By Melissa J. Varnavas, The Beverly, Mass. Citizen
Matrix Consulting Group didn’t have many good things to say about the Beverly Police Department. And, despite almost universal support for the independent audit of police activities earlier this year, Matrix didn’t earn much praise from city officials either.
The 172-page final report, officially released this week, cites the city for the lack of formal goals and performance objectives for either the Police Department or its officers. It blames the department administration for overall lack of supervision and accountability for its officers. It recommends moving or eliminating four patrolmen from the midnight shift and suggests that meter maintenance and dispatch personnel should come from the civilian sector.
“We never anticipated a report that would essentially say everything is rosy,” Mayor William F. Scanlon Jr. said. “I’m not saying that there are things in here we didn’t expect, and I’m not trying to paper over this thing, I’d like to look at it as if it were an evolutionary process.”
Matrix examined Beverly police in six major areas: management; patrol duties or field services; investigations; support and administrative services; human resources and space needs. They conducted interviews, went on the road with patrolmen and reviewed 39 officer surveys.
Matrix is expected to discuss its findings with city officials on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2 p.m.
Study findings
After Matrix issued its management critical draft report in mid-October, Chief John A. Cassola issued more than 16 pages of objections and clarifications to the findings.
“Things aren’t quite the way they say they are [in the draft report]” Cassola told theCitizen this week.
Cassola said he hoped the consulting firm accepted his recommendations for inclusion in the final draft. He declined more definitive comment until after next week’s meeting, saying he had not received a copy of the final report.
In his objections, Cassola ties comments to specific report pages and argues in one sentence or less.
In answering Matrix’s assertion that “personnel are often left to be self-directed with little... influence by their supervisors, “Cassola said he meets daily with his captains and that all members of the staff are invited to attend staff meetings.
Many of the report recommendations were budgetary issues, Cassola explained in his written rebuttal. The Community Orientated Policing officer and additional traffic enforcement officers were cut due to budget constraints, he wrote.
In response to training needs, Cassola wrote, “Would like you to recommend additional money in the training budget.”
Although Matrix did make many of Cassola’s suggested corrections, most of its initial findings remained in this week’s final draft.
“There is little operational or long-range planning occurring in the department. While the department has several management and management support positions, none of them are dedicated to regular research and long-term planning for the department...”
“Current management approaches... vary widely from unit to until and manager to manager.”
The report says there are few performance goals or objectives in place and that there is little reliance on data to make management decisions or to direct personnel.
For example, Matrix says the first position of power over the patrolmen is the “officer in charge,” who never leaves the station. This arrangement essentially leaves those on duty out on the road with no supervision and little support.
The report further states that management team meetings are infrequent and “issue driven.”
“The department relies on impromptu or issue driven contact between and among senior managers or supervisors,” according to the report.
Other areas Cassola simply disagreed with included the department’s hiring process for women and minorities. Matrix suggests the city reexamine its policies and employ new tactics to draw interest from such candidates.
Cassola responded that the Beverly Police Department currently has one female officer (who is in training at the academy).
“In addition to our civil service list, we were given... 49 names on a rehire list that contained additional female and several minorities. None of them indicated an interest in Beverly,” wrote Cassola.
Nature of their discontent
Cassola’s not the only one disinclined to accept Matrix findings at face value.
“It doesn’t reflect the concerns we have as patrolmen,” said Officer David Faustino.
Faustino and others within the department said the problem can’t be analyzed by crunching the numbers or managed away with new policies and procedures.
“The city doesn’t look at us as an asset,” said Faustino. “It’s as simple as that.”
According to Patrolman Ted Goodell, residents used to stop him on the street just to shake his hand.
“That was after Sept. 11,” Goodell said. “People would tell us how much they appreciate us. Now, we have nothing. We should have stood up then but now we don’t have a soap box to stand on.”
The officers, who gathered for a press conference with theCitizen on the matter, said the nature of their discontent begins with the underlying issue of improper treatment and fans out into nearly almost every aspect of life on the force.
They pointed to a lack of training, improper or failing equipment, deteriorating facilities and lack of managerial support as their primary concerns.
While many of their concerns are actually echoed in the Matrix analysis, the officers dismissed the study out of hand.
Problems of their own
“From the very beginning I’ve been supportive of this idea,” said Patrolman John McCarthy, head of the police patrolmen’s union. “But from the beginning... we’ve been treated like unwanted step- children, yessed to death when we’ve asked for information and then never given it.”
According to McCarthy, Matrix officials were on the road with nearly a dozen patrolmen throughout the three-month study period, but he was never once approached or asked his opinion about the report.
“They went on 10 to 15 ride-a-longs,” McCarthy said. “Yet, to a man it doesn’t seem like they were in the same car.”
Perhaps the most egregious section of the study stems from the recommendation to move four patrolmen from the midnight shift to traffic and crime analysis efforts, officers said.
“It takes more than one officer to make an arrest,” said Patrolman Joe Nixon. “They’re only looking at the numbers, not the reality of the situation. You reduce the number of men on duty and you’re putting lives in danger...”
Reducing the staff “impedes our ability to respond, whether it’s a barking dog keeping someone up at night or whether it’s a man with a gun,” said Officer Don Call. “When that resident picks up the phone to call the police it is the most important thing in their mind at that moment. They don’t want to hear that they might have to wait a few minutes while we finish up with that car accident before we can respond to their needs.”
“They took the call log going back a year and made the assumptions that this is what it is... They say, ‘Do it with less officers.’ If you take a guy off the street it’s a hazard for the Police Department and for the public,” said Faustino.
“Sure, they’ve measured the tangible elements,” said Goodell. “But there are a number of intangible items as well.”
“Crooks aren’t stupid,” said McCarthy. “They know where we are and what we’re doing. This report leaves out all that humanity, all the relativity that police work is all about.”
Where the money goes
Officers expressed anger over the study’s cost, as well, saying the money would have been better spent on any of a half dozen needed items.
“There were three cruisers out of service [the other night],” said Call. “It’s just another example that as an employee we are not seen as an asset. We’re not asking for a Cadillac to drive around town in. We are asking for a cruiser that works to get us from place to place.”
The same goes for plans for a new police station.
“We’d like to work in a nice place,” said McCarthy.
“We’d like to work in a place that has hot water,” said Goodell.
“We were told 20 years ago were going to get a new station as lovely as any police station in the state...,” said Nixon.
“Now,” finished McCarthy, “you walk in the door and see the mold, the worn carpet, the asbestos tiles are all worn down.”
Faustino pointed to the purchase of new rifles following the 2001 terrorist attacks as further anecdotal proof of what’s wrong with the department.
“We have a closet full of rifles that were supposed to be more accurate than anything we have, but we haven’t been trained on them,” Faustino said.
“Why are the Red Sox where they are today?” asked Call. “Would they really have won the World Series if someone said they didn’t really need that glove and they’d just get a cheaper one or if they weren’t managed well?”
At least the report did not necessarily fault line patrolmen as the cause for public discontent with the department, officers said.
“They thought this report would point the finger at us,” said Call, “but it didn’t it turned on them.”
“It pointed out the flaws of management,” said Goodell.
“If I were in management, if I were the mayor, I’d be ashamed to hire an outside group to tell me about what the problems are with my own department,” Call said.
“There are a lot of good guys out there, guys who risk their lives every day,” Faustino said. “This report does nothing to show what good men we have.”