Tag Archives: Amarillo PD

local news

Interim police chief gets a leg up

drain

Amarillo has a new interim police chief, who’ll assume his new post on July 1, when Police Chief Robert Taylor retires, climbs aboard his Harley and hits the road.

I join many others in wishing Chief Taylor well and thank him for his 36 years of law enforcement service to the community.

Back to the interim chief selection. The new top cop is Ed Drain, currently on the staff of the Plano Police Department. He got the job after being appointed by the city’s interim city manager, Terry Childers.

The city manager made an interesting statement after he chose Drain to take over as police chief. The question dealt with why Childers went outside the department to find an interim chief. He thought it would be best if he leveled the playing field for all Amarillo PD applicants who might want to seek the police chief’s job.

That’s fine. It levels the field for all the in-house applicants. Ed Drain, though, has a leg up on getting the permanent job if he seeks it, too.

http://www.newschannel10.com/story/32265897/interim-police-chief-named-for-apd

I’m a bit curious as to why the need to go outside the department in the first place.

The last time Amarillo brought in an outsider to run its police department was in the early 1980s, when the late City Manager John Stiff hired Oklahoman Jerry Neal to lead APD.

I wasn’t here in 1981 when Neal got the police chief job, but I’ve heard all about the circumstance he inherited when he came aboard. He took command of a dysfunctional police agency. It wasn’t working.

The police department needed a progressive leader and Stiff found one in Jerry Neal.

Is the Amarillo Police Department in a similar state of disarray now? Hardly. It is working well. Hey, the city witnessed a police department handle a potentially explosive hostage situation just a few days ago with supreme professionalism.

I’m going to presume that the interim chief understands the dynamics that drive a police department such as the one that serves Amarillo. As Drain told NewsChannel 10: “My goal here is to analyze the things that are going on in the department and any areas where I think there needs to be improvement,”  Drain said. “Some of those obviously I’m not going to get done as an interim, but you heard the city manager say incremental improvement, so I want to do that.”

I don’t intend to get ahead of the game here. The new chief is an interim pick, after all. However, his hiring is beginning to look like a done deal.

It makes me wonder: Do we really need a fresh approach to the police department, which I believe is running pretty well?

local news

Crisis averted at Amarillo supermarket

Imagine this conversation at the home of an Amarillo police officer.

“How did your day go?”

“Oh, we got a call this morning. We scrambled some units to a Walmart. We found a guy inside with a hostage. So we shot him. He’s dead.”

Sure, the questioner probably didn’t need to ask. But the event that occurred this morning at the Canyon Expressway and Georgia Street illustrates the tenuous nature of police work.

It ended with the death of a disgruntled Walmart employee who apparently had a beef with a store manager.

Police have identified the hostage-taker as Mohammed Moghaddam, a Somali immigrant. They secured the area immediately after the incident concluded. Traffic returned quickly to normal around the area.

What happened, though, is extraordinary in this important respect: It came only two days after the nation was stunned to hear about the massacre at the Orlando, Fla., nightclub where 49 people were gunned down before police killed the shooter.

Americans from coast to coast were put on edge as the news out of central Florida began to sink in and as we all begin to process what happened.

There’s some relief — if that’s the correct word — in the knowledge that what happened at the Walmart was the result of a readily identifiable motive. It doesn’t lessen the anxiety that the police suffered as they sought to end this crisis. Nor does it make light of the grief being felt by the family of the man who was shot to death.

I do, though, rest more easily this afternoon in the knowledge that our community has averted something far more terrible.

I thank the professionalism shown by our law enforcement agencies responding to an imminently dangerous event.

local news

Once more about the call center …

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It remains my hope that the Amarillo Police Department, the fire department and medical emergency services officials will spell out in detail what problems existed with the way the city’s central dispatch center was doing its job.

Interim City Manager Terry Childers’ 911 call the other day has resulted in changes to the way the call center works. The city now has assigned police officers and firefighters to work inside the call center alongside the personnel who answer calls requesting help.

Childers said the dispatcher with whom he spoke when he reported the “theft” of a briefcase at a local hotel was “uncourteous.” I’m not sure about that. I’ve listened to the recording and the dispatcher sounded cool, calm and professional.

