What You Can Expect From Me
Problems Require Solutions
Availability
I will be available to you while on duty. I will have an office phone and an office. Feel free to call, or make an appointment to drop by. If you see me out and about, say "hi" if you want.
I do not have any personal social media accounts and will not have a work-related social media presence if elected. Once this campaign is over, any social media tied to me will be removed. Communication will be done in person and not online. There needs to be a personal connection between elected officials and the citizens they represent. Social media just doesn't cut it.
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Discipline
You can expect discipline and policy to be enforced. There will be no more letting the "little things" slide. Little things turn into big things when left unchecked. Over the last few years many little things have been left unchecked. This lack of discipline ruins the morale of the department. That will end day one.
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If you ask an officer who is willing to talk candidly with you, he or she will tell you that there is no fear of discipline in our department. I've heard it hundreds of times over the past few years, “Do what you want; it's not like you're going to get fired.” Based on the evidence, I can't disagree with them. This has made the job of every supervisor much more difficult.
Chain of Command
The chain of command will be enforced. The chain goes up, and it goes down. If a chain is broken, it becomes useless. If there is an issue, it will be handled at the lowest level possible.
To achieve this, the street level supervisors, sergeants and lieutenants, will be given back the authority to effectively lead their shifts and divisions as needed (authority that has been stripped from them during the past 19 years of micro-management).
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Decisiveness
Those hard and sometimes unpopular decisions, which career politicians are terrified to make because they may not get re-elected, will be made by me. What do I have to lose? I’m running solely to fix the issues plaguing the department, with zero interest in being a career politician. I believe the plans I set out, which are available for you to read here, will have the issues settled within one term.
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A wiser man than I am once said, “The best thing a leader can do is make the right decision, the next best thing is making the wrong decision, the worst thing a leader can do is make no decision.” I may not always have a perfect answer. However, the answer given will be based on the facts available, and it will be made promptly.
Vision
There is no singular driving vision for the department. There hasn’t been one since 2005 at least. How can we get somewhere when we don’t know where we’re going?
Moses had it easy. He had a cloud during the day and a pillar of fire by night. This department has had an abiding London fog.
My vision is very simple. Do policing the right way, all the way, and with a happy heart.
Clarity
Clarity with our other city departments is needed. For example, the policy manual we have currently is at odds with the city policy manual in multiple ways. I will work with city legal to ensure that our policy manual lines up with the city's manual and with legal as it needs to.
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Clarity within our department is another issue. Command Staff going to meeting after meeting, being asked for opinions, and having those opinions repeatedly ignored is common practice and has been for years. I heard it from my lieutenants when I was a sergeant, and it hasn't changed.
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No one person knows everything. There are experts out there who know what I don’t know. Only a fool relies on their own knowledge, or lack thereof, when others with more knowledge and wisdom in a specific area are willing to help. This will change day one. It won’t be rule by consensus by any means, but the knowledge and experience of others will be taken into heavy consideration when making decisions.
Empowering Investigators
It’s not only the sergeants and lieutenants who have been hamstrung by micro-management. The SAPD’s investigative divisions are suffering as well. It is understood that we work closely with the County and District Attorneys' offices. It is absolutely necessary for us to be on the same page. That being said, we do not answer to them nor should we need to ask permission to file a criminal charge. Currently, detectives seem to be unable to make decisions without consulting the DA’s office for simple felony offenses. That will end immediately.
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Starting day one, detectives will get the ability to make a decision back. They’re in a position of trust for a reason. When called by patrol for a felony offense requiring their assistance, they will make their decision based on whether the elements of the crime have been met per the penal code, health and safety code, etc. That is simple police work 101 and what we all learned in the academy. That doesn’t require any special training at all. If further clarification needs to be made, then they will contact their sergeant. If the sergeant needs clarification, they will contact their lieutenant. There’s that chain of command idea again.
