MPD must earn back community’s trust

The phrase “perception is reality” is all too often a true statement, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the way our police department is viewed by the average Maricopa citizen. When asked what I would do as mayor to help restore our citizens’ trust in our department, the first thing that comes to mind is: Trust must be earned.

Whether trust was lost justly or not, to earn that trust back we must change what’s been done since the departments’ formation, and move expeditiously to exceed expectations. There is always room for improvement.

It’s evident within our department, as with every profession, there are quality, hard-working individuals who strive to make positive, measurable differences in the community. Unfortunately, there are also those whose words or misdeeds taint the reputations and performance of others.
And while it’s true that both positive and negative exist in any organization, the real question is: Do Maricopa’s citizens, city officials and the police department as a whole find the current state of affairs acceptable?

We cannot keep doing the same thing expecting a different result. I truly believe we can fix our police department’s troubles through a series of steps.

Step one: Evaluation. The outside audit of the police department currently underway will hopefully facilitate the “cream rising to the top.” Citizens can participate in this audit by filling out a survey found at www.maricopa-az.gov. The final results should provide specific recommendations and conclusions on our strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities as well as areas that need revision.

Step two: Implementation. Once the results of the audit are reviewed, we need to hyper-focus on what, where and how to best implement desired or needed changes. This may lead to some restructuring to increase efficiencies, streamlining policies and procedures, and reviewing job duties with the ultimate goal of improving communication and increasing professionalism. This crucial step will take courage, risk and lots of hard decisions by the mayor and council.

Steps one and two will be a window of opportunity to restore trust in our police department in the eyes of our citizens. However, I would implement the following: I would reduce our top-heavy management structure, reducing dependence on lieutenants from four to one. Outsource to qualified civilians more administrative duties to free our existing officers more time to patrol the community and interact with residents.

I would increase the number of detectives to reduce the enormous backlog of cases and to resolve and expedite investigations to their logical conclusion. I propose a tough but attainable laddering system of advancement with adequate compensation and benefits to keep good officers, preventing them from being lured away by other agencies. It costs more to train new officers, regardless of experience, than it does to give those highly skilled hard-working officers “on the beat” a raise.

I strongly advocate the appointment of a community liaison officer (sergeant or higher) with the directive to have beat officers reconnect with citizens.

They should be in contact with HOA managers and boards and regularly attend Block Watch and HOA board/community meetings. There should be regular updates to each community on what’s happening on criminal activity, graffiti and other incidents. Officers need to be seen driving down each street, stopping and talking with people, and promoting a “serve and protect” approach.