But the changes brought immediately after the interim manager’s experience seem to suggest that something was wrong with the call center.

If so, what in the world was wrong? Can’t we get an accounting from the folks who run our police, fire and medical emergency departments on those problems? How systemic were they? Did calls go unanswered? Did anyone die as a result?

And if there were problems all along, why didn’t the city act before now?

Meanwhile, we’re left to wonder how it was that a senior city administrator would get so upset with an emergency dispatcher who he said didn’t respond appropriately — on a call involving a missing briefcase!

Some details would be welcome.

 

local news

Changes come to 911 call center

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Amarillo put a lot of effort — and money — into modernizing and streamlining its emergency services response center.

City officials touted it as more efficient and customer-friendly. The city remodeled and outfitted an existing downtown office complex and then launched the center that combines police, fire and medical services calls.

Then the city’s interim city manager, Terry Childers, placed a call to the center the other day to report a stolen brief case from the hotel where he was staying after returning to Amarillo on a flight from Dallas. The dispatcher responded according to a set protocol that requires her to ask a set of questions. Childers became agitated and told the dispatcher that she didn’t “know who she is dealing with”; he made that assertion even after introducing himself to the dispatcher as the city manager, which the dispatcher seemed to understand clearly.

The city has initiated some changes in the dispatch center operations. It now assigns police officers and firefighters to help oversee phone center operations. It’s no longer a civilian-only operation.

This is all fine.

But I’m wondering: Was there a serious concern among the community about response times? Has the problem — if one existed — been festering since the call center opened? Or are these changes the result of a single phone call by one highly placed individual?

I’ve listened to the audio recording of Childers’ phone call. To my ears, it sounded as though the dispatcher acted with cool professionalism. I understand that the police did arrive in a timely fashion, although I’m not sure that the cops “shut down” the hotel to search for Childers’ missing brief case, as Childers had demanded.

I hope for all the world that we aren’t witnessing an abuse of authority.

Perhaps the city should conduct a thorough public airing of the complaints and concerns that allegedly have arisen from the new dispatch center. Is there a record of gripes from citizens? If there is, do those complaints rise to a level that compels a change in the way the city responds to these emergencies?

Let’s hear it. All of it.

 

local news

Honeymoon might be over

childers

Amarillo’s honeymoon with its interim city manager might have hit a rocky stretch of road.

City Manager Terry Childers placed a call to the city’s central dispatch center to report an alleged theft of his briefcase. The dispatcher who took the call sought to follow a protocol that all dispatchers are required to follow. She asked Childers a series of questions: phone number, location, etc. The city manager, though, became agitated at having to answer those questions and demanded that the city send several police officers immediately to the hotel from where he was calling.

https://soundcloud.com/johnstevens-99466989/terry-childers-911

The recorded conversation is contained in the link attached to this blog post.

Perhaps the most troubling element of the conversation that Childers had with the dispatcher was when he told her “I don’t think you’re aware of who you’re dealing with.” The inference clearly was, “I am the city manager and you will do what I demand … or else.”

The dispatcher told Childers she would send someone as soon as possible. Childers said that wasn’t good enough and he said he intended to “shut down” the hotel and search it from top to bottom until he found his briefcase.

I guess my question is this: Would any “ordinary citizen” be allowed to make such demands on public emergency services personnel?

I think not.

As I listened to the recording, the dispatcher appeared to be doing her job by the book.

I am willing to give both sides the benefit of the doubt, but I do believe some explanation is in order.

 

local news

Ready for citizens panel to monitor Amarillo PD?

Let’s go carefully on the notion of setting up a citizens advisory panel to monitor the activities of the Amarillo Police Department.

The issue came up this week in a public hearing. Some residents have complained that the police department has committed acts of “brutality,” mostly against minorities and poor residents.

http://www.newschannel10.com/story/29558538/police-brutality-claims-stem-oversight-committee-proposal

Let’s hear the examples, chapter and verse.