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If the elements of the crime have been met per the law, then the criminal charge will be filed with the appropriate prosecutor’s office. If your elected prosecutors refuse to take the charge, then they will be the ones answering to the victims of crimes and the public as to why not. It is that simple, and that is how it will be done. Justice will be served on the part of the police department. We will do our part.
Training
What makes an apprentice a journeyman and a journeyman a master? Training. An officer can’t be trained if courses aren’t offered.
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One example of training that is much needed, and has been ignored since before I started at SAPD, is defensive tactics. I have a folder containing a decade’s worth of memos, sent through the chain of command, requesting mandatory training on defensive tactics courses for the department. They have all been ignored. Currently, an officer has zero defensive tactics instruction through the department once they leave the academy. That needs to change.
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When firearms and other less lethal certifications are conducted, officers will also attend a re-certification course for defensive tactics. The vast majority of use of force incidents are hands-on engagements with no weapons being utilized. Why are we not training our officers properly?
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We currently have three very dedicated officers, who are certified by Gracie Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Krav Maga Worldwide, to instruct law enforcement in how to safely engage a resisting suspect, with the least likelihood of injury to either the suspect or officer.
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Courses will be offered throughout the year by the Training Division to ensure that our officers continue to be effective in defensive tactics.
No Micro-management
As stated before, this is pervasive. When leaders are given authority but not allowed to exercise that authority or make decisions pertaining to the unit they're supposed to be in charge of, it cuts their legs out from under them in regards to those they are supposed to lead. Micro-management makes them 100% ineffective.
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Leaders should know their job and teach their job to their subordinates. This empowers the subordinate and gives them command experience. None of us are going to be here forever. My current sergeants can do my job as a lieutenant because I teach them and allow them to experience it. If I were to drop dead today my shifts would run flawlessly because my sergeants have been entrusted to do their job effectively.
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On day one, supervisors will be tasked with running their shifts and divisions. Command Staff will be used for reference and support to ensure all supervisors are on the same page.
San Angelo is Unique
The San Angelo Police Department is not the Abilene Police Department or a department like anywhere else. Our city has its own needs and requirements.
The programs needed for our city should be tailored to our city. Other police departments may have some great ideas. Those ideas will never be copy and pasted directly into our department without being tailored to meet our specific needs.
The Good Ol’ Boy System
It’s not what you know; it’s who you know, where you’re from, or what your last name is. That’s the way it is currently and has been since I've been employed at the department.
It should not be that way. It should be merit, based on knowledge and the application of that knowledge, that puts you in a position. Several good candidates have been passed over for specialized divisions due to not being friends with the members on the selection board like another candidate was. One officer was chosen for CID, not for what she offered professionally, but because she was “eye candy” per one of the detectives who was on that particular selection board.
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I have also heard it said, “Women don’t belong in policing.” Out of the top five officers I have ever worked with in this department, three were women. Officer Irma Rodriguez and Lt. Rhonda Mida are two of those. Irma was one of my field training officers and Lt. Rhonda Mida was the best lieutenant I have ever been assigned to. Both were amazing officers who I trusted with my life then and would do so again in a heartbeat.
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I don’t care who you are, who you’re friends with, or what your last name is. That doesn’t matter. The Good Ol’ Boy system will die an immediate and irrevocable death. The name of the game will be, “What is your knowledge base? What are your merits? Where are you most effective for the betterment of the department and the safety of the public?” Those are the questions that will be asked when considering officers for specialized divisions.
Policy Revisions
I keep talking about policy. The reason is because I spent my first six months as an Administrative Lieutenant, alone in a concrete office, doing nothing but poring over policy. As an Administrative Lieutenant, I couldn't change policy myself. I could only do what I was allowed to do and make the revisions I was told to make by Administration. It was an enlightening experience.
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Our policy manual is far too cumbersome and complicated. It needs to be pared down and simplified.
If I'm elected, the definitions in our policy will match the actual definitions of the words they are meant to define.
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Policies will be legal, clear, and concise without room for interpretation.