As a new patrol officer at the Denver Police Department, Gerry Whitman took note of the “blue flu,” when some officers – who felt just fine – called in sick during the early 1980s to protest a lack of pay raises.
The action, a low-grade demonstration of discontent, was “background noise,” Whitman said, but the discontent “has been humming ever since.”
In recent weeks, that hum has turned into a cacophony of complaints.
As records show a 30 percent decline in arrests and ticketing since 1998 and anecdotal reports tell of a lack of morale, city officials from the auditor to City Council members are examining the causes.
Now, Denver’s police monitor, Richard Rosenthal, is preparing a survey to help determine the issues that bog down the department.
The questionnaire, which will be handed out within two weeks, will go to every officer and will include questions about complaint handling, discipline and perceived support from police administration and city government.
A separate survey will go to any Denver resident who has made an internal-affairs complaint within the past three years.
“I don’t think anecdotally is a good way to measure morale,” Rosenthal said. “It’s not objective, not consistent. I’m telling officers, ‘If you want to be heard, fill out the survey.”‘
In an interview, Whitman, now police chief, recently talked about the primary issues of the department and how they affect morale.
There are not enough officers, Whitman said, so cops are tired and don’t have the flexibility to show what they can do.
Any alteration in policy or personnel can be stressful, he said, and both have evolved at the Police Department over the years.
Some of those changes, such as abolishing pursuits, added to overall frustration levels, he said. The discipline system, a historical problem that could unfairly tarnish an officer’s record as well as take months to resolve, is in the process of being revamped, Whitman said.
Whitman also sees Rosen thal’s ideas for mediation playing an important role.
A $4 million records-management system, approved this year and set for training next year, will drastically improve efficiency, Whitman said. It will quickly offer data that are not available now to officers on the street, such as criminal history and mug shots, and also will track response time.
“You have to be able to measure what you do,” Whitman said.
New positions not enough
And while he’s for measuring productivity, Whitman says he does not feel the need to counter accusations of low morale.
“It shouldn’t be done in a newspaper,” he said. “I see heroic things all the time. … I’m solid on what’s going on in the Police Department. Extremely proud.”
There are 1,439 Denver police officers, Whitman said, but 95 of those are either in field training or still at the academy.
The 2006 budget calls for the hiring and training of 135 new officers, he said, but most of them will be replacing retirees.
He calls the difference of 20 new full-time positions “a drop in the bucket.”
City Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz, head of the safety committee and of a task force that has been studying police issues, said the council was hoping for approval of 60 more positions.
Mayor John Hickenlooper said he planned to announce a modest increase in the budget for new officers today, and if council members wanted to go beyond that, they had to cut the budget elsewhere.
“We have some of the best police officers in the country. But we’re in a tough time right now, a budget crunch, and they need to step up,” said Hickenlooper, who is dealing with a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall for 2006. Police Protective Association president Mike Mosco said a lack of foresight 10 years ago to replace retirees created much of today’s personnel shortage.
“Right now, the city of Denver has made a conscious decision: We can’t hire more officers, but they are paving alleys as we speak,” he said.
The biggest morale issue, Mosco said, is that “nobody listens to the rank and file.”
“Our upper administration is divorced from the reality of being a police officer,” he said.
When there is controversy, Mosco said, officers feel unsupported.
“What we want to see is our chief saying, ‘It looks like our officer did a good job, but there will be an investigation,”‘ he said. “That doesn’t happen.”
Whitman said that after a critical incident, such as a shooting, his first thought is to go to the side of the officer involved while his spokespersons deal with the media.
“I believe everyone, including me, including the media, can do more to support and encourage police officers who are doing a very difficult and dangerous job,” said Whitman, who appears frequently at awards ceremonies or news conferences that laud good work.
“Should I be calling press conferences about critical incidents as well?” he said. “I have done that in the past, and I have no problem with that.”
Faatz said the council task force has heard complaints from officers who believed they were following departmental policy, only to face discipline anyway.
“They don’t want political pressures coming in and undermining what they thought they were supposed to do,” she said.
Lack of support
Patrol officer Robert Shiller, one of two officers on the council’s task force, said the top officer complaint he hears is a lack of support from police upper administration and city officials.
And that, combined with other issues such as a shortage of staffing and a convoluted discipline system, hampers work, he said.
“We seem to be making it harder and harder for officers to go out and catch bad guys,” he said.
Yet he is optimistic that the task force is making strides.
“We are definitely able to enlighten the people who have the power to do something about these problems,” he said.
Staff writer Amy Herdy can be reached at 303-820-1752 or aherdy@denverpost.com.
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Morale survey
Within two weeks, Denver police officers will receive a survey to help determine the issues facing the department. Here are some questions:
How well do you feel you understand the citizen-complaint process?
To the best of your knowledge, what percentage of citizen complaints are dismissed?
Please mark your level of agreement with each of the following statements: strongly disagree, disagree, neither agree nor disagree, agree, strongly agree, don’t know/ N/A.
I am very involved in my work.
The city administration supports police officers.
I have become more callous since I took this job.
