-up talk groups are used for routine traffic during emergencies. A talk around talk
group is also available for communications from car to car. As is common with 800 MHz
trunked systems, a number of other restricted talk groups are provided for special units
and operations. Some of these restricted talk groups which are used for tactical and
sensitive operations are encrypted.
In case of equipment malfunction, the Communications Center assigns a mobile radio unit
to each dispatch point to ensure that if the console goes down, the dispatcher can still
communicate. Portable radios and mobile phones are also available as backup in case of
equipment failure.
The city is divided into three police districts and nine zones. Calls are dispatched to the
zone officer if available. If unavailable they are dispatched to the nearest available officer.
The center does have a formal call priority system in place. If no officer is available, calls
are dispatched based on a call priority system as officers become available.
Authority is also given to the field supervisors to dispatch another car if they feel that the
original dispatched car cannot respond promptly.
There is a formal back-up policy in place. It specifies the conditions under which
additional units are sent to a call. Almost all in-progress calls require a back-up.
All incoming phone calls are taped by a digital recording system. Radio transmissions are
taped by Rapides Parish and are available for playback to authorized personnel. Call
checks are available at each dispatch location to play back recent radio and telephone
transmissions.
Communications is located in two large rooms on the second floor of Headquarters. The
main dispatch area is somewhat cramped. While it is of sufficient size for routine dispatch,
the current space would be indeed be cramped during an emergency. Rest rooms are near
the dispatch area. A break room is also in close proximity. Equipment is first rate.
The Communications Center has a computer aided dispatch system. The current system
(ADSI) has been in place for some time. The server for the CAD system is located at the
Communications Center. The CAD system is supported by a companion RMS system
provided by the same vendor. The department’s Record Management System (RMS) and
the Computer Aided Dispatch System (CAD) are interfaced. The CAD provides front end
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data for police reports, allowing the initiating call information to be linked to the officer-
generated report.
Back-up generators maintain the integrity of the radio system and the communications
area during power outages. The generator is tested once a month. In addition, a UPS
system provides back-up for individual units.
Interviews with officers provided a generally positive view of dispatch. Officers felt that
dispatchers were overall well trained and professional. Some normal complaints about
lack of information being provided by dispatchers about calls to which officers were
responding were heard. This is a common complaint in police agencies. Overall,
communications did appear to be meeting field officer’s needs.
SECTION 4: EVALUATION
The center is well equipped, with up-to-date equipment. The CAD (Computer Aided
Dispatch System), while it does have some drawbacks, interfaces well with the
department’s RMS System.
Calls are properly recorded, with recording of all telephone and radio transmissions.
Information and recording on telephone calls and radio transmissions are directly
available for authorized personnel from Rapides Parish when needed.
Dispatchers can also quickly monitor a recent call or radio transmission from a recording
device on their console. Phone lines appear adequate for call loads. The radio system is up
to date and provides excellent coverage.
The APD Communications Center staffs two dispatch positions 24-hours a day, 365 days
per year. Two call taker positions are generally staffed. A sergeant is on duty at all times,
and serves as the dispatch supervisor. Telecommunicators work 12-hour shifts. This is an
efficient shift schedule and we recommend that this shift be continued.
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Current staff is insufficient to staff two call taker and two dispatch positions around the
clock. Current availability ratios require approximately five telecommunicators to staff
one post, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To adequately man four dispatch/call taker
posts requires 20 staff. Current authorized staffing includes 17 dispatchers and five
supervisors. To cover staffing shortfalls, call taker positions are reduced to one position
during slower call times. The supervising sergeant also assists in call taking.
Five police sergeants are assigned as supervisors in dispatch. Generally in most police
agencies, civilian communications trained supervisors direct dispatch operations. Most
dispatch centers are fully civilianized. Police sergeants as supervisors generally do not
have the dispatch experience and they are more costly. It is our recommendation that
police sergeants be replaced by civilian dispatch supervisors.
The civilian dispatch supervisors should be working supervisors. They should both
dispatch and call take as needed. With working supervisors, staffing of the center is
sufficient for current workload.
Two dispatchers are needed around the clock, one for the police side and one for fire.
During the day time hours and in the evenings up to midnight two call takers are optimal.
From midnight to 8:00 am a single call taker would suffice. Consideration should be given
to differential assignment of those assigned to call taking.
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A significant source of workload for the police side are the numerous information
inquiries made by officers to dispatch for information on licenses, registrations, criminal
histories, and other information resources. Information inquiries add significantly to the
dispatch load.
Recently, field officers have been provided with the option to conduct their own inquiries
into the varied data systems on laptops in their cars. As is common with new technologies,
officers have been hesitant to use these computerized inquiry systems and continue to rely
on dispatch for inquiries on plates, licenses, and other needed information. It is
recommended that officers be required to use their laptops to seek most information,
relieving dispatch of this significant source of work.
Many departments today have the vast majority of data inquiries handled directly by the
officers with no ill effect. For those emergency inquiries where officer safety is a concern,
these inquiries should continue to use dispatch. Such inquiries are generally few, officers
running their own information inquiries for routine cases should reduce information
inquiries by approximately 80% to 90%.
There are several possible options to these dispatch delays. The most effective option
would be to automatically route all city calls directly to APD Dispatch using the ALI
(automatic location indicator) that is a part of the E 9-1-1 system. This option is best, since
every time a call is transferred the possibility of it being lost is increased. However, this
option may have to wait for a full geo-coding of the area. A more immediate option may
be linking the Alexandria and Parish CADs so that the call taker in the Parish could
automatically direct information to the dispatcher in Alexandria, reducing the time spent
doing double entry.
SECTION 5: RECOMMENDATIONS
The civilian supervisors should be working supervisors and cover posts when
needed.
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Another option would involve linking of Parish and City Dispatch CADs with the
call taker in the Parish directly sending the information to the City Dispatcher.
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In addition to Article 7 of its Canons of Police Ethics, Conduct Toward the Public, and
the Law Enforcement Code of Ethics (in its entirety), officer integrity and behavior,
citizen complaint protocols, and duties of the department in response, are treated in
Articles 301 and 203 of the Rules and Regulations, Procedures for Investigations of
Allegations and Complaints (301) and Purpose of Professional Standards Division (302).
302 Internal Affairs Officer shall act on behalf of the Chief of Police . . .:
The Internal Affairs Division (IA) also referred to as the Professional Standards
Division, Internal Affairs Unit, and Internal Affairs Officer in department directives and
organizational charts, is a direct reporting unit to the Chief of Police (although in the
definitions directive it is described as reporting to the Assistant Chief of Police). The
unit has been staffed by a detective sergeant. Administrative support, periodic typing,
comes from the chief’s secretary. The sergeant served in this assignment for about 2½
years. In February 2009, to enhance the CID function, the detective sergeant was
reassigned to CID as the deputy commander and the Internal Affairs Unit staffed with a
lieutenant, formerly assigned to CID. It is not known whether this staffing level is
permanent.
