Word: chafin
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Gorski resigned under pressure form the dissatisfied police; after a one year search the administration hired Saul L. Chafin betting that a change in the leadership would make the changes in the department more palatable. The odds seem to have played in its favor. Though Chafin has made questionable decisions in firing three men since he became number one, he has also taken pains to replace them so as to avoid any charges of intentional reductions in the force...
...Chafin has taken up many of the Howland report recommendations in the last year. He has encouraged job advancement through a new open competitive process involving a written and oral test. One sergeant has already been promoted and Chafin intends to fill that vacancy this November. In addition, he has sent officers and supervisors to training schools in the metropolitan area for instruction in fingerprinting, criminal investigation, supervisory skills and arson--a move he claims has helped to increase the officer's sense of job security. The union now regrets its push for promotions since sergeants and lieutenants are salaried...
...biannual physical stress test, which the police felt increased insecurity over their jobs (if an officer didn't pass the test he was removed from the force). "I think it did something for the morale of the police department and the morale of the people in the health services," Chafin says. Responding to union complaints of three years ago, the department has also improved the quality of the equipment officers use. Chafin claims the new emergency equipment and a new fleet of police cruisers with alley lights and better radios, have bettered the police image and, consequently, morale...
Other changes have also helped to take the bite out of union demands. Chafin has improved internal communication through a new organizational structure and monthly plenary staff meetings. Though the chain of command structure still remains in place, complaints do, on the whole, manage to filter to the top. For example, late May, a group of women within the department complained that they were not being treated professionally by the overwhelmingly male force. Chafin says he held a meeting with a core group of the staff to correct the situation immediately because, he says, "I thought it was an extremely...
Despite what Chafin calls his "incremental changes," the police still suffer from the radical changes ushered in by Gorski. Many of the officers are understandably wary about the shift to the more professional image, and nostalgically refer to the days when they could fight crime without relying on computer printouts. Their persistent dissatisfaction with the new system--responding to crime determined by problem areas the computer identifies--stems from errors in the data feeding process. When a robbery that occurred at Winthrop House at 2 a.m. wasn't reported to the police until 5 p.m. the next day, the computer...