The mayor’s response to the police department’s theft and bribery scandal, pitched to police commissioners Friday afternoon, came under fire from both sides.
The mayor’s proposal — to bring in an outside “dream team” of consultants to review the police department at the cost of $130,000, announced at a Thursday afternoon press conference — was struck down as both an overreaction and an underreaction by members of the Board of Police Commissioners in a special meeting Friday.
The mayor’s proposal, a $130,000 no-bid contract with consultants PERF (Police Executive Research Forum) will seek aldermanic approval by unanimous consent on at the full Board of Aldermen Meeting April 5.
To aid the consultants, the mayor has chosen an Independent Oversight Board (IOB) of community, religious, police and criminal justice representatives. Among them is Police Commission Chair Rick Epstein. Epstein announced Friday he will recuse himself from voting on any matters concerning the center of the FBI sting and theft and bribery scandal, former top narcotics cop Lt. Billy White, because Epstein runs an insurance company that has written some property/casualty insurance for White.
Too Much, Too Soon?
Rev. Jerry Streets (pictured above) railed against designated Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts over what he called an inappropriate “leap” between as-yet-unproven allegations and the type of systemic review advocated by the mayor and police chief.
“These are allegations, right?” he asked, referring to the FBI’s arrests of White and a detective following an FBI sting (click here for the FBI’s 57-page affidavit detailing the theft, gambling and bribery charges).
“How do we go from allegations to initiating this level of review?” asked Streets. “It seems like a knee-jerk reaction.” Streets said calling for a wide-sweeping review “has caused the impression that the entire department is dysfunctional.”
Replied Smuts: “The reality is, there is a concern about the integrity of the department.”
Streets: “I’m not willing to believe that’s a widespread [point of view].” Launching a departmental review makes the department look corrupt, he reasoned. “If I was mayor, I’d be concerned about it being perceived this way.”
The perception’s already out there: The scandal was “above the fold in the Register for eight days straight,” Smuts said, using the example as a gauge of public opinion.
Commissioner Cathy Graves joined in against Smuts: “It kind of feeds into us saying there is a problem with our officers.” Distrust of police officers is “nothing new.” “That perception is ongoing — this group [of critics] will always have a problem” with the department, narc scandal or not.
“I’m not concerned about the actions of two or three self-appointed leaders in the community,” said Smuts, presumbaly referring to the local heads of the NAACP and ACLU, who are chosen by their respective organizations.
Smuts maintained the “intense public interest in our department” warranted a transparent, external review by professional specialists.
Plus, “you don’t have to be sick to get better,” added Smuts.
“But a wrong diagnosis can make you worse,” retorted Streets.
Not Enough
Graves (pictured at middle) also fired against the mayor’s dream team proposal from the other side, saying it was not enough. The internal review will focus on the Investigative Services Unit (which until recently contained the narcotics unit), internal affairs and police training programs.
“We want to look at the whole department,” said Graves.
Smuts suggested the matter be debated among the police commissioners. If they reached the consensus that a more thorough probe is needed, they can approach the mayor and Board of Aldermen for more funds, he said.
The mayoral plan did get praise from one commissioner, Evelise Ribeiro (pictured above at left): “I think the public will appreciate that we are willing to take an honest look at ourselves.”
A Less “Reactive” Approach?
Amid talk of the PERF proposal, the suggestion popped up that both the internal affairs department (officially “Internal Values and Ethics”) and the Board of Police Commissioners could become more proactive, rather than reactive.
New York’s IA department, Smuts mentioned, regularly conducts sting operations on its own force.
“New York has a much more proactive unit,” acknowledged Lt. Pat Redding, who heads New Haven’s internal affairs department. But that city has over 37,000 officers. Their undercover cops and cars can pass without being recognized. New Haven’s size, with closer to 400 cops, makes that type of work very difficult, said Redding. “We’d basically need a new rental car every day.”
Moving internal affairs closer to a NYC-style unit “Is something PERF is obviously going to recommend,” said Redding. “But I don’t know honestly if we’re set up to do that… It’s difficult because everyone knows who we are within the system.”
The police commission is similarly “reactive,” noted Commissioner Epstein. Is PERF “going to be looking at how we, as a group, could be more efficient?” he asked. Chief Cisco Ortiz said that question would inevitably come up over the course of PERF’s work.
Epstein later said he welcomed the input: “Anything we can do to be more proactive is good.”
Residents are getting a little fed-up with all of this theorizing by commissioners and accusations by others. We want answers with hard evidence. The PERF review initiated by local leaders plus the ongoing FBI investigation initiated by whistle blowers along with the press' voracious coverage seem to be best way to do that. Giddy-up.