I APOLOGISE IN ADVANCE FOR THIS RATHER LONG RANT ABOUT CHIEF OLSON.
Chief Olson, in my opinion, is one of those technocrat/politicians that give
police management a bad name, but reinforces how politicians can manipulate
or control departments to the detriment of the public good.
By means of disclosure...I never supported Olson, and in fact voted against
and and objected to his predecessor, John Laux. I was always supported by
the Police Federation in my elections, but opposed them on issues important
to me like off-duty work, compression of promotion and certain pension
issues. I guess my standards for a Chief are/were different that SSB's. I
believe she passed over several good internal candidates, many of whom have
left the department and are managing suburban departments in the metro area.
To me, the measure of a good chief is someone who both inspires and
motivates the troops on the street, while instilling public confidence in
programs or practices that assure balance in law enforcement. Olson misses
on all counts. He is uninspiring as a policy thinker. In fact, he is nothing
better than a yes-man copy cat. SSB told him to get a NYC-type program after
William Bratton and Rudy Guiliani turned NYC around. CODEFOR...is really
nothing more than a rip-off of New York City's program. Typical Olson
implementation though...he implements the street action first, without
getting agreement from, or putting into place any of the infrastructure in
the court system that made the NYC program so successful. All COEFOR did in
Minneapolis was choke our courts and booking units, without the resources or
prosecutorial agreements to expedite the arrests and put the repeat
offenders in jail or prison for extended periods of time. (Want to read how
the program really was supposed to work? Read: Turnaround by William
Bratton)
Olson is a terrible judge of people and managerial talent,and can not stand
to be questioned by his troops. Rather than work to learn what good there
was on the force,and who could motivate and help him professionalize the
department's weak areas; Olson focused immediately on who would take orders
from him and who would not oppose him. Two Deputies, Schultz and Jones fit
this profile, as did two key Inspectors, Morris and Lubinski Only Deputy
Greg Hestness...a great Chief candidate himself has had the guts over time
to oppose the Chief internally. He was banished from the Patrol Division to
the Administrative assignment. Olson retains him because Hestness has the
loyalty of many senior commanders on the street, those that are left.
Capable Inspectors have been punished for speaking freely. Olson demoted
Inspector Bill O'Rourke, (he held an interim rank of Captain, too) because
O'Rourke openly complained of CODEFOR implementation and the purpose of the
Lake Street gimmicks. He punished Inspector Brad Johnson -- beloved by his
troops at 5th Precinct -- by transferring him to Third Precinct in
O'Rourke's place. Johnson's crime was to half-heartedly implement CODEFOR @
5th, but on his own, initiate MOBILEBEAT...a much more effective resource
allocation tool. O'Rourke is now Chief in Prior Lake. Johnson... probably
will be the next suburban Chief somewhere. To punish outspoken Council
Members like myself and Lisa McDonald, Olson sent Christine Morris to 5th
Precinct. An incompetent fool if there ever was one. Another political
directive. Morris' performance was so disastrous at 4th Precinct that the
CM's served by that area demanded Olson do something. He had to transfer her
somewhere...and 5th is where she went. Its not coincidence that 60% of the
Sergeants and Lt's that worked for Brad Johnson at 5th, transferred out of
Morris' command within 15 months. And this, from a facility that was brand
new, where the numbers were good, and the crime relatively low. The
residents of SW Minneapolis still wave at the cops from 5th Pct. with all
five fingers...so...you do the math. Eventually, Morris will have to be
dumped. She's just incompetent.
Slowly, Olson has been pushing out the old, and hiring and promoting his own
people, who first and foremost have to understand that this Chief is not to
be questioned. Over 70% of the Minneapolis street complement of 1990 had
over 10 years or more street experience. Today, 70% of the street complement
has five years or less! In 1990, 90% of the Lt's, Captains and Inspectors
had 20 years or more experience. Today half have less than 15 years
experience. The less experience you have, the more likely you are to make
mistakes. Olson refused to embrace elimination/merger of the Inspector and
Captain positions into the permanent rank of Commander. He rejected the
Corporal rank as a means of recognizing street experience of our most senior
street officers, and compressing the promotions to Sergeant This would have
bumped officer promotional opportunity, helping retain good officers, It
would have also reduced pension costs.
I could go on about all the proper reasonable or even positive initiatives
that were ignored by Olson, because he either didn't have the courage or the
ability to implement them, but I have already ranted enough. It's too bad
that Olson will only get 2 or 3 votes of opposition. He deserves to be fired
altogether.
Steve Minn
Formerly of Lynnhurst
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>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: Multiple recipients of list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: MPLS-ISSUES digest 924
>Date: Sat, Jan 6, 2001, 7:22 PM
>
> Date: Sat, 06 Jan 2001 18:41:30 -0600
> From: Annie Young <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED],
> Subject: Re: Chief Olson
> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> Well, I have not wanted to get into the "Police" discussion but after
> Wizard's remarks which rings home of many facts I've thought or knew of
> over the years I did come to realize that there is another alternative
> besides the "ranting, raving and protesting" about Olson which probably
> will not get a change of heart inside the great walls of City Hall this
> year. But this is the year we get to ask the candidate's all kinds of
> questions... so as Wizard states, the Mayor chooses the Chief. Question to
> candidates for Mayor: will you consider a change from the current Chief if
> you are elected - and what kind of a Chief would a new "Chief" person be?
> This should give us a pretty good clue as to the kind of City we want
> Minneapolis to be as we live, work and play in the new century and
> millennium. I plan to use the seventh generation as one of my measures for
> who I select to govern our beautiful city - how about you?
> That's my two cents worth on this topic for the moment.