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Both citizens and department members file (or bring) complaints. Complaints are
received and/or investigated at the line level and by Internal Affairs. Table 43
summarizes the number of “formal” complaints recorded by Internal Affairs from 2004
to 2008.
The department averages about 17 cases per year. Eliminating the large number of
cases in 2007 produces an average of 12.5. The increase in CY 2007 seems to stem from
an executive level policy change (informal) of resolving administrative issues,
previously handled by first line supervisors through remedial training or counseling,
via the IA investigation route. Example of: referral of patrol vehicle accidents, where
the driver was held to be at fault, to an IA investigation. The IA sergeant convinced the
Chief that most of these low level administrative actions should be handled by first
line supervisors or commanders through the retraining or remedial action options
available at that level and the cases were diverted back later in the year.
Or
Or
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Table 43
External
Internal
____________________________________
* Through 10/31/08
Note: Spike in 2007 resulted from Administration opening more cases in areas not done before or since
that could have been handled through informal counseling or other supervisor remedial training; e.g.,
police vehicle accidents holding officer at fault became IA cases.
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address, or telephone number, but which in the opinion of the supervisor receiving the
complaint, is of such a serious nature to warrant recording or investigation.”
(Source: DD 300.03)
Internal Affairs have sole authority to investigate under the following conditions:
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(Source: DD 300.11)
The APD Web site does not reference the Internal Affairs function nor supply
instruction for filing complaints. It does have an information number and email form
for the department in general. Some complaints are received via this process. They
are forwarded to the Internal Affairs Office by the recipient at the info@cityoalex.com
email address. There is no brochure or other instruction for making complaints. The
Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office Web site has a web-enabled complaint form available.
It requires a name and home and cell phone number, excluding anonymous
complaints.
Line level investigations must be completed within 10 days and the results submitted
to the IA Unit. Four days is allowed for typing and transmittal. When an investigation
is conducted by the IA Unit (the more serious and complex cases), they have 60 days to
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complete. These periods are codified in the Louisiana Police Officers Bill of Rights,
which has a provision for extensions.
Officers under investigation have a right to have counsel present during any interview.
The APD directive does not speak to the LAPOBOR’s requirement to allow up to 30
days for an officer to obtain counsel and that all interviews or questioning of officers be
stayed during that period. A block of entry level training is devoted to IA functions
and rules. Specific training is not required, nor conducted, for supervisors or
commanders, who are tasked to investigate certain complaints.
Directives vest final disciplinary authority with the Chief. The IA report is considered
a factual evaluation of an incident, without benefit of punishment recommendations.
Case files reviewed by IACP staff did not contain punishment recommendations by the
IA staff. There is no provision in the directives for the IA Unit to be appraised by the
Chief of final disciplinary action, although the sergeant advised that the chief does in
fact do that.
Internal Affairs occupies an office on the first floor of headquarters, near the main
entrance. This location provides reasonable access for citizens. It does not provide
private access. To see investigators, persons must check in with the Records Counter
administrative personnel who call investigators to the front to greet visitors. Direct
contact via telephone and email can be provided. Faxing goes through the Records
Division. Case management software (IPTM IA Trak) is loaded on the unit computer.
Access is restricted to assigned investigator(s). Data files reside on the department
server, located in a restricted access area, and are backed up every day to another
department secure server with restricted access. At the time of the study, the sergeant
was awaiting a full training course on the software program. He has Internal Affairs
investigative and management training. The software includes Use of Force reporting,
document attachment and storage by case, and graphic activity displays. These
components are not being used to the maximum for a variety of reasons, including
training and lack of command demand for the information.
Several computer case files were reviewed by the study team and then matched to the
paper case files stored within the unit office. These paper files were locked and
secured for restricted access in an appropriate manner. Data shown later in the report
concerning unit activity was obtained from the IA Trak system by the study team. The
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paper case files reviewed were properly organized and completely documented.
While the computer system generates a complete report, the current investigator
supplements that with his transmittal cover memo that provides more “whole person”
information and analysis than what is provided by the computer system.
The unit is equipped with administrative electronic recording capability within the
office, but the investigator must take his own equipment to a second floor interview
room in the CID offices if such a facility is required (see CID report for recording
capabilities in interview/interrogation rooms; only one is equipped with full recording
[video/audio] capabilities). In most cases, the original complaint is taken in the unit
offices as opposed to an interview/interrogation room, while interviews of department
personnel, due to requirements or authorizations for more persons to be present, will
be done in the CID rooms. If the unit requires more advanced electronic equipment
(for surveillance or other remote, electronically supported operations) it can be
obtained either from the CID or Narcotics units. The incumbent indicated that no
investigation has suffered due to lack of electronic investigative aids.
The department uses a standard classification system for case adjudication, with one
exception, which includes the following classifications:
(Source DD 391.16)
Items A-D mirrors the IACP Model Policy classifications for case disposition. Item E is
added for other charges not related to the original complaint, but is rarely used in the
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IA Trak system data reviewed. A review of the clearances used within the IA Trak
system revealed three additional ones:
In reality none of the above three or item E, above, should be used. Rather if new non-
related infractions are discovered a new case should be opened and processed. Use of
these additional dispositions only muddies the water and frustrates comparison
analysis between years.
The Internal Affairs Commander provided several runs from the IA Trak system for
up to five years back in some cases. Some data and reports were not retrievable due to
a lack of training on the software, mainly attributed to lack of use or requests. For
instance, the study team was not able to extract a report that displayed disposition by
case; only one that displayed disposition by charges was available. It is quite possible
such a report was included in the software but the incumbent was not able to locate it.
Such a report is usually using the primary or most serious charge as the key to
disposition of the associated case. While this does not adequately account for all
charges, it does provide a snapshot of how the various case types or sources of cases
are finally disposed of. A review of the available data revealed several things.
The charges used by the APD vary by year and frustrate yearly comparisons or trend
analysis. Discussions with the incumbent investigator indicated that when the system
was purchased the charge data file was empty. As they began using the system, they
entered cases as they went along, with no regard to similarity of charges. This was
facilitated as the department, with the exception of Department Rules listed between
sections 109-155 in the directive system, has no preset table of offenses and
punishments as part of its written directive system. Thus instead of describing the
offense in the detail of the charges and using a major category or offense title, they
have developed a very large charge base that is somewhat duplicative. In order to
look at it in a smaller scale, the study staff reorganized the data into several major
categories.
