Changing a Culture

In order to change a deteriorated culture, you must start by aligning your culture with what drives the department’s success.  The chief is absolutely and positively right, the individuals who speak out on this medium don’t reflect the values of the Forest View police department, they expose them.  Freedom of speech is a great tool for those who want to expose the inconsistencies in accountability and mismanagement of a public service body. The cop department’s idea of changing a culture is replacing all of those who aren’t in the circle of cronies.

All the reasons the chief referred to Forest View as Funny View during his days in Stickney are still relevant today.  We weren’t going to air all the laundry but fuck it.  Our sources over the last year have given us enough stories to write a book. The deputy chief should have just resigned when it was a thought on his mind a few months ago.

Forest View has a cop that is afraid of his own shadow.  Any cop, not just in Forest View but even in surrounding villages will concur that he is a safety problem but overlooked by the top cop brass. The stories are numerous and well known to the Chiefs.  The stalling techniques like the bathroom breaks as soon as he is sent to a do anything that involves cop work. Some way or another he gets what he asks for like special arrangements when he is out of comp time but still allowed to take a day off.  Predictably calls in sick attached to benefit days or regular days off work.  If it’s Sunday, you can guarantee he will be feeling ill.

Let’s not forget the cop who loved to play hide and go seek with the police chief.  That floor mat fighting cop knows all the good hiding spots around town besides the cemetery. A certified expert on extending vacations.  Starts his day with a scan of the work schedule to calculate which days other shifts will be low on manpower so he can call in with an upset stomach.  Another obvious pattern of benefit time abuse. The deputy chief would come to the rescue to make sure that cop wasn’t inconvenienced with having to work a few extra hours that poor baby. 

It must be nice to be able to pick and choose your days off like the deputy chief. We still don’t understand how he is not considered manpower but fills in as manpower.  Does he collect overtime as an exempt employee? Does he accrue comp time? Is that comp time calculated at time and a half? All things we want to know for the next board meeting.

The deputy chief himself was no angel.  A previous chief walked in on the deputy chief sleeping while the other cop was serenading him with his guitar in the station.  Years later, the mariachi player was caught sleeping by a trustee and he was promoted to detective.

Some part-time cops have juice too.  There was the body work incident where a part-time cop attempted to cover up crashing a cop car. Then the same cop damages another cop car and blames the deputy chief. Continued stopping all those poor Mexicans while the top brass looked away.  He got to keep his job if he brought in arrests, no matter the cost.  A newcomer cop wrote some tickets on some wrong tickets and got promoted to full time.  The unconnected cops get fired for writing some things on wrong things. We can keep going but we have a fondness for the other cops from the neighboring towns that work in Forest View now.

The chief may be proud of where the cop department stands but that is just the deputy chief’s illusion. The department members who worked hard to make the illusion possible don’t really work.  When was the last time the cop who is afraid of his own shadow arrested anyone?  If he isn’t in the Dunkin Donut’s lot, he’s in the station or parading in Stickney.  The people you trust have turned their backs on you just as you have turned your backs on them.  Keep working hard on that culture the Forest View way.