Police Morale Issue—

Independent Study Discussed Behind Closed Doors

By Andrew Gorosko

The Police Commission, police department management, and police union officers met in a three-hour closed session on May 15 to discuss the results of an independent study that found that rank-and-file officers at Newtown Police Department are working in an environment of low morale fueled by a high level of employee dissatisfaction.

The independent study was prepared by James E. McCabe, PhD, an assistant professor of criminal justice at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield. Dr McCabe prepared the report at no cost at the request of the Police Commission.

Dr McCabe retired at the rank of inspector from the New York City Police Department in 2006 after 21 years of service to pursue an academic career.

Although Police Commission Chairman Paul Mangiafico recommended that the May 15 session be conducted as an open meeting, the chairman was outvoted by commission members Brian Budd and Joel Faxon, both of whom favored a closed session.

Mr Mangiafico said he believes that the subject matter did not justify holding the meeting behind closed doors, based on the provisions of the Connecticut Freedom of Information Act.

In a motion, Mr Faxon, who is a lawyer, recommended entering an executive session for the discussion of strategy and negotiations concerning police department members’ employment, performance, and/or evaluation, and also regarding future collective bargaining.

After the 2-1 vote to enter executive session occurred, commission members James Viadero and Andrew Sachs then arrived at the meeting.

Also attending the closed meeting were Newtown Police Union President Scott Ruszczyk, Vice President Daniel McAnaspie, and Treasurer Aaron Bahamonde. Police Chief Michael Kehoe and Captain Joe Rios also attended. A reporter was excluded from the session.

The police department has 46 sworn officers, of whom 44 people are covered under the labor contract between the Newtown Police Union, Local #3153, Council #15, AFSCME, AFL-CIO, and the town.

Generally, in the report, Dr McCabe found that “there appears to be a substantial amount of dissatisfaction in the workplace. It was troubling to see the lack of information reported on the [written] surveys. This is a clear sign of problems associated with trust and fear. On one hand, responding officers want to be involved in the organization, and on the other, [they] fear providing information that might lead to their identity,” it states.

The written survey sought anonymous responses to questions.

“Focus group participants report dissatisfaction with the communication, supervision, and leadership within the department…Clearly, there are problems within the organization and these problems are contributing to employee dissatisfaction,” it adds.

“It must be reiterated that this research was employee-centered. About half of the department participated in the focus groups and only 34 of the sworn officers completed the survey. It is impossible to discern the views of the nonparticipants, and their views may be starkly different from the actual respondents,” the 32-page report states.

Dr McCabe recommends that the Police Commission oversee a process intended to repair a perceived lack of trust and lack of organizational support between the police command staff and the rank-and-file officers of the department.

McCabe To Visit Commission

On May 16, Mr Mangiafico said, “I have no comments to make regarding our executive session last night. We will have Dr McCabe attend our next regular meeting to be held on June 5 and present to the commission, in public session, his final report.”

Ofc Ruszczyk said on Wednesday that the entire report will be publicly available on June 5. Of the May 15 session, he said, “I think that progress was made, and will continue to be made.”

Also on Wednesday, Chief Kehoe said, “All members of the Newtown Police Department are looking forward to working collaboratively and collectively to develop action plans based upon a small number weaknesses identified in Dr McCabe’s Employee Diagnostic Report.

“As action plans are developed and honed, working groups of [police department] employees will be working specifically on identified initiatives. The ultimate aim will be to enhance the professional service that this agency gives to the community. Periodically the working groups will update all interested parties,” Chief Kehoe said.