Of significance was the number of Excessive Force cases that resulted in a Not
Sustained or Unfounded disposition. During the period 2001-2008, 26 out of 55
reported cases received a Not Sustained disposition. The study team pulled a random
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sample of these cases and found they were predominately associated with arrest
situations where the subject resisted arrest or later complained that the handcuffs were
put on too tight. In most resisting cases, complaints cited road rash from a take-down
or handcuffing procedure while the subject was face down prone on the pavement.
None appeared to be after the fact or intentional but rather related to the environment
in which the action took place or the extent of resistance with the officers. There were
no instances of metal flashlight or nightstick blows to the head or prohibitive torso
areas; those few torso strikes were defensive and used to subdue resistance. All were
responsive to established training protocols and continuums of force. It should be
noted that the department stated that as a matter of standard policy they investigate all
allegations of excessive force regardless of the credibility of the complaint, thus the
large number reported.
From an aggregate standpoint for the period 2001 through Oct 31, 2008, the
department resolved almost 58% of its charges as sustained, with about 26% not-
sustained. (This increases to about 36% if the sustained, unfounded, and exonerated
categories are combined). If the lopsided excessive force category is removed, the
sustained rate is even higher.
Table 44 depicts charge disposition by year between 2001 and Oct 31, 2008. When
viewed from a yearly standpoint, there was another great fluctuation between 2002
and 2004, with 2002 dropping 48% from the previous year and then climbing by 260%
in 2003, and settling back in 2004 by reducing 83% from the high. As noted above,
charges spiked again in 2007, before returning to the norm. The incumbent could not
explain the 2003 spike as he was not assigned at the time.
In summation, the current workload in the department does not seem to justify more
than one investigator. That said, since the department does not have an inspections
function operational, the study team looked at alternatives to staffing a revised Office
of Professional Standards and that is discussed at the conclusion of this section.
Recommendations for the unit as currently staffed and organizationally located are
also found at the end of this section.
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Table 44
Not- No
Year Sustained Sustained Unfounded Exonerated Misconduct Withdrawn Disposition Undetermined Total
2001 73 12 13 13 0 1 4 0 116
% 62.93% 10.34% 11.21% 11.21% 0.00% 0.86% 3.45% 0.00%
2002 42 10 2 3 0 0 4 0 61
% 68.85% 16.39% 3.28% 4.92% 0.00% 0.00% 6.56% 0.00%
2003 51 89 9 1 0 0 7 2 159
% 32.08% 55.97% 5.66% 0.63% 0.00% 0.00% 4.40% 1.26%
2004 6 7 5 0 0 0 5 0 23
% 26.09% 30.43% 21.74% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 21.74% 0.00%
2005 9 10 1 0 0 0 2 0 22
% 40.91% 45.45% 4.55% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 9.09% 0.00%
2006 36 6 1 2 0 0 10 1 56
% 64.29% 10.71% 1.79% 3.57% 0.00% 0.00% 17.86% 1.79%
2007 103 12 2 5 0 0 0 2 124
% 83.06% 9.68% 1.61% 4.03% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 1.61%
2008* 30 8 4 0 0 0 1 0 43
% 69.77% 18.60% 9.30% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 2.33% 0.00%
* Through 10/31/08
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During the period 2003 to 2008 there were six officer-involved shootings involving
APD officers. In all incidents the APD officers were cleared and the shootings ruled
justifiable. The APD was the lead investigating agency in all of these incidents. The
following chart displays these incidents:
During the period of the study, one of these shootings occurred, which provided the
study team an opportunity to observe the department’s response in real time. Several
issues arose from that action which dictated a more detailed analysis of the directive’s
coverage of accepted procedures, which included the department as the primary
investigating agency.
In reviewing the original directive, the study team found several areas where the
directive needed increased focus. Any such directive requires attention to four key
issues: 1) welfare of the officers and others at the scene, 2) apprehension of the
suspects, 3) preservation of evidence, and 4) the identification of witnesses. The
original directive addressed the welfare of officers at the scene in detail but did not
address welfare of others. It was also deficient in the remaining three areas. While
some of the on-scene actions may be the responsibility of follow on investigative
components, given the seriousness and chaotic conditions of these incidents and the
fact that these follow on resources may not be on the scene until later, it is essential
that responding officers be made aware of the necessity for these steps and area focus.
Welfare of other persons such as witnesses, victims, etc., needs to be addressed, as
does the requirements for initial control and segregation of evidence, witnesses, and
victims, as well as any suspects immediately apprehended. Access to the scene needs
to be controlled and only essential persons allowed inside the controlled area.
Weapons, instrumentalities of the crime and other evidence should be identified,
preserved in place, and appropriate data recorded as to who discovered and when. All
persons associated with the scene, including fire rescue personnel need to be identified
and logged in the investigative case scene log. In general the directive should
emphasize and delineate these protective actions in order that all responding officers
are sensitive to their crime scene preservation responsibilities.
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The actual scene processing should be described, including the appropriate drawing,
photographing and videotaping that should be accomplished on all such incidents. If
the involved officer is capable, he should do a walk-through of the scene and such
should be recorded; if not prohibited by certain local and state laws such as the police
Officer Bill of Rights. All officers involved in the scene should be interviewed either at
the scene or immediately thereafter. A review of the rewrite, while it addresses the
joint investigative component, indicates many of the issues detailed above and found
in the original remain absent and require attention.
SECTION 6: EVALUATION
The department, in general, does not complete an annual goals and objective process
for individual units that is then monitored and reported on periodically to the
executive. The Professional Standards/Internal Affairs Unit is no different and does
not have any specific to the unit. This inhibits the unit’s ability to internally evaluate
its effectiveness in meeting both department and unit level needs.
The unit incumbent did not have adequate training on the use and capabilities of the
IA Trak software program, resulting in difficulty retrieving data requested by the
study team. In addition, many of the reporting and analytic capabilities of the system
were being under-utilized. It is doubtful, based on past interaction, that the current
incumbent has any more knowledge of the system and given his short tenure, may
have even less.
While non-IA supervisors and commanders are responsible for the investigation of
certain complaints, there is no provision for training in the complaint investigation
process, nor was there a current lesson plan set or course in place within the Training
Academy to accomplish such training. Since many of the more routine complaints,
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which are not anonymous, are handled by these personnel, it is critical that the
investigation be as through and fair as those conducted by the IA personnel.
