This list was created by polling current, retired and former officers.....
Being told to do less with more. We have done less with more for the last 13 years and each year having the department cuts more. At this point, at best the phrase is a platitude, realistically, it pales to logic, and leans toward the insulting. You do less with less until cuts allow you to very little at all.
Have the brass “token” caring about you, saying the organization is a "family", but treats you like pawns and sacrifices officers willing.
Cutting every speciality unit, so officers have no hope of advancement in their careers.
Having a Chief who couldn’t see fit to introduce herself to the troops or attend in-service with the troops
Being told non-priority due to lack of staffing, calls can “hold forever,” and then have a supervisor come on the air and demand off quickly clear all holding calls.
Closing two of the 5 precincts.
Having an Internal Affairs investigation drag on and on. Despite a clear violation of investigative time violations, one officer had a promotion place on hold for two years.
Starting the shift with a full board, having over 20 calls holding on a regular basis, and seeing some of the calls have been holding for 4-6 hours. Knowing the calls are all paper calls (car prowls, burgs, shoplift calls, abuse calls), and spending the rest of the shift getting out that hole.
The patrol cars are filthy on the inside and out. The cars are dented, so dinged up.
Upper Command does not come to roll call.
Ridding the department of speciality teams because of staffing, leading several officers to leave to agencies where they can do police work.
Encouraging an environment that assuming if there is a complaint, the officer is the problem and can always do better.
Telling officers not to stop cars for minor traffic violations while the traffic fatality rate reaches record highs.
No longer being able to tow cars for driving while suspended and not having insurance, knowing the violator will be driving as soon as you leave the traffic stop.
Having one wrong word blown out of proportion, but real police problems are overlooked.
Investigating officers of wrongdoing before you talk to all witnesses and see if there actually is a problem.
Having MDTs and desk tops almost decade past their prime. Having key boards, so worn some of the embossed lettering on the keys have rubbed off.
Trying to find a working desk top in the report writing room.
Command will assumed the officer was wrong and they'll work their witnesses around to fit their agenda
Command staff does not even walk into the building
Having Command say, “Bear with us.”
Assigned traffic guys to patrol, so it looks like we have people to work patrol on paper, but then pull them to work traffic details, and due to the time they spend at court, we are short staffed … again.
Having people being upset with us due to long wait times caused by shortage of officers
Giving training opportunities to people who were on RRT or other specialty units rather than officers with merit or experience.
Having cases rejected by the DA less than 24 hours after submitting them since the victim did not call in first thing in the morning or “Due to Covid-19” we cannot proceed at this time. It has been over 21 months. This is not a valid excuse any more.
Be forced to ask multiple times on the radio for supervisors to respond to scenes or advise on calls.
Have cars and equipment that look like garbage. It is embarrassing to show up to calls with outdated, damaged, and dirty gear.
The lack of due process in use of force allegations.
On calls, having to watch where you step, so you avoid uncapped needles and piles of human feces
Having disconnected leadership due to Command having no time on patrol.
Continuing to hire people within specialty units, thus preventing patrol officers from moving out of patrol.
Have every time the MDTs have their software is updated become buggy, crash, or not work at all.
Having the downtown core, and large other sections of the city smell like urine.
Having institutional betrayal, not standing by officers actions when they were expected, and even ordered, to take police action.
Drown officers in hours of training reports and videos each month, but then give them no dedicated time to watch the videos and read the reports. Then, two weeks before the training is dues, start sending messages to the precinct brass, complaining you have not completed the training yet.
Insisting officers can watch training videos in their cars on their MDTs, but the MDTS do not have the ability to play the videos with the volume above a whisper.
Endorsing internal illegitimacy by promoting officers or placing them into coveted positions based on race, gender, and favoritism, and not based on merit.
Having to apologize and deal with people being pissed at us because the city has tied our hands and don't actually want us to enforce what is being asked of us. I shouldn't have to apologize for something that's not my fault.
Sending out a letter to recent retired officers stating the command staff side with the rhetoric that we were to blame for the events of 2020.
Allowing officers to be followed, threatened, and/or assaulted repeatedly when walking to and from the precinct by a violent mob before or after shift with no plan to protect them or prevent further incidents.
Having cops respond to the same calls regarding the same subjects committing crimes at the same location but not being able to book them into jail, only to be able to tell the community that unless they are physically assaulted we can’t do anything about it.
