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Sunday, April 18, 2004

The Dallas Morning News

POLICE
Story by Tanya Eiserer
Accountability for public safety is vague and diffuse, the Booz Allen study said. The police chief, the mayor, City Council and city manager all feel accountable for making citizens safer, responsible for designing and executing a strategy. Yet no one is focused on how to reduce crime rates. The final weeks and days of the Bolton saga featured just about every complication that plagues city government: racial resentments, personality clashes and the cop-vs.-civilian divide. Underneath that, the lesson is that if the head is broken, the limbs cant function properly. If City Hall is a mess, the Police Department will suffer, and the people who live in the city will suffer. Words such as alignment, accountability and best practices may not cause Dallas residents to jump up and down the way they might, say, if their next-door neighbors were robbed. But the Police Departments travails underscore that what goes on at 1500 Marilla St. isnt just a political sideshow. Citizens are paying by living with a higher crime rate, Booz Allen asserted. To be sure, crime is down sharply since Dallas homicide-record years in the early 1990s. But most of Dallas peer cities have seen crime drop much more quickly, Booz Allen found. Probe deeper, and a picture emerges of a department that moves forward in one direction as it retreats in another. The Booz Allen study, internal police documents and follow-up reporting show that: I Budget cuts have sapped the departments strength in personnel and equipment. When most big-city departments were boosting their police presence during the 1990s, the number of Dallas police officers per capita fell by 16 percent. That was the largest drop among any of the peer cities in the Booz Allen study. I Questionable command decisions have forced the payout of millions in settlements and other expenses, and Dallas remains at risk in lawsuits that could cost millions more. I Dallas per-capita spending on police is at about the middle of the pack among its peer cities, but it has only 43 percent of sworn officers assigned to answer calls the lowest among the peer cities, Booz Allen found. The allocation of resources is inefficient and, consequently, ineffective in reducing crime, the consultants concluded. Dallas residents are paying attention. When The Dallas Morning News polled residents last year about the top issue facing Dallas, crime was the clear No. 1. And the poll found that Dallasites satisfaction with the police is lower today than it was 10 years earlier despite the drop in crime since then, and despite their feeling safer at home and in their neighborhoods. In an interview, Mayor Laura Miller was asked about the role of City Hall in the Police Departments troubles. She responded by renewing her criticism of Mr. Bolton and City Manager Ted Benavides the man who hired Mr. Bolton and, in August, fired him. She bemoaned the lack of accountability noted in the Booz Allen report, recalling a job evaluation of Mr. Bolton by an assistant city manager that gave him glowing marks on everything when the Police Department was in a shambles. With a search under way for a new police chief, an efficiency study in the works and other initiatives in progress, Ms. Miller expressed optimism about crime reduction this year perhaps even by 5 percent or more. Were trying to be responsive and give the tools to the Police Department to get the job done, she said. o o o MR. BENAVIDES REJECTED BOOZ Allens conclusion about vague and diffuse accountability for public safety at City Hall. I think its a pile of doo-doo, he said. The police chief is in charge of the department, works for an ACM [assistant city manager]. Im the city manager. Im responsible, Mr. Benavides said in an interview. Asked whether he was happy with the departments direction, Mr. Benavides replied: I am. Crime is down. For the public, at least, one of the biggest police-related surprises last year may have been the disclosure by The Dallas Morning News of the citys streak of worst-big-city-crime rankings. Dallas status stunned city officials; Ms. Miller called it unbelievable and inexcusable. So did City Hall know what was happening with Dallas crime rate? I think that theres so much data out there and sometimes you get distracted, Mr. Benavides said. Everybodys OK, and all of the sudden an issue becomes really hot so you go address it. It wasnt violent crime. It was mostly property crime. I think that had something to do with it. He and his top lieutenants, he said, were aware of the issue before The News report. We failed to say, OK, guys bring it up to a certain level, and lets go fix that issue. And so I take responsibility for that, he said. Less than a month later, he fired Mr. Bolton as chief. Interim Chief Randy Hampton, one of the finalists to succeed Mr. Bolton, thinks the 3,000-officer department has turned a corner. He also repeated Mr. Boltons oftcited contention that crime in Dallas appears worse than it really is. Thats because, he said, the Police Department does a better job than its peers in educating residents to report crimes. A high crime rate doesnt necessarily mean that you are in an unsafe city, Chief Hampton said. o o o IN THE 1970S AND 80S, THE DALlas Police Department was heavily involved in the national conversation on best practices, according to Gary Sykes, director of the Plano-based Institute for Law Enforcement Administration. It was years ahead of other departments. Now, hamstrung by political chaos and a vacuum in leadership, Dallas is a department in trouble, he said. In that kind of atmosphere, things just dont get done very well and morale suffers, Mr. Sykes said. If you see that kind of ongoing chaos at the top of the organization, thats a de-motivator. If they dont care, why should we care? o o o

DALLAS AT THE TIPPING POINT:

ne by one, fired Police Chief Terrell Bolton went around the big, U-shaped table, emotionally reminding City Council members of favors he had performed in their districts. Ive only received a couple of calls, and this is what hurt me, he said. In stressing courtesies, not crime-fighting, Mr. Boltons final appearance at the council horseshoe demonstrated a failing that ran through his tenure: City leadership lacked a clear focus on reducing crime. By the time of his firing last summer, Dallas was on track to log its sixth straight year with the worst crime rate among the nine largest U.S. cities. Yet even through that dismal cycle, the Police Departments crimefighting performance got little tough scrutiny at City Hall. Instead, the department was hobbled by dwindling resources, a lack of vision, a special-interest culture, abysmal morale, racial division, micromanagement and second-guessing by city leaders. As City Hall goes, so goes the Police Department.