The confusion related to the unit reporting chain of command found in the various
directives is unacceptable and should be corrected as soon as possible. The IA unit, in
order to function independently of outside unit interference, must be seen as a direct
arm of the Chief and as such should report directly to him, without any interception of
reports or status reports. Should the Chief desire that other senior commanders be
briefed on particular case, progress can then be identified in the case assignment memo
to the IA commander. Case assignment memos are important in that they direct the
investigation and provide additional guidance to the IA personnel. They also reiterate
the authority for the investigation.
Public access to complaint procedures and paperwork is not as open as it should be.
The absence of these access points can only reduce the number of external complaints
and hamper expanded community understanding and confidence in the complaint
process.
The department does not have a table of punishments or coded violations available for
use in the disciplinary process. This inhibits objective and equal punishments, while at
the same time prevents yearly comparisons because of inconsistent incident categories.
The various reporting formats of data needed by the IACP to conduct the evaluation of
the office did not display similar categories, forcing subjective categorization and
analysis by the study team.
The written directive controlling the functions of the IA unit does not contain a
reference to the delegation of background investigations to the unit. While these
investigations are similar to that conducted for the complaint process and do provide
continuity of workload during period if downtime for complaint investigations, the
unit should be formerly tasked and additional workload factored into staffing
allocations. The current workload provided by the previous incumbent does not seem
to be over tasking the investigator but that could change in the future, especially if the
city extends the coverage to more city jobs.
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discussed previously these are quite possibly covered in other directives associated
with the investigative function, but due to the routinely after the fact arrival of
investigative personnel and the chaotic climate immediately following such incidents,
the requirements of each should be covered here so that all personnel involved are
prepared.
SECTION 7: RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Establish one name for the Internal Affairs unit and constantly refer to it as
such throughout the department’s written directive system, publications, and
literature.
In doing so, the department should take into consideration other study
recommendations as to the unit’s composition, focus and staffing, as well as
necessary rewrites to the complaint procedure.
2. Develop and publish, on an annual basis, written goals and objectives for the
unit that are measureable. Periodic updates should be provided to the agency
executive as to progress towards these goals and objectives.
3. Establish a requirement that any person transferred into the unit must attend
training on the software component within 60 days of assignment.
5. Ensure that the primary and all related directives clearly state that the IA unit
is a direct report to the Chief of Police and that assigned IA personnel act as
an extension of the Chief’s authority.
Provide web-based complaint filing access and clearly written and attractive
brochures describing the complaint process. These brochures should be freely
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and actively distributed, not only at police stations, but also at public libraries
and other city and state facilities, in order to maximize their effectiveness.
The results of such investigations that find a violation exists and is corrected,
should be publicized in order to inform the public that follow-up action was
taken. The IACP’s recent study “Linking Law Enforcement Internal Affairs
Practices and Community Trust Building” has many examples of proactive IA
services in this area and is available from the IACP Web site for download.
8. Restrict its disposition categories to the four noted in the IACP model policy.
10. Update directive and staffing models with the delegation of background
investigations to this unit.
11. Revise the department’s policy on officer-involved shooting, using the IACP
model policy (and others previously mentioned) as a checklist to ensure
adequate coverage of all requirements in the APD directive.
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The Rules & Regulations manual contains only random references to conditions of
work. Recruitment, selection, and promotion are not covered. Performance evaluation
is covered at length in the 400 series. The Working Agreements (union contract) covers
pay, leave, compensatory time, and structure of a Labor Management Relations
Committee, and other work-related rights and prohibitions. Selection, promotion and
other essential personnel rules and policies are governed by Civil Service Commission
regulations.
The APD has been under a federal consent decree since the early 1980s that requires the
city to document all efforts related to minority and female recruitment. While the
decree does not mandate a desired ratio or hiring goal, it does require the city to
demonstrate a good faith effort in minority and female recruitment.
SECTION 2: RECRUITMENT
No rule, regulation, or general order was identified that provides guidance on the
purpose, policy, and practices of recruitment or employment practices. APD has a
hiring policy, kept by the lieutenant, that outlines the hiring process, minimum
qualifications, and eliminating criteria. There is no recruitment plan nor are there
defined/specified goals or objectives for recruiting.
Very limited information about police employment appears on the city Web site or on
the police department’s Web site – minimum requirements for hiring and links to the
application and study guide for the exam. The site directs applicants to submit
applications to the Civil Service Board, but no address or contact information is
provided for the board. The site also does not list salary.
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Recruitment brochures for prospective candidates (at career fairs and other events) are
done professionally. They give prospective candidates an excellent overview of the
agency and the benefits provided including: basic requirements; the steps of the
application process; salary steps and incentive programs; career development
opportunities, employee benefits and vacation and leave opportunities.
SECTION 3: SELECTION
Exam. Applicants can take the test in Alexandria (scheduled there every 18
months) or anywhere in the state of Louisiana and have their scores transferred to
Alexandria. The test is administered and scored by the Office of the State Examiner.
Applicants must score a 75 or better to advance in the process. Every month the Civil
Service Board receives a listing of individuals who scored a 75 or better. Every two
months or so, depending on numbers, all individuals on the list are invited to take a
preliminary physical readiness test and sit before the interview board. About 20 to 30
candidates are interviewed on average.
Physical Readiness Test (PRT). While recruits take the official physical
readiness test during the academy, all applicants with passing exam score are invited to
take the PRT at this point in the process as a means to apprise them of the physical
requirements.
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Oral Interview and Writing Sample. The interview board comprises five
individuals who represent the department’s diversity. Each member goes through a
two-hour training conducted by representatives from the city’s human resources
department, local representatives from the Society of Human Resource Managers
(SHRM), and the department’s internal affairs unit. Tenure for board members is about
two years.
Prior to meeting with the interview board, each applicant is given a limited amount of
time to write a chronological narrative of their day’s events. This serves as the
candidate’s writing sample. Applicants also sign a consent form for the background
check at this time.
The interview board asks the candidates a standard set of questions and scores the
candidate on a number of areas including communication, attitude, demeanor, and
written expression (as based on writing sample). The scores of all the raters are
averaged, and the candidates are ranked based on these scores. The resulting list is
forwarded to the Chief for review. The Chief makes his selections based on the needs of
the department.
The application process for civilians (dispatchers, records clerks, and jailers) includes
successful completion of an exam (administered and scored by the state), an oral
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interview, and background checks, without the medical testing required for sworn
positions. A polygraph and drug test is included for selected positions (e.g., property
and evidence specialists).
