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| NEWS > 02 February 2011 |
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Police chief lends hand in Rom
Romanian law enforcement leaders need a little help in keeping corruption out of their police forces, so Grass Valley Police Chief John Foster took a the 12-hour plane trip last week to lend a helping hand.
Although Eastern Europe is a world away from his hometown, Foster jumped at the chance to be one of six American police chiefs invited to discuss ethics with police leaders across Western Romania. The educational week-long trip was sponsored by the Romanian government and Pointman Leadership Institute, a nonprofit group from Hume, Ca.
Back at his police station Tuesday... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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Deseret News
02 February 2011
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To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Provo Police Department, UT
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Utah: Audit finds Provo police need more ethics training
The Provo Police Department has loyal and dedicated officers, but it lacks a systemic approach to training them about professional standards of conduct and ethics — and morale is low in the patrol division.
Those were some of the findings of an audit released Wednesday of the Provo Police Department by Sacramento-based Citygate Associates, LLC.
The independent audit was requested by Mayor John Curtis in November following several high profile incidents of officer misconduct and complaints about the integrity and professionalism of the department.
Among the department's strengths, the audit found:
Provo police are loyal to the department and have a strong desire to serve the community; most officers believe the department has strong ethical standards and recent incidents are not reflective of the department as a whole; the department does not have a "systematic or organic problem pertaining to professional standards of conduct and behavior;" and the Community Oriented Policing program is well-respected in the community.
But the audit also found a number of areas that need improvement and made a total of 27 recommended changes. Among the areas that need attention:
• The department needs to better train employees about professional standards of conduct and ethics, as well as have better communication within the department about the standards.
• The department's policy for internal affairs investigations, notably category II (minor) complaints, is not consistently followed.
• Supervisors and managers do not receive training upon promotions related to their new roles.
Overall, Curtis said the audit showed that recent high-profile problems within the department came back to individuals and did not reflect a cultural problem within the entire department itself. But he also said it cannot be ignored that changes need to be made.
Some items the department "should have known they should have been doing differently."
Some of the more high profile problems the department has faced in the past several months include:
• In February 2010, Provo officer Troy Brewer was charged with misdemeanor counts of theft and possession of a controlled substance for allegedly stealing prescription medication from a home he visited on several occasions, claiming to the homeowner he was conducting an investigation.
• In July, officer Jeffery Westerman allegedly threatened to take a woman to jail if she did not expose her breasts to him. He was charged with forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony. Westerman pleaded guilty to reduced charges and is scheduled to be sentenced today. He could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.
• In October, an officer was charged with aggravated assault for threatening his common-law wife by pointing a gun at her head. Mark Petersen pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a 30-day work division program with the Utah County Jail and will be on probation for one year.
Less than a month after the audit was announced, Chief Craig Geslison announced his retirement, effective Jan. 1, 2011.
The audit also found the department does not ask questions pertaining to ethics and ethics challenges when hiring new officers, and recommended that all new entry-level officers be given a polygraph test.
One of the biggest changes the audit recommended was creating an Office of Professional Standards and Training with two hours of annual training for all officers.
"I think we can do better than that," said Interim Chief David Bolda, who noted the department would likely give more than two hours annual training. Over a three-year period, the average Provo officer received only a little more than 30 minutes of training, according to the audit, and supervisors received less than three hours of ethics training.
"Training and the transmission of the department's philosophy with regard to (professional standards of conduct) is sporadic and inconsistent," the audit found.
Curtis conceded, however, that the most important recommendation from the audit is also the most expensive — especially for a department that reduced its operating budget by $400,000 from fiscal year 2008-2009 to fiscal year 2009-2010.
Implementing an office of standards and training is expected to cost about $250,000. Curtis said he would recommend $50,000 be put in this year's budget for the program and would work to fund $250,000 for it next year.
"We realize the seriousness of the recommendations," he said.
The department hoped to have the new Office of Professional Standards and Training up and running by May 1 and all 27 audit recommendations in place within one year.
Both the mayor and chief noted the audit did not find problems with category I (serious) complaints against officers, which would have involved the three recent high-profile cases. Improvements needed to be made in citizens making category II complaints against officers. Category II complaints could involve a citizen complaining about an officer's attitude or demeanor while writing a traffic ticket, for example.
In the past, some supervisors might have given the officer in question a warning but not document the complaint. Curtis called it more of a paperwork issue and not officers trying to protect their own.
The department's policy implemented in 1981, however, says "all complaints, regardless of source, will be made a matter of record and will be thoroughly investigated." Now, Curtis said all complaints will be documented and available for public viewing.
Since 2005, there have been 38 category I complaints filed against Provo police officers, including 10 in 2010. Of those, 11 were sustained, 13 were unfounded, five were "unsubstantiated" and one is still under investigation.
The majority of those complaints were for "conduct/rude behavior" and excessive force. None of the excessive force complaints were sustained, and about half of the conduct complaints were sustained.
As for category II complaints, the audit noted that it was impossible to compile data because of the lack of consistency of supervisors making record of them.
Would more ethics training have prevented high-profile incidents like the ones the department had last year? Curtis said the changes had been implemented several years ago, the odds are it might have. But more important, he said the proper documentation of category II complaints might be used as red flags.
Overall, he believes the audit did not find a corrupt department, but individuals who were at one time good cops who did bad things.
Morale among the patrol division is low, according to the audit. Curtis attributed some of that to the recent problems within the department and the call for an audit. But he also noted that the department has been very statistics-driven in the past.
Beginning July 1, the department will replace statistics-driven reviews in place of performance standards that better reflect an officer's quality of work rather than quantity.
Provo officer Shawn Parker, who works in the traffic division, said he wouldn't classify morale as low, but he said it was nice to hear that changes are being made.
"Some of the things I had concerns about are being addressed," he said after hearing the results of the audit.
Also Wednesday, Provo officials announced that applications were now officially being accepted to fill the vacant police chief position.
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