[Vision2020] Union Support Not a Conflict

[Art Deco]

Dan, et al,

I not sure your assessment that retention problems in the MPD is because "Moscow is boring" [to police officers] is entirely correct.  Further, such a viewpoint may give a hint to part of the reasons for the union/officer dissatisfaction issue.

It takes many different qualities and much training to produce an effective Law enforcement officer (LEO).  The need for excitement (which is not the same as the need to "catch bad guys" as there are LEOs who are sometimes the "bad guys") is a useful quality to keep interest in a law enforcement job.  But two points:  

1.    A LEO can have too much need for excitement which can lead to some bad decisions and also to neglecting other important parts of their job.

2.    The need for excitement is not a have/have not quality but one with a quasi-continuum of values.  This amount of quality in an individual needs to be balanced with a lot of other qualities depending on the area in which the LEO operates.  Successful LEOs in high-crime areas need more of this quality than those in lower crime areas.  [Further, crime prevention and detection is not the only job of LEOs; there are many other services they provide.]

Please have a little patience while I give an example:

When I lived in Boundary County, there was an outstanding ISP officer who worked that area.  Almost all of his citations (he gave out many, many) and arrests resulted in either forfeited bail or a conviction.  He seldom gave warnings.  He played no favorites.  (It was frequently said that he would ticket his own mother.)  Once he interdicted a suspect offender, a citation or an arrest occurred. 

Officer Hicks had an interesting point of view (paraphrased):  "I see every situation no matter how serious or how trivial as a personal challenge.  I try to figure out (and execute) a way to bring every situation calling for enforcement to a completely successful conclusion consistent with the law and the goals and policies of the ISP.  This keeps the job satisfying and keeps it from being boring."

When someone applies to be a LEO, she/he should understand that it is not all cops and robbers.  Very little of it is.  A lot of it is unexciting.  Some of it is quite unpleasant.  In my opinion, it is a matter and a sign of personal integrity if a person holding any job does what is required regardless of its excitement/pleasure value (except those things required that might be illegal or unethical.)  Hence, a prospective LEO should ask themselves whether they are willing to do the all aspects of the job they are applying for in a workman like way.  If they are not, perhaps another vocation or an application in another area should be pursued if their personal integrity is important to them.

There are positive signs that for at least some MPD officers, this workman attitude is present.  The Public Records items in the Daily News point to increased DUI enforcement.  [Good for the MPD!!!!!]  This is not always a pleasant or exciting task.  To gain a conviction, procedures must be laboriously and carefully followed.  To be successful in bringing a successful conclusion to a DUI interdiction, careful, time-consuming, attention to detail is necessary.  However, officers with attitudes similar to that of Hicks above will not find such work boring, but satisfying.

Likewise, when looking a candidates for the MPD, it is important for the hirer to determine as nearly as possible how much a need for excitement a candidate has, how it might interfere with other needed qualities, and if the combination of qualities found in the applicant would give a high probability of their being a successful, long-term officer for the MPD.

If officers are leaving the MPD because they are bored and long for more action, this is a problem with the hiring practices among other things.

There is plenty to do for a conscientious, proud-of-their-workman-like-attitude LEO in Moscow.  When driving in Moscow in the late evening, apparently impaired (some very impaired) drivers are generally observable.  Hardly a day goes by when in a short period of time I don't see several drivers running stop signs.  It is not unusual for people to run red lights (To observe:  just stand at Washington and Third or at Sixth and Jackson for a few minutes.)  The list could go on and on.  Boring work?  Not for a LEO with the right qualities and attitude for the job.


Will a union help?

As a consultant in southern California for many years, some of my jobs included helping companies avoid unionization.  In short, this is not done by clever, devious tricks and legal maneuvers.  It is done by providing a better working environment, better pay and benefits, and more flexibility to the employees than having an union would provide, and without the union dues and other problems that union membership creates for employees.

A union can seriously impair management by making effective discipline difficult, by making it difficult to enforce standards and rates of performance, by making job assignment/duties less flexible, and by creating a Them/Us wall of suspicion and hostility between workers and management which further hampers both the workers and the company from achieving their various goals.  A well managed non-union company has good rapport and effective two-way communication between labor and management and a shared motivation to achieve that which as far as possible promotes the welfare and goals of both the workers and the company.  In the 1970s these concepts were called "quality of working life."