SECTION 4: PROMOTIONS
Promotional testing is conducted by the Office of the State Examiner (OSE), which
administers and scores the tests. The OSE Web site lists the testing schedule, position
descriptions, study guides, and test applications for each rank. The nature and content
of the tests vary by rank. While all exams are multiple choice, the content subject areas
vary by rank. Core topics for corporals and sergeants include patrol, traffic, firearms,
first aid, criminal law, investigation, and court testimony. Exams for sergeant and
higher contain additional questions regarding public relations and supervisory
situations.
The local Civil Service Board receives applications for promotional testing and
coordinates the testing dates with the OSE as needed. Promotional lists for each rank
remain active for 18 months. Testing is done when the list is exhausted or the 18
months expires, whichever comes first.
Those who pass the exam with a score of 75 or higher are then ranked based on
seniority. Officers with the most overall years of service, regardless of test score or time
in grade, are promoted first. There are no oral boards or other promotional
assessments.
Officers experienced in taking the promotional exams advised that the state civil service
exams were not terribly difficult with most officers passing the exam. Officers who fail
the civil exam on their first try are able to take the exam at the next sitting, and if they
pass they are listed in the order of their original seniority. For the majority who pass
the exam, seniority becomes the only criteria for promotional appointment.
While it is agreed that years in grade is a factor that should be taken into account, there
should be a number of additional criteria. Candidates should be judged in addition as
to education, special skills, leadership ability, and administrative skills. A broader
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CID
Special Operations Division (SOD),
Community Policing
Special Interdiction Team/Special Response Team (SIT/SRT)
Field Training Officer
School Resource Officer
K-9 Officers
Traffic
Recruiting
Training Unit Officer Position
Sections 404.4 to 404.8 of the Rules and Regulations govern performance evaluations.
Performance evaluations are conducted every six months by each employee’s
immediate supervisor. Employees are rated on a four-point scale ranging from
unsatisfactory to distinguished on a number of job factors. Different job factors exist for
different positions, both civilian and sworn. Evaluation criteria forms have been
prepared for:
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Job-specific evaluation criteria have been prepared for record clerks and
communication center officers.
SECTION 7: EVALUATION
For a number of years, the APD has been a no-growth organization, characterized by a
flat staffing trend line. Accordingly, recruitment and selection have focused mainly on
turnover/replacement requirements. Human resources objectives in the coming year(s)
will be affected by fiscal conditions that will continue to minimize recruitment and
selection work.
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When a position becomes open, officers seeking the position should complete an
application which summarizes their job experience, skills, training and education. A file
review for each applicant should be conducted to assess how well their background fits
with the demands of the specialized position. Evaluations, leave records, disciplinary
history, commendations, training, and education should be all part of this file review.
An interview with a merit selection panel would complete the process.
Performance Evaluations. The evaluation forms the APD employs are good and
could serve as beneficial staff development tools, if used properly. Unfortunately, the
current performance evaluation process appears to be little more than an exercise in
paperwork that serves no purpose to the individual or the organization. Given that
promotions are based on seniority and special assignments are based on command staff
preference, the utility of performance appraisals is neutralized. Nearly three-quarters
of workforce survey respondents viewed the performance evaluation process as not
effective. Nearly all respondents who provided more detail in the open-ended response
question cited the process as ineffective/useless.
SECTION 8: RECOMMENDATIONS
Promotion under the current system is largely based on seniority. Far more than
seniority needs to be taken into account in choosing key policy makers.
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Current staffing is seven: four sergeants; two corporals; and one clerk. One of the
sergeants is designated the commander, a second the assistant/deputy commander.
The commander reports to the assistant chief.
The organization chart shows the functions of the Academy to be training, public
information, community services, and DARE. The commander’s responsibilities are to
direct Academy operations, including budgeting and payroll, academy/class
scheduling, compliance monitoring, and instruction, several courses.
One corporal specializes in defensive tactics. He also serves as the collective bargaining
agency (Local 833 AFL/CIO). The DARE corporal, who is not physically located in the
Academy suite of offices but in/by the 9-11 Center, is described as “really reporting to
the Rapids Parish Sheriff’s Office.” The civilian maintains academy records and
conducts a range of administrative duties.
All staff have been assigned to the Academy for years. The firearms/range master
sergeant is retiring in June of 2009. Training records indicate that personnel who teach
have completed a state of Louisiana 40-hour instructor certification course.
The APD is certified as one of eight regional academies in Louisiana. Accordingly, APD
recruits undergo basic right at home. The Louisiana POST recruit curriculum sets
minimum training of 320 hours. The APD program totals 512. The POST curriculum is
outlined in Table 45. The Alexandria curriculum is displayed in Table 46.
An Academy program is available twice annually. Classes average 30 recruits. Cost for
other agencies is $850 per recruit.
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Table 45
Firearms 40 Hours
- Firearms History
- Fundamentals of Shooting
- Firearms Proficiency Practice
- Orientation to Shotguns
- Orientation to Chemical Agents
Investigations 20 Hours
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Table 45
Traffic 16 Hours
- Crash Investigations
- Hit and Run Investigations
- The Crash Report
- Motor Vehicle Laws
- Issuing Citations
- Directing Traffic
- Physical Training
- Use of Force
- Baton Handling
- Defensive Tactics
- Arrest Techniques
- Preparing for Deadly Force and Other Serious Events
- Standards of Conduct
- The Role in the Community
- Diversity in the Community
- Attaining Respect for the Peace Officer
- Crime Prevention
Electives 80 Hours
- Domestic Violence
- Auto Theft
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Table 45
- Courtroom Testimony
- Handling Juveniles
- OWI Enforcement
- Tactical Problems
- Hostage Negotiations/Crisis Management Tactics
- Crisis Intervention When Dealing with Individuals with Mental Disorders
- Police Survival – Legal and Mental Aspects
- Death Notification
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Table 46
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Table 46
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Table 46
Methods of Patrol 2
Patrol Activities (continued) Police Driving 24
Unusual Occurrences 2
Vehicle Stop Tactics 4
Violent Crimes 2
TOTAL 44
PT Introduction to PT/DT 2
PT 46
Testing and Stats PT 2
TOTAL 50
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Table 46
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Field training consists of four six-week instructional periods, 24 weeks total. The APD
program is patterned upon the classic San Jose model. Program objectives, set forth in
the FTO Manual (undated) are to:
Trainees work with a series of FTOs, on different/all shifts, to broaden exposure and
experience a variety of supervisory/teaching styles. The Activity Checklist governs the
training/development regimen. FTOs must explain a range of performance
requirements for 17 categories of activity. Trainees must learn and demonstrate
knowledge/understanding/capacity of each for the FTO:
1. Department operations
2. Daily activities
3. General operating procedures
4. Driving techniques
5. Radio procedures
6. Information
7. Arrest procedures
8. Patrol tactics
9. Traffic procedures
10. Vice control
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A Daily Evaluation Form is completed each day by the training officer. It outlines the
number of calls, arrests, field contacts, and citations for the shift. The trainee is also
evaluated on appearance, attitude, and other factors. Throughout field training, a series
of written tests are given to measure the progress of trainees: Phonetics Alphabet;
Street Location; 10 Code; Dispatch and Offense Codes; Rules and Regulations 1, 2, and
3.
