Police chief sets the record straight

From the beginning of the Maricopa Police Department (MPD), the motto of Progressive, Proactive and Professional has been the overriding theme as Director (Patrick) Melvin and I set out to form a police department from the ground up. With this in mind, I would like to respond to several misconceptions or inaccuracies, which have played out in the local media.

The current MPD command staff has over 100 years of collective law enforcement experience and well over 50 years of supervisory experience. This is an important point to make, since one of the lead critics of the department has less than three years of supervisory experience (as a patrol supervisor with the MPD). MPD command staff has senior leadership with master’s degrees, executive training from a nationally recognized command school (Northwestern University) and continues to develop its first line managers (sergeants) and command staff (lieutenants) with advanced supervisory training (i.e., Leadership in Police Organizations, LPO).

While the city’s negotiation with the officers’ association has not been completed, our officers continue to be the best paid in the county, have the best benefits in the state and enjoy extras such as take-home vehicles for those who live in or near the city (a rare benefit for city police departments). Policies and procedures, meant to protect employees, have been instituted from the very beginning, and continue to be the driving force behind the department becoming a Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc., (CALEA) certified agency.

A few individuals in our department have made statements indicating that there is disparate treatment of employees, yet the facts would indicate quite the opposite is true. Members of our department, both within the command rank (lieutenant) and those within the ranks of sergeant or officer, have received discipline based on the theory of progressive discipline. Any member of the public, who conducted a public records request, would clearly see the types of investigations and the amount of discipline is appropriate and equal, regardless of rank. As for any statements indicating inequity in promotional processes or assignment to specialty details, in every instance, outside evaluators were used to determine the candidate ranking on the lists used.

While some members of our organization have criticized the fact the department has now included specialized enforcement units, those units created by the department have been instrumental in solving major crimes that occurred in our city over the past year. The reason these units have been successful is due to the members in those units and the excellent support staff this agency has employed. I have personally resisted creating specialty units since the department’s formation until the time was right to dedicate and direct officers to solve crimes based on their training and experience. We hired officers at the start who had police motorcycle experience because we knew there was a tremendous issue with traffic enforcement within the city of Maricopa.

As some gang problems and property crimes came to the forefront, the need was there to create a special squad (Street Crimes Unit). This unit has been extremely successful in its mission to solve property crime, which includes graffiti. Since Maricopa has been identified by numerous federal and state agencies as a pipeline for drugs and undocumented aliens, formation of a K-9 unit was a natural and logical development. This unit was made affordable when the department received a grant, which covered the costs of both the K-9 dog and vehicle conversion.

It is interesting to note, that one member of the department who is particularly critical of department specialty units, tested for one of the positions he now says the department should not have created. Our department continues to seek out new opportunities to fight crime and address issues that affect all our citizens. The department recently took delivery of a car, donated by the Federal Signal Corporation, which has an automated license plate reading system installed. The use of this car will help identify many suspect vehicles, including those wanted by various, local, state and federal agencies.

As our department continues to move forward, we will continue to reach out to those in our department. Soon the department will begin a process called Relationships by Objectives or RBO. The RBO process seeks to include both management and line level officers in the development of objectives for the department. Once objectives are established, then the team examines participative ways to achieve those objectives.

The citizens of Maricopa have come to expect Progressive, Proactive and Professional law enforcement from its police department. While a few individuals within our agency concentrate on individual attacks on members of management, our agency will move forward with nationally accepted procedures and policies, seek state-of-the-art equipment and train our staff to high levels of management theory and officer readiness.

Kirk M. Fitch, Chief of Police

Submitted photo