10/29/03  Insider View from Dallas Police Department

As a Dallas Police Officer for more than the last five years, I want to share some thoughts with DallasArena.com readers.   When not at work, I try not to put too much thought into my job, but this morning, it got me up out of bed thinking.  I am a regular reader of DallasArena.com, and try to read and take in different points of view. 
 

Some of these individuals have been on long enough now that the DPD can no longer  shield them, i.e.: Officers Evans and Hampton.   Hampton was recently arrested for family violence with a handgun, but had a checkered past prior to hiring.   I recently had lunch with an individual who was talking about his background and stated "I was never convicted."  That means he was at least arrested?!?   Get ready, more Officers like as Evans and Hampton are coming.  For those of us who chose to work for Dallas instead of a suburban department, it is extremely stressful to work with people who are obviously not well suited to be a police officer and could not get hired anywhere else.

I have also been on the job long enough to see the DPD's Internal Affairs office ruin good motivated officers.  Say you file a complaint against an officer stating he or she was rude to you.  IAD will call the officer down and any witnesses to make a statement.  Then IAD starts to look at ANY tiny administrative policy violation you may have committed that day or even that week.  Our General Orders and Code of Conduct is so thick, it is humanly impossible not to do something to violate it every day and still be effective at your job. 

For example:  IAD can not substantiate the complaint the officer was rude, but they recommend discipline against the officer for asking a co-worker to meet for lunch over the computer (personal business on city property), or for using the telephone for non-city business (like telling your sitter you are working late).  IAD then sendS a postcard to the person who complained on the officer being rude.  The postcard thanks them for their interest and states a complaint was substantiated; however, the card does not say what complaint was substantiated.   IAD is a huge morale buster for an officer who works hard and tries to do the right thing.  I've been there myself.

Our equipment is completely sub-standard.  My beat car has well over 100,000 miles on it.  100,000 police miles, not nice freeway and family trip miles on it.  I will not chase somebody who runs from me in my beat car.  It rattles, it shakes and the brakes don't work properly.  I have gotten into two fights with handcuffed prisoners who have taken their seat belts off inside the car and attempted to assault me by biting me, head-butting me or kicking me.  One did this at 60 mph on the freeway nearly causing a wreck.  How did this happen?  We don't have safety cages in ANY car.  I also no longer carry a shotgun (another violation IAD can stick me on).  They removed the locking shotgun racks from the cars.  If I get out of my car to handle a call, when I come back someone could be waiting for me with my weapon.  It just sits loose along the floorboard. 

We recently had a "meet the manager meeting" at one of the substations.  Teddy B. did his best to address questions.  One officer stated that morale is really bad.  Teddy stated frankly that he has addressed this with the city council, and that they don't seem interested. 

Lastly, the gradual reduction in pay and benefits.  I know most people think, aren't you getting a 15 % raise over three years?  Yes and no.  When I hired on, health care was affordable.  To keep the same HMO health coverage for myself, my spouse and my child, it is now almost $800 a month.  The city PPO plan is cheaper, but the coverage is not very good and the deductible is very high.  If any member of my family (God forbid) needed emergency surgery for any reason, the PPO plan would bankrupt me.  I understand our health insurance is just like the rest of America's work force, but the insurance available via the City is very bad, even by national standards.  My last 5% raise went into health insurance costs and did not cover the hike.  This year is the same thing. 

"What about the civilians?"  They have gotten it worse than us.  However, I am tired of being compared to civilian city workers.  I respect garbage men, street workers, administrative assistants, etc. for their hard work.   However, they do not leave their families at home alone in the middle of the night to deal with dangerous and violent people who are openly hostile and often times violent towards them.  My wife tells me every day "come home to me" as I leave for work.  I'll bet the garbage man has day hours with weekends off, doesn't work on Christmas, and his spouse is not concerned about his safety.  Without a scientific study, I believe the education level, and I know the training level, is very different for sworn officers and the civilians.  I am not complaining, I chose this career, but please stop comparing us to the garbage man.

Then there is Laura Miller  I was contemplating going to a suburban police department when she ran running against Tom Dunning.  My neighbor asked me about it, and I was excited.  I told him if Laura Miller gets elected, I am going to finish my career in Dallas.  She'll take care of us and fix the problems.  What happened there? 

Most police and fire understand that she inherited a bad situation financially, and tough choices needed to be made, but Laura Miller has taken it to the extreme.  She signed the petition to get our 17% pay raise, took our union money and led the charge to defeat us. 

If you look on the internet, you can see rookie police officers don't make a livable wage for a family.   Except for very small ones with only a few officers, most police departments have a pay scale based on years of service.  When you hire on, you can see what you can expect to earn later in your career.  Dallas tops out at 15 years, while most top out around seven years at the same salary.  You only get your step raise if your review is acceptable.  This is the deal going into police work.  When Laura attempted to get rid of the step increases, she sparked a large protest.  Intentional or not, this would have put DPD & DFD back to the Stone Age for hiring, retention and morale.  Several of us were going to resign on one piece of paper the day it was supposed to get voted into policy.  I cannot imagine working years with no incentive for even small economic growth.  This would also set the stage for recruits to make the same as more veteran officers later on in the future.  I believe this was the turning point where police and fire hit rock bottom.  We all felt betrayed by the Mayor.

I know people complain when they see an officer working off duty at a store or apartment complex.  How can we work off-duty when a spouse who gets assaulted by their mate waits two or three hours for the police to show up due to call volume?  I put in (at least) 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week.  The DPD is not paying me when I work off-duty.  I am on my own time, making money for my family, paid for by the business.  Most of us are willing to work more hours to reduce response time and the crime rate.  When overtime is made available, it fills up quickly.  I will not sacrifice time with my family and work for free.  Don't blame the officer working the grocery store for calls not being answered.  Be glad you can buy groceries in peace and tell the city to hire more officers. 

I also will not live in Dallas.  Does that make me less of a "stakeholder?"  Yes, it does.  I live in the suburbs for two reasons:

1) DISD, and

2)Affordable housing. 

I cannot tell my spouse my $40,000 a year job requires her to live where she is unhappy.  Living in an area does not automatically make you a community member.  I am more involved and have done more for the Dallas community than most residents. 

How many Dallas residents spend 40 plus hours a week trying to make their community better than when they found it? 

How many spend one hour a week doing that? 

Citizens of Dallas should be glad there are educated and motivated people willing to do the job.  We still work just as hard as if we lived in Dallas, even though we live outside the city limits. 

With all that said, things are not all doom and gloom.  The type of person who becomes a police officer or firefighter is self-motivated and works on a different type of drive.  We will continue to do our jobs, despite the roadblocks. 

Why don't we just quit and get another job?  The answer is simple.  This is still the best job in the world, and we do it because we love it

Thank you for your time, and feel free to post this if you like.