Fourteen (14) certified FTOs are currently available, distributed among the four shifts.
There is no formal interview process for becoming an FTO. Officers interested in
becoming FTOs submit a letter of interest to their supervisor. The supervisor reviews
these requests and makes recommendations to the sergeant responsible for coordinating
the field training process. Those recommended are required to attend a two-hour in-
house FTO training course.
Evaluation of the quality of FTO performance relies on informal feedback from trainees
and completion of the FTO critique form at the end of each training period. The form
seeks appraisals of strengths and weaknesses of FTOs and suggestions to improve
training. The sergeant responsible for coordinating the field training process
encourages trainees to come to him with any issues regarding their FTOs.
SECTION 4: IN-SERVICE
The state of Louisiana POST has not established mandatory in-service hourly or content
requirements. Shooting (handgun) requalification is the exception. The APD had a
mandatory 40 hour retraining, but this requirement has been dropped. There are no
requirements at all, at present.
Tables 47 and 48 profile a number of dimensions of APD in-service training. In 2007 100
separate trainings were attended. The number of officers trained totaled 710 (many
officers having multiple trainings). Nine courses accounted for 63% of course
attendance.
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Table 47
Number of
Title Officers Trained
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Table 47
Number of
Title Officers Trained
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Table 47
Number of
Title Officers Trained
TOTAL 701
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Table 48
Number of
Title Officers Trained
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Table 48
Number of
Title Officers Trained
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Table 48
Number of
Title Officers Trained
TOTAL 791
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The 2008 Profile is much the same. One hundred nineteen (119) courses were attended
by 791 officers. Thirteen (13) courses hosted 75% of officers who received in-service
training in 2008.
The hours/duration of these courses was not available from the training records.
APD officers do most in-service work in Alexandria, during months when basic is not
in session. Some work is done at a number of regional academies in central Louisiana,
Shreveport, Caddo Parish, and Monroe. These trainings are tuition free. The APD
Academy also hosts members from other regions.
Most instruction is conducted by APD officers. The agency was unable to supply a
master list of certifications. These have to be “dug out” of individual training records.
Curricula can be patterned on models developed by the state POST. Many courses are
developed by APD instructors. Course material/lesson plans vary in format, quality,
and compliance with professional curriculum standards. Materials are both computer-
hosted and in hard copy. We did not find evidence of self-learning/self-paced or
distance learning options.
Roll call training occurs intermittently – very intermittently – twice during the past six
months. These entailed video-based presentations on traffic issues and diversity in the
community. Roll call has been used to discuss policy updates. Patrol lieutenants are
responsible for judging presentation quality.
The APD has not constructed a leadership development program. The records of 20
APD executives and commanders do not evidence an observable or sustained
commitment to leadership development. We found two references to an FBI National
Academy experience; no references to work in LEEDS programs; none to SPI; one to a
CSRCPI Law Enforcement Leadership Series; two to a Leadership court in 1998; two to
an Applied Leadership Principles course (2000); one Leadership and Ethics course
(2000); and a sprinkling of supervision, mid-management and police administration
courses. One reason offered for this condition is the absence of a convenient option,
geographically. The number of officers receiving leadership and/or management
training is summarized below.
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The distribution of the officers receiving leadership and/or management training across
divisions/units of the APD is summarized below.
CID records reveal most training is skill-based, such as crime scene search or homicide
investigation techniques. There appears to be no requirement for a basic investigative
course for newly assigned personnel. No records were identified with an obvious
listing for a basic investigators’ course. Training overall is inconsistent with some
officers receiving more numerous and more relevant courses than others do. Of the 19
records reviewed, at least four showed no apparent training in an area of specialization
(such as juvenile or fraud) or in investigations in general. Five of seven narcotics
officers have received training in basic narcotics investigation. There appears to be no
requirement for a basic community policing course for newly assigned personnel. Only
three of the eight training records for COP officers show credit for some sort of
community policing-related training.
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lesson plan set or course in place within the Training Academy to accomplish such
training.
Specialty training is often less than easily accessible due to local availability, costs, and
scheduling. One solution worth considering is distance learning.
SECTION 8: EVALUATION
The APD’s training records reflect only a listing of course titles taken by each officer.
Information on the duration of each course is not available, so a calculation of
cumulative hours was not possible. Based on the number of courses, the amount of
training appears to be adequate. However, without knowing the number of hours, that
adequacy of continuing training cannot be truly assessed. Better tracking of training by
officer and by unit is needed. It is recommended that easily available training tracking
software be obtained and all training records be computerized.
Training, as with most administrative tasks, profits from focus. The department needs a
training policy that establishes minimum yearly training standards, and defines
minimum training required for each specialty position with defined times within which
training must be accomplished for specialty positions. This policy should also require
that training classes must be developed whenever major legal or policy changes occur.
The training unit should prepare a yearly training plan with defined goals and
objectives. This training plan should be developed with feedback from all units in the
department.
Average annual number of training courses ranges from just under two for captains to
five for sergeants. For divisions, the range is less than one for Support Services to 16 for
FTO Training – Traffic.
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Table 49
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Table 50
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Table 50
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supervisors, commanders, and executives in data management and analytical skills will
be required. The training plan should make this a priority.
SECTION 9: RECOMMENDATIONS
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5. Secure training software to track all officer training, including subject matter
and course hours.
This policy should also identify training required for each specialty position and
the time span in which it must be accomplished.
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The manual of Rules and Regulations as of January 24, 2009: New Revisions and
Additions (the policy manual) is the governing policy document of the APD. We did
not discover additional documents, such as unit-based SOPs.
The body of policy totals just about 200 pages (unnumbered). Just approaching
completion of a revision, the copy we have is not in final format – appearance, layout,
and perhaps, “parts,” such as an index. Current construction features: a cover/title
page; table of contents; articles; policy and directives; operational procedures.
SECTION 2: RESPONSIBILITIES
In mid-year 2007, a decision was made to update the policy manual, which had been in
place for seven or eight years. Updates were done by a committee, with members
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focusing on the functions for which they had oversight. It is reported that changes were
not substantial, and were more in the form of eliminating material.