Seeing homeless camps spread into neighborhoods and next to schools with drugs and crime coming out of the camps and the city allowing them to stay put.
Inconsistency for discipline: two officers with the same records and complaints can have drastically different discipline imposed for the same violation.
Having days off repeatedly canceled to make up staffing issues caused by the city and the department.
Having chief’s office not support the rank and file by not pushing back publicly against political narrative, but instead publicly supporting such rhetoric.
Asking questions of supervisors and roll calls meeting, only to never have the questions answered.
Having the brass say, “We trust your judgement,” when the reality is micro-management.
Having the chief say there are no incentives he can officers to encourage officers to stay.
Failing to reward officers who stay. The department used to give, five year, ten year, 20 years, etc, years of service pins.
Knowing the department has to regularly hire over time to make shift minimums.
Knowing when officers are hired to fill overtime slots, they are only their for part of the time so true minimums are never made.
Having Assistant Chiefs tell you they are here for the long term, but apply for every job they can until they hired away by another agency.
Rebidding days-off every three to four months.
Subjecting your staff to 100 days of protests without clear guidance or objectives.
Discouraging subject stops and mere conversation due to the current political rhetoric.
Having command staff berate officers in roll call without having fully investigated the call or complaint.
At protests, not believing your officers are taking missiles because the brass cannot see it on the pro-protester feeds.
Having your precinct look like a fortress to prevent peaceful protestors from smashing out the windows and trying to burn down the building.
Ignoring state laws and city statutes the City no longer wants to address.
Telling officers to evaluate all interactions on a governmental interest scale with disturbances and petty crimes valued as no interest.
Ordering officers not to pursue suspects on foot or in a car (with exceptions for extreme cases).
Having supervisors judge all officers actions are seen in hindsight.
Drowning officers in paperwork to justify their every individual action.
Employing a systems where the slightest use of force takes 4 hours of paperwork and must be reviewed by every level of command.
Having the brass not enter the buildings they lead and command from the comfort of their homes.
Having district attorney's office that routinely declines to prosecute cases.
When warrants are issued, have the county jail refuses to lodge most arrestees and demand officers issues summons that the arrestee will ignore or only receive another summons if they miss the following court date.
Cutting the detective division to a skeleton crew.
On arrests that are bookable, have the suspect released without making bail before the officer is finished writing up his or her paperwork.,
Having a department so low on cars, officers have to wait up to 40 minutes one to be checked in from another shift.
Zeroing out districts and expect neighboring district officers to cover two or three districts.
Having officers work shift at -2 under minimums despite hiring 5 on OT.
Having the street signs, sides of the police headquarters, and nearby building defaced with violent anti-police slogans and not clean them up
Having adversarial instead of supportive supervisors.
Being at, or below, minimum staffing, and having a mission and not hire for overtime to backfill districts.
Giving the officers a horrendous report writing system without officer feedback and continue to use it after ever other local agency drops it.
Treating injured officers poorly.
Having the position of police commissioner occupied by an elected mayor who knows nothing of the administration of a large metropolitan police department.
Having supervisors who appear to have no idea how to do your job and assume the worst.
Having two sets of standards, one for average officers and one for special officers.
Having command staff that have political aspirations using one or more officers for selective enforcement for political sacrifice.
Attempting to discipline officer for doing precisely what their training instructed them to do.
Having command staff that won’t speak out against council who lie about the bureau.
Having minimums never go up. They always go down.
Having a chief who seems not to know how to stand up, support, and speak out for his officers as day in and day out they get beat up by the city council and the citizens.
Having the city leadership do nothing to support the police. They don’t say the police are not like that. They don’t set up clear expectations of what people can do or can’t do, but instead they cave to hysteria and disband needed units, reduce the budget, and partake in the protests against their own police force, even accusing us of being the aggressors and being responsible for it all. Day after day, night after night, police response changed to meet each individual event. Some nights, command would let us do our jobs. Other nights we were told to hide and let the mob run wild. On the nights we we allowed to do our job, the city suffered little damage, but we were made off as villains the next day. The city leaders would apologize to the mob, and then tell us to hide the next day. Day after day, our mission would and orders would change. We were reduced to hiding in boarded up buildings, hiding our cars, and only going out in small groups, and still being assaulted when we did go out. We were told not to respond to any of it. This kills morale. Now, they are trying to woo officer back, but not by apologizing or say in will be better, but continuing to endorse the political rhetoric.
