'Historic change' coming for Green Bay police

Paul Srubas, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin 5:12 p.m. CDT June 23, 2016
GREEN BAY - A reorganization is coming to the Green Bay Police Department, made possible by what
some insiders are calling a historic, cultural change.
The police union, long protective of a seniority-based promotions policy, has agreed that merit, not years of
service, should be the deciding factor in meting out promotions and assigning officers to particular jobs.
What it means is, some 18- or 20-year veteran officer who has never demonstrated ambition or talent wont
be an automatic shoo-in for a shift-commander position or detective or school liaison officer as the opening
occurs, as he or she might have been in the past. They will have to apply for the job, interview for it, compete
with possibly younger, hungrier talent and possibly end up without it.
The union conceded the change as part of its contract negotiations, and it means new Chief Andrew Smith
will be able to restructure the department to have a more military-style hierarchy like it had years ago, with a
clearer chain of command and greater accountability at every tier.
They gave up a really big piece at the negotiating table, Smith said, and I wouldnt say easily. But the
piece we wanted was merit-based, so we could hold people accountable and take the best person for the job.
Im really excited about the changes, and was super-excited (Tuesday night) when the Common Council
agreed to it, Smith said. It was a big win for both the city and the department. Itll change the culture of the
department, make it a better place to work and a more efficient, more responsible and more responsive
organization.
Newly promoted Commander Paul Ebel, freshly assigned to a newly created position, called it a historic
change.
If you look at the past, grievances by the union were the tail wagging the dog, Ebel said. Now, with the
relationship that Smith has with the officers, where its Come on, guys, lets talk about this, what makes
sense for all of us? its a more collaborative effort than Ive seen in the past.
Its a historic change for the department, he said. Itll make us better.
City human resources director Lynn Boland called it a big change, a cultural change.
A lot of credit goes to the union on this, she said. They worked very hard with us. Were very pleased. I
see it as a good contract for them and for us.
The department had been operating under the old four-year contract, which technically expired at the end of
last year. The city was able to offer a better, more competitive salary schedule, based primarily on a hike at
entry level.
Starting pay used to be $22.24 an hour, which put one of the largest police departments in the state at a huge
competitive disadvantage, Boland said. The starting rate now will be $26 an hour, which puts the city in
fourth place among comparable communities and departments as identified by an arbitrator, Boland said.

We were seriously underpaid for the region, especially at starting salaries, Smith said. I was losing officers
in the background process to other agencies.
The departments pay scale still ranks below Appleton, Kenosha and Waukesha, but the city now has a
fighting chance of attracting new officers and not automatically losing them to comparable-sized
departments, Boland said. The salary adjustment will cost the city $271,000 this year, she said.
But it wasnt just the salary adjustment that caused the union to vote 80-41 to accept the new contract.
The union has been clamoring for change for a while, Ebel said.
One major reason for the change is that the department is younger than it has been for years, Boland said.
Weve had quite a bit of turnover the last few years as the baby-boomer group retires, and a lot of officers
here have less than five years on, Boland said. We do have younger individuals who see this as an
opportunity to seek assignments.
Some union members were quite vocal against it, Smith said.
Its a big leap of faith for some of these guys to give up their seniority, because at least they knew they
would have opportunities at some point in their career, he said. But now thats opened to everybody. In the
long run, its clearly the best for Green Bay.
And in truth, seniority still carries clout. Officers will need at least three years experience to compete for
jobs. And seniority still will be a factor, worth 20 percent of the measurement process.
And, at least in theory, seniority means experience, and experience still certainly has value on the rsum and
remains a valuable tool in the race for a position, Ebel said.
If I have 18 years in and Im going for a detective position, Ill go through all of my old cases, news
clippings about cases I was involved in, and when I sit in front of the panel and they ask me what makes you
the best candidate, Ill take out my binder. Heres the training I had, the 40-hour evidence technical school,
the certificates of attendance, here are cases Ive worked from start to finish, here are people who are serving
20 years in prison that I helped put away. The kid with three years doesnt have all that.
But, on the other hand, if youve spent your career skating by, doing as little as possible, electing to take no
additional training along the way, you can no longer count on your longevity as the automatic trump card that
will get you the position you want.
There may be some who dont necessarily like it, but one thing we can do, well provide them with
interviewing opportunities, hold some classes where they can learn how to interview, how to keep a rsum,
Ebel said. Some of these guys havent done an interview in 20 years.
Ebel, with 28 years of service, found himself having to brush up on his interview skills a few months ago
when he competed with Smith for the chiefs position. And he found it useful when, more recently, he had to
interview and apply for the newly created position of commander of operations at the department.
Under the new structure, hell be directly under Smith and will have a counterpart, Jim Runge, who will be
the commander of investigations in the new structure.
Those are the only changes so far under new structure, which will go more fully online July 10. Runge and

Ebel were previously captains, and their promotion cuts the number of captains from nine to seven. Smith
plans eventually to eliminate a few more captain positions as people retire and arent replaced.
In the meantime, a captain will be assigned to professional standards division, a section responsible for
training and internal investigations. One will serve as sort of an executive assistant to the chief, for duties like
contract negotiations, and one will be assigned to the detective division, answering to Runge.
The remaining four will be divisional captains, running the four sectors of the city. Thats not unlike a
structure thats in place today, with two divisional captains assigned to each side of the Fox River. But, where
those captains today work primarily on community policing issues and often have to compete with other
captains for resources, these will be more intimately involved in the day-to-day police operations as well as
ongoing issues in their sector.
Theyll be answerable to me, Ebel said. If I see, say, a pattern of burglaries, Ill ask, Are you getting
surveillance video? Did we re-interview the victims? Did we do a neighborhood canvass? And theyd better
have the answers.
Therell be no more Its been assigned to detectives. If you have a detective assigned to a string of
burglaries, youd better know who it is and what the latest update is and what are you doing about it.
A captain no longer will serve as watch commander or shift commander. That task will fall to a lieutenant,
who will monitor incoming calls and dispatch officers as appropriate.
Aside from being more in line with Smiths vision, the change addresses one brought forth by patrol officers
and the union. The chain of command was unclear and officers previously could find themselves reporting to
three captains, all with potentially different goals and motives.
Each captain will be primarily responsible for his or her districts, and each will be directly answerable to
Ebel, so the chain of command and accountability are clear.
The structure really isnt in place yet, but the process has already moved in that direction, Smith says. Just
this week, the shift commander dispatched officers to the City Deck because a large group of youths were
hanging out there one night and several fights had broken out. One of the east side district captains already
was meeting with his team to figure out how to keep such gatherings from getting out of hand in the future,
Smith said.
The structural change going into place imposes a hierarchy and eliminates the fairly flat structure that had
been in place for about the last decade or more, but it represents only the first phase. Before the year ends,
Smith hopes to reinstate sergeants into the organizational table. Under the current structure and contract,
lieutenants are allowed to supervise but cant perform patrol officer duties like writing a ticket. Smith hopes
to reduce the number of lieutenants and reinstate the sergeant rank, to allow people who perform basic
supervisory duties to also work the streets as patrol officers do.
A sergeant should be someone who can go out and handle calls, do regular police work but at the same time,
guide, mentor, train and supervise other officers, Smith said. I was a sergeant at one point in my career, and
it was probably one of the best jobs I ever had except for being chief of the Green Bay Police Department,
of course.
He expects the move to receive the support of both the union and the City Council.