A draft of the revised manual was sent to the City Attorney for legal review. After
several months, the APD issued the revised draft, without the legal review being
completed. At this moment, most executives and commanders have the draft; lower
level officers do not.
The UCR sergeant has not been trained in the development or maintenance of
directives, nor does he appear to have time for the task. Historical files of directives are
not maintained in the event of judiciary review on demand of case actions.
SECTION 3: PRACTICES
APD officers receive their manual at the recruit academy. Being a regional academy,
the recruit program directs attention to APD policies in only an occasional way. The
FTO program, alternatively, is tasked to concentrate on APD policy and procedure
requirements.
Update practices have not really existed since the previous policy manual was not
modified/updated frequently.
SECTION 4: EVALUATION
Our review of the APD policy manual identified a host of problems in both
organization and content. Efforts to address these deficiencies should be given high
priority as the manual in its present form is woefully inadequate and could present a
series of liability problems for the department should it become a component of civil
litigation.
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The manual would be enhanced if organized logically into major divisions or chapters
and indexed accordingly for ease of use. A generic approach to manual organization
appears in Table 51. Logical segmentation into discrete policy topics also eases the
revision process, allowing updates to be made and reinserted without disrupting other
manual components.
A review of many of the most significant policies in the manual revealed major
deficiencies in content. The majority of high priority policies is incomplete and
provides little guidance of any value. For example, the policy on pursuit driving
addresses only three prohibitions on the subject. It does not address such essential
matters as when pursuits should be initiated, when they are not authorized or should
be terminated, supervisory responsibilities for monitoring pursuits, tactical matters
such as number of units involved, caravanning, shooting at or from vehicles, bumping
and ramming, use of roadblocks, or related matters. Other policies such as domestic
violence response, bomb threats, officer-involved shootings, and many others of
importance are similarly inadequate.
The manual also does not include many topics of importance, or if present, are given
only passing attention. These include but are not limited to the following topics.
Career Development
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Table 51
100 – ORGANIZATION
200 – ADMINISTRATION
300 – PERSONNEL
301 – Classification/Assignment
302 – Salary Plan
303 – Benefits
304 – Conditions of Work
305 – Physical Exams and Fitness
306 – Recruitment and Selection
307 – Performance Evaluations
308 – Promotions
309 – Personnel Records
310 – Standards of Conduct
311 – Disciplinary Procedures
312 – Grievance Procedures
313 – Sexual Harassment and Discrimination
314 – Off Duty Employment
315 – Termination of Employment
316 – Departmental Awards and Commendations
400 – TRAINING
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Table 51
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Off-duty Employment
Body Armor
Standards of Conduct
Inspections
Officer Drug Testing
Communicable Disease
Firearms and Qualification
Evidence Control
Death Notification
Dealing with Mentally Ill or Mentally Disabled
Confidential Informants
Investigation of:
- Hate Crimes
- Identity Theft
- Child Abuse
- Sexual Assault
- Missing Persons in General and Missing Children in particular
Motor Vehicle Searches
Motor Vehicle Stops
Victim Assistance
Intelligence
The department should revise the policy manual into a comprehensive reference that
can guide the organization, its operations, and its employees. The IACP’s Model Policy
Center and online planning and research forum, IACP Net, are two good resources for
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guidance and assistance. The revision process should involve participation and inputs
from a broad range of employees throughout the department.
For both reference and training purposes, the APD should exploit common and
emerging technologies. The policy manual should be easily accessible to both sworn
and civilian staff, preferably in an electronic format searchable by key word and content
topic. Online and in-car access to policies and self-learning training modules, reviewed
by individuals as schedules permit, offer a low-cost access to policies and policy
training. The proposed civilian planner specialist housed in the Training/Planning
Division should be tasked to build this capacity.
SECTION 5: RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Revise and update the policy manual with comprehensive policies and procedures
organized in a logical manner.
The IACP’s Model Policy Center and online planning and research forum, IACP Net,
are two good resources for guidance and assistance.
2. Establish regular and periodic reviews of the policy manual, particularly for
policies that discuss legal or high risk/liability content areas.
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Assessed by total number of responses, distribution by rank, and years of service, the
respondent universe is considered sufficiently representative to accurately reflect the
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culture of the APD. Eight-five (85) responses were received, 45% of eligible
respondents. (Five responses were received after production of data reported here.)
Rank. The distribution of responses was fairly broad across ranks, but
dominated by sergeants and officers, 68% combined:
Officer 39 47.6
Sergeant 17 20.7
Civilian 16 19.5
Lieutenant 4 4.9
Captain 1 1.2
Other 3 3.7
Declined 2 2.4
Unclassifiable 3 3.7
TOTAL 85 100.0
Uniform 32 39.0
Communications/Technical Support 9 11.0
Special Operations 8 9.8
Warrants/Records/Support Services 8 9.8
Other 8 9.8
Criminal Investigations 6 7.3
Community Policing 4 4.9
Declined to State 4 3.7
Narcotics 2 2.4
Training Academy 2 2.4
TOTAL 85 100.0
APD Experience. Years of experience with the APD was evenly distributed
across categories, but the most dominant numerical response comes from workers in
the 20+ years of service category, accounting for 27 (32%) of the valid responses. Eighty
(80) percent of the respondents have greater than five years of experience. Tenured
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workers often have more measured survey responses, in contrast to newer workers
which often have more positive responses.
20+ 27 32.1
5–9 14 16.7
10 – 14 13 15.5
15 – 19 13 15.5
2–4 11 13.1
0–1 6 7.1
TOTAL 84 100.0
TOTAL 83 100.0
Respondents were asked to rate the effectiveness of the APD in meeting the safety and
service needs of specific stakeholder groups. Effectiveness was rated on a scale from
one to five with one being “ineffective” and five being “effective.” For purposes of this
analysis, the threshold for overall effectiveness is achieved when 50% or more of the
respondents fall in the four to five range of “satisfactory” or “effective.” Given these
criteria, three stakeholder groups were identified as satisfactorily or effectively serviced
by the APD: the mentally challenged; businesses; and the military. Particularly notable
on the unsatisfactory side of the equation are responses regarding youth, immigrants,
and the homeless/indigent. The complete results of this question are summarized in
Table 52 below.
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Table 52
Effective (50+%4 or 5)
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There are slight variations when rank is taken into consideration. Overall, captains,
lieutenants, and sergeants do not view service delivery to any group as effective.
Conversely, civilian respondents generally, and in some cases, officers, view service
delivery more positively.
For groups receiving service deemed not effective (1 or 2), respondents were asked to
explain why in an open-ended question. Twenty-three (23) responded to this open-
ended question. A lack of available programs to offer these groups is the most
prevalent response, followed by lack of training to effectively address the needs to these
groups.