The allegations leveled at the police department contain some tough language. The very word “brutality” connotes something quite a bit more severe than an arresting officer twisting a suspects arm a bit too aggressively while slapping on the handcuffs.

I don’t object to a citizens panel being selected to review cases of alleged brutality when they occur. But you’ve got to be careful in selecting individuals to serve on this panel. They need to be as impartial and fair in their assessment as, say, someone selected for a trial jury. There cannot be any predisposition of bias either for or against law enforcement officers.

First things first. There needs to be a compelling need for such a panel to exist. So far, I haven’t heard it.

Randall County Criminal District Attorney James Farren — himself a former police officer — noted that the system already has a “checks and balances” provision built in. He said he’s prosecuted only four police officers during his more than two decades as district attorney. OK, fine. That might be the result of grand juries’ reluctance to indict officers.

This topic has been broached once again.

Let’s talk about it. Carefully and with great care.

 

local news

Amarillo not No. 1 … and that's a good thing

It’s said occasionally that Texans like to brag about their state, their cities and towns and, oh yes, their athletic teams.

We’re No. 1, yes?

Well, a report from the FBI has given Amarillo a pass on a category that most of us wouldn’t just as soon let slide. We’re not in the top 20 most crime-ridden cities in Texas.

http://texaspolicenews.com/default.aspx?act=Newsletter.aspx&category=News+1-2&newsletterid=50330&menugroup=Home

The FBI Uniform Crime Report lists Weslaco, in far South Texas, as the most “dangerous city” in Texas. Your chances of being victimized by a criminal is one in 12. That’s the “best” ranking of any Texas city.

Only one West Texas city made this infamous Top 20 list. That would be Lubbock, which ranked No. 6; you’ve got a one in 16 chance of being hit by a criminal.

How did the big cities — the really big cities — fare? San Antonio ranked No. 5, Houston was No. 7, and Austin was No. 12.

Amarillo is in some pretty heady company by failing to appear on this list. We’re right up there with Dallas, Fort Worth, El Paso and Corpus Christi, none of which made the list either.

My friends at the Amarillo Police Department know how I feel about them. I am one of their more ardent fans. The police put their lives on the line every time they suit and hit the streets. We have an active Crimestoppers program that produces results. The city’s PD is a progressive outfit.

TexasPoliceNews.com released the study report and did so with an important caveat: “We realize that this topic is inherently controversial in nature and hits close to home. We are aware that there are many different ways to present this data, but when compiling this list we chose to consider not just murder rate, but both violent and property crimes.”

I am not going to infer that the cities that did make the list are unsafe or are havens for bad guys.

I’m just grateful that Amarillo has avoided this bit of public-relations smudge.

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Community vs. military policing

When Jerry Neal became chief of the Amarillo Police Department in 1981, he introduced a concept that was still fairly new in departments across the nation.

It is called “community policing.” It puts officers in close contact with residents. It encourages more person-to-person contact, seeking to make cops more like best pals rather than intimidating forces to be feared.

If given a choice between community police strategies and a military-style presence in our streets, I’ll stick with the former rather than the latter.

Now we hear that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has the authority to cease giving surplus military equipment to police departments. Mr. Secretary, stop the practice at least until the nation gets a clear and full understanding of what has gone so terribly wrong in Ferguson, Mo.

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/215527-pentagon-hagel-has-authority-to-suspend-program-for-arming-cops

“The secretary has the authority to rescind and take back equipment that is transferred to local law enforcement agencies if he deems fit. He has that authority,” said Pentagon Rear Adm. John Kirby.

I believe Hagel should “deem fit” a suspension of the policy that provides police agencies the surplus equipment.

Police militarization has become one of the focal points of the Ferguson upheaval, after a young black man was shot to death by a white police officer in the suburb of St. Louis. The cops responded initially with officers donning body armor and weaponry befitting a Green Beret platoon or SEAL team. Let’s just say it didn’t play well in the community.

Emotions will have to settle down considerably in Ferguson for any meaningful change to take hold.

When it’s all over, I’d settle gladly for more community policing efforts in all departments.

Maybe someone ought to call Jerry Neal, who’s now retired, and ask him for some sage advice on how this principle works.