Thats the attitude that gets established. What could help a police department stay on track on an issue as crucial as fighting crime? A strategic plan. A strategic plan is not just this thing that sits on a shelf, said John Welter, formerly the No. 2 police commander in San Diego, who is now the police chief in Anaheim, Calif. Youve got to have specific strategies, specific goals, specific objectives that are measurable, that are operational. THE DALLAS POLICE DEPARTment, like the city of Dallas, doesnt have a long-term plan. Its not a new problem. Arriving here in 1993 from Phoenix, former Chief Ben Click was stunned to discover the absence of such a plan. He made the idea an early priority. I would send copies to the managers office, he recalled. I dont think anybody ever acknowledged it. Drafted under Mr. Click, the last formally adopted strategic plan covered the period from 1998 to 2000. Under Mr. Bolton, a strategic plan covering 2000 to 2002, and a seven-year plan for 2001 to 2007, were drafted but never formally adopted. Even the man who helped write the seven-year plan dismissed it. You set idiotic goals that are going to be easily attained or they are very general, said Sam Johnson, who headed the Police Departments management research unit before retiring. The managers office didnt care; the council didnt care. In a recent interview, Chief Hampton said the department has a longterm strategic plan. But he could not explain its goals or the time period it covers. In a subsequent interview, he conceded that it was not a document he regularly used. He also released a working document listing the organizations top seven 2004 goals, which include reducing crime and improving operational efficiency. Each commanders performance plan for 2004, he said, has been formed with those goals in mind. Only last winter after the years of worst-big-city status and the turmoil of Mr. Boltons firing did crime achieve recognition as an official City Council priority. It is one of five issues on the councils first-ever roster of annual goals. o o o THE DALLAS CITY COUNCILS ACtion is too fresh to see results on the streets or at police headquarters from designating crime as a top-drawer issue. But the Police Department is full of examples of how the city proceeded when it wasnt measuring its policy choices against a strategic plan that spelled out public-safety goals. Budget cuts eliminated half the clerical staff in the police pawnshop detail, which is frequently key to clearing burglaries and tracing stolen guns. The three remaining employees have to enter as many as 35,000 pawnshop tickets into the computer every month. Thanks to other cuts, the homicide units 22 detectives juggle two to three times as many cases as do their counterparts in similar-sized departments. The budget ax also has fallen recently on the police technology unit, notwithstanding the citys idea for using technology to replace laid-off employees and improve efficiency. Why are they cutting the solution in half while they are supposedly putting technology in place to mend the gaps? asked Lt. Gene Summers, the commander of the unit, which has been reduced from 29 people to 13 in recent years. I think its absurd if theyre calling upon technology to be a solution. Nor are police cutbacks just a phenomenon of the recent economic downturn. In the 1990s, ex-Chief Click converted more than 100 administrative jobs held by sworn officers to civilian status, reducing the sworn strength by the same number and reducing the budget. He had the City Councils blessing for

How Dallas police resources and crime stack up

Police spending per capita in 2002 was about average
500 400 300

$235
200

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And so was the number of officers per 1,000 residents

5 4 3

2.29
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SOURCES: FBI; U.S. Census Bureau; city budgets

But Dallas police presence fell in the 90s Percent change in officers per capita, 1990-2002
30% 25 20 15 10 5 0 -5 -10 -15 -20 -16%

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SOURCES: FBI, U.S. Census Bureau

And Dallas barely joined the national big-city trend of declining crime Percentage change in violent and property crime rates between 1997 and 2002 Violent Crime Property Crime

20 15 10 5 0 -5 -10 -15
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SOURCE: FBI Uniform Crime Report

What Dallas residents say

The 2003 Dallas Morning News Poll asked Dallas residents for their views on a variety of issues. Crime topped the list when respondents were asked which issue from this list was the most important one facing the city of Dallas.
SOURCES: Dallas Morning News Poll; 1993 city of Dallas poll

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Traffic and transportation 9%

Public health 8%

Culture and recreation 1%

Crime 31%

Public education 21%

Economic development 16% Housing choice and affordability 5% Environmental quality 5% NS/Ref 3%

Most residents said crime was a problem in their neighborhood.

A serious problem 33% A problem but not serious 43%

But compared with 1993, more residents today feel safer at home. 1993 2003

They also think that its safer to walk around their neighborhood at night. 1993 2003

Not a problem 20%

yes no
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76% 22%
2

87% 9%
4

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34% 62%
4

48% 47%
4

NS/Ref 3%