JODY MEETS WITH SUPERVISORS

One of our own has left a brief synopsis of the town hall meeting with the superintendent. The supervisor also was good enough to give his/her opinions of the points brought up at the meeting. I am certain that others will vehemently disagree with this commenter but please be respectful enough that I can publish your rebuttals.

Notes from the supervisors meeting:

Estimated attendance: less than 50

The black Tahoe is the preferred choice. Graphics will probably be the traditional one.

New recruits to be trained with Glocks only.

Brust(sp) is only person allowed to strip an officer. J Fed showed common sense in why decision was made.

J Fed wants to completely revamp the promotional exams and merit process. He believes there is no reason one should not have a score when leaving the exam site and know their rank at the end of the day when all exams are finished. He strongly believes in merit but it should be because of what you do, not who you know. He would like to have officers nominate themselves for merit and have to complete a lengthy package detailing their accomplishments and qualifications. Have the process more transparent, possible with union reps at the selection process as observers.

20 new Lts this year....6 merit.

The reason that patrol is under represented in merit promotions is because exempts are NOT nominating officers from patrol. (shocking!)

Manditory fitness testing as a condition of employment or for promotion is NOT true. The reason for it as a requirement for the carbine is that if you are carrying one, and have to run, you shouldn't be huffing and puffing when trying to aim the weapon, thereby throwing off sights--dangerous situation with that type of weapon.

600 wehicle locks for carbines coming.

Performance reviews coming January 2009. He believes there are way too many CRs obtained for things that are performance issues or simple mistakes. There are better ways to handle those issues: training, notation in file which will afffect performance grade, etc.

Explained, at length, the Cozzi incident. Said that he explained it the same way at other meetings with officers. He only asked the US attorney to look at the video of the incident. It was a decision he made at the time and stands behind that decision.
MY OPINION: Believes he was right in his decision to make the call. But in retrospect, may not have made the same call in light of the fallout. I could be wrong, that's just my impression.

They are actively looking for a very strong case to charge somone with perjury in making false allegation and signing the affidavit. Mayor is on board.

He will back anyone that acts as a reasonable person. That action may not the right, but if actions are reasonable, ok. Example: If attacked, spit on, etc and bad guy gets an extra crack or so, wrong, but not unreasonable under the circumstances. Incident will he handled accordingly.

He would like to eliminate TRU and the DOC. Decentralize control. Let the Commanders decide where their problems are how how to address them.

New computers coming. He can buy 3 motorolas for the price of 2 toughbooks. OEMC has the motorola but is sitting on their ass and not making a decision if they will work. All he asks of them is to make a decision.

GPS coming to all cars. Command staff included. Command staff and dangerous districts to get the first. Installation to be started very soon. This is an officer safety issue.

He's not a fan of the inspectors as they now. They should be focusing on larger issues, not petty stuff.

He is amazed at the length of time it takes to institue any change in this department.

He never expected that when he made a command change, that person will take all his/her people with them to the new unit/district. This totally disrupts everything. The boss in the new spot should not make personell changes immediately but have those that now work for him prove that they can do the job. This will not be allowed to happen in the future...Question not asked--But that's what he did!

My overall opinion:

I didn't agree with everything but overall was impressed. He appeared genuine, wasn't feeding us a bunch of BS. He's trying to use common sense in setting policy and in his decisions. He seems as fustrated as we are in how this department is sometime run and how decisions are made. He will make a decision and expects others to do the same. He has a vision that includes a lot of common sense. That's going to be his biggest hurdle. Because, we all know that common sense and the Chicago Police Departemt have nothing to do with each other.

Sat Aug 30, 09:37:00 AM