It would have been nice if the city had fostered this kind of quality of working life practice with the LEOs of the MPD.  They did not, especially the previous mayor and city council.  One of the most astounding things I heard was the chief's statement when the union issue first surfaced that he had no idea that such a move prompted by officer dissatisfaction was at hand.  What a horrible, horrible disconnect.  In a private company a quick termination would likely have occurred and a new manager found.  [The present city manager also shares in this culpability.]

The MPD officers, finding the city unresponsive to their concerns and unable/unwilling to communicate them to their chief, looked for other alternatives.  Unionization was the alternative they chose.  If a content, effective workforce is a goal, then part of achieving such is to listen to the concerns of the workforce.  If they are not listened to, then performance problems and turnover will result.  The reasoning of the MPD officers shows that they think the only way left to bring genuine attention to their concerns is by having union representation.

In my opinion, the MPD officers should continue to consider unionization as a solution to their problems.  They should continue to do this unless they see a strong good-faith effort by the city council, mayor, and city management to listen to and to attempt to address their concerns.  The MPD officers are also entitled to a chief and a city manager capable of communicating effectively with them, bringing their concerns forward, and fostering resolution of them.

An effective, fair, well trained, well disciplined police force is an essential ingredient for a community.  If the city is now willing be a quality of working life employer to the MPD and to genuinely hear and to attempt to resolve the concerns of the MPD officers, this would be the best solution for all.  Else, the officers of the MPD are entitled to find alternative ways to bring their voices out.  Unionization is the simplest way for them (but not necessarily the best overall solution for themselves or the community).

I hope that heads and hearts have not hardened so much that further negotiation and communication is not possible.  I certainly see the officers' point of view.  What is difficult to accept is the lack of professional staff leadership and the reticence of some city elected officials to meet and to attempt to solve the underlying problems perceived by MPD officers without bringing in an interloper.



Wayne A. Fox
1009 Karen Lane
PO Box 9421
Moscow, ID  83843

(208) 882-7975
waf at moscow.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dan Carscallen" <areaman at moscow.com>
To: "'Vision 2020'" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2006 6:59 AM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Union Support Not a Conflict


> Tom says:
> " The most important goal in maintaining an efficient and proficient
> organization, be it public or private, is RETENTION. "
> 
> Okay, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say it takes a different breed
> of cat to be a cop.  
> 
> I'm going to go further out on that limb and say that maybe wages aren't
> the main factor in why the City of Moscow has a hard time keeping cops
> around.  I will dangle out there a little more and say a union probably
> isn't going to keep them around any better.
> 
> I'm just gonna throw this out there.  I believe one of the biggest
> reasons we can't keep a "veteran" force here in Moscow goes back to that
> "different breed of cat" that is a cop:
> 
> Moscow is boring.
> 
> Now I don't mean Moscow is boring in the way the rest of us think.  We
> have a fairly eclectic mix of things always going on in this town, from
> Jazz Festival to Renaissance Fair to Rendezvous in the Park to purt near
> every City Council meeting.  I mean Moscow is boring for a cop.  There
> just ain't much action.  Yeah, we have our occasional murder, but we
> sure as hell aren't Detroit or Washington D.C.  Heck, we aren't even
> Wenatchee or Kennewick.  We're Moscow, and other than maybe getting to
> put the hammer down on a few DUI's on the weekends or the occasional
> "White male riding a bicycle north bound on Main St. The male is wearing
> a cowboy hat and a g string." (yes, it's true --
> http://tinyurl.com/mhk5m, report #05-M3918), there's not a heckuva lot
> going on during the rest of the week, and I'm sure these guys get pretty
> bored.
> 
> I'm thinking that most people who become cops want to be cops because
> there's a chance for some ACTION.  There just ain't much action goin' on
> 'round these parts.  For the rest of the citizenry, that's okay!  I like
> it like that.  And I'm sure if you ask them, our police force would say
> that it's nice that Moscow is relatively mellow.  But deep down inside,
> there's that little voice saying "GIMME SOMETHING TO DO!!!"
> 
> I don't see how a police union is going to help that situation.
> 
> DC
> 
> P.S.  From what I gather, a union might not even be the be-all end-all
> solution that is needed.  Maybe just opening up lines of communication
> directly between the police force and the City Council (rather than them
> having to go through the chief or whoever) is the proper course of
> action.
> 
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