SECTION 5: INDICATORS
Responses to a number of survey items indicate the need for further examination by
APD leadership, and in some cases, action. Over one-third of the respondents found 12
of the 13 practices less than satisfactory, in most cases neither satisfactory nor
unsatisfactory. Further analysis and corrective action is needed.
Transfers and special assignment, in particular, warrant attention given that nearly 40%
of respondents view these practices as unsatisfactory. Community policing/
community trust also need immediate attention.
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Table 53
Effective (50+%4 or 5)
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Table 54
Servicing Stakeholders
Equity Considerations
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For any practice rated unsatisfactory (1 or 2), respondents were invited to offer
explanations and additional comments in the form of open-ended responses. A large
number of respondents took advantage of this opportunity to voice their opinions.
Table 55 summarizes the nature of these comments. The responses, while not
conclusive measures of whether practices or conditions approach or comply with
professional expectations, explain how respondents perceive a workforce condition,
and the basis for dissatisfaction. Comment clusters are re-visited throughout the report.
Perceptions regarding APD goals and objectives, for example, are consistent with and
reinforce our findings. It would be equally appropriate to say that our findings validate
workforce perceptions.
The workforce was invited to recommend ideas to enable the APD to function more
productively and to position itself for the future. The survey isolated operations and
functions for focused consideration. Recommendations were not restricted to “same
class” respondents. Investigators and dispatchers could comment on Patrol, for
example. The data presented in Table 56 are based on 85 segregated responses.
The number of respondents who offered suggestions is meaningful, exceeding the norm
for this survey category. A second result of significance to us is the number of
observations and recommendations which are congruent with those of the study staff.
These include:
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Table 55
Servicing Stakeholders
Assessment of Community 33 38.8 Most responded to this question in the context of APD’s Community Policing
Policing Practices unit, not from the perspective of overall community policing efforts.
Community Trust 10 11.8 The few comments noted here reiterate the opinion that the community of a
whole does not trust the APD. Explanations included a lack of confidentiality
(1); criminals operating with impunity (1); poor public relations (1); poor
officer behavior (3); and lack of administrative support (2).
Pockets of Distrust 42 49.4 The vast majority identified pockets of distrust in the community as low-
income, minority areas (25).
Understanding of APD Goals 9 10.6 These responses indicated a lack of understanding of what the goals and
objectives are or what they mean anything. Some respondents commented
that the goals change frequently.
Understanding of Job Goals 9 10.6 Few commonalities among responses. Four noted that their goals were
constantly changing or never communicated.
Quality of Supervision 13 15.3 There were few commonalities to these responses; not support from above (2);
unqualified supervisors (2).
Training 10 11.8 All comments stated that they received minimal or no training.
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Table 55
Additional Training Needed 48 56.5 Specific requests or recommendations on training varied widely, ranging from
firearms (2) and DWI (1) to computer (2) and diversity (2) training. Most
common requests were for “any training” (6); communications/public contact
(4). Supervisory training was also requested by sergeants and above.
Policies and Procedures 13 15.3 The majority of the responses to this question noted that the policies and
procedures were “not enforced” (5) and/or “outdated” (5).
New/Revised Policies and 27 31.8 These responses vary widely with little consensus: mentally ill, elderly,
Procedures Needed community policing, chain of command, sick leave, detective call-out,
smoking, critical incidents, active shooter (2), gangs, officer fitness/
appearance, firearms, use of force, pursuit policy (2), call response/
prioritization, performance evaluations, vehicle policy.
Understanding of Performance 5 5.9 Three stated that evaluation standards change and are not applied effectively.
Standards
Standards to Which You Are 36 42.4 There was great variation in these responses, but the most common among
Held priority one responses were: honesty (6); professionalism (60); safety (4); meet
basic job requirements (i.e., patrol, answer calls, make citizen contacts, follow
rules) (12).
Performance Standards – 39 45.9 Improved/more training (15); less administrative interference (3); poor/non-
Current Capacity Building supportive leadership (9).
Performance Evaluation 23 27.1 The majority of respondents cited the performance evaluation process as
ineffective/useless (17).
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Table 55
Equity Considerations
Promotion Practices 24 28.2 Five civilians noted that there are no civilian promotions; other respondents
made the following complaints about promotions: takes too long/senior
officers are holding up the ranks (5); based on seniority not competence (8).
Transfers/Special Assignments 27 31.8 The predominant explanation for unsatisfactory views of the transfer/special
assignment system was favoritism/inequitable selection practices (17). A few
(3) noted that the transfer process specifically was often used for punishment
or disciplinary purposes.
IA/Discipline Practices 22 25.9 Inequity and favoritism were listed among the top complaints of the IA/
discipline process (10); six commented that citizen complaints always resulted
in discipline and that officer is viewed as guilty until proven innocent.
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Table 56
Improve Patrol function 47 55.3 Suggestions to improve the patrol function included: more officers/
manpower (8) plus (2) specifically mentioned full staffing for one shift that has
been short on supervisors for a year; more effective leadership (5); more
training (5); prioritize calls (5); create a reward program to recognize good
work (2).
Improve Investigations 34 40.0 Thirty-four (34) commented but many offered multiple suggestions for
improving investigations. Among the most common were: ineffective staffing
– too many long-time sergeants (12); should work nights and weekends (7);
improve communication with line, with victims, and with other detectives (5).
Improve Communications 39 45.9 Top suggestions to improve communications include: Ride-alongs for
communications staff (6); improve professionalism (8); five offered positive
comments.
Other Improvements 24 28.2 There was little consensus among the other improvements suggested:
leadership changes and/or improved accountability (4); specialized units
should to their specialized work (3).
How to serve community 30 35.3 Two prevailing responses: more personnel/officers (8); engage and interact
better with the community (through meetings, ride-alongs, etc.) (8).
City Hall actions 37 43.5 The most common responses include: more support of PD from city hall and
less micromanaging (9); change PD leadership/improve accountability (6);
more resources (personnel or equipment) (9).
Questionable actions 21 24.7 Suggestions were dispersed with only a few multiples. These include: street
team (3); narcotics (3); community policing unit (3); favoritism (2).
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Chapter I. commented on the favorable climate for introducing innovations into the
APD. The workforce survey reinforces the expectation. Disparities among ranks and
classifications – conflicting perceptions, with regard to major practices and conditions is
not a positive for introducing change effectively. Significant disparities do not seem to
be present in the APD. A number of dissatisfiers notwithstanding, workforce
commitment, dedication, and morale are valuable assets for meeting change and
challenge.
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