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Tucson Citizen - Tucson,AZ,USA
22 January 2008

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Tucson Police Department, AZ

662 Tucson cops disciplined si

Since 2002, 947 Tucson police officers have been investigated by Internal Affairs and nearly two-thirds of them have been disciplined for violating department policy, according to police records.
The violations range from losing a pager to assault. The discipline imposed ranges from counselings to firings and criminal charges.

�You may look at all the numbers and say, �Wow, the department�s really a mess,�� said Internal Affairs Division commander Lt. Vicki Reza. �But it�s really not.�
The number of infractions each year has remained constant, although the department implemented a new discipline policy two years ago.
The new policy wasn�t designed to reduce officer errors, department officials say. Rather, it makes the discipline for infractions more consistent and fair, which has occurred, they and the police officers� union say.
The Tucson Citizen reviewed a database of five years of Internal Affairs investigations. In that time, at least 13 police officers were fired and 20 suspended for at least a week for major infractions of Tucson Police Department rules, including a handful of crimes.
In the past five years, 2,709 investigations of alleged wrongdoing were conducted, focusing on 947 Tucson police officers. About two-thirds of those officers, 662, received some form of discipline.
The number of allegations, Reza said, isn�t so large when put into perspective.
A third of investigations led to no action because the employee was found either to have done nothing wrong or there was not enough evidence to support allegations of wrongdoing. Of the rest, most of the discipline was minor: oral or written reprimands. About 1 percent of investigations resulted in demotions, suspensions, resignations or firings.
Reza said that the number of complaints about officers is small when considering the amount of contact officers have with the public.
In 2006, Tucson police handled 382,504 traffic stops and calls for service but only 315 complaints, or about 0.08 percent, were made to Internal Affairs by residents.
"That doesn't include detective or special unit contact, which would be another 150,000 points of contact," said Reza, who commands the 12-employee unit, which operates on a budget of $814,150 a year.
The role of Internal Affairs is to investigate, not mete out discipline.
The discipline comes from a matrix implemented by Chief Richard Miranda in July 2005.
Miranda said he researched several discipline systems used by agencies around the nation and formed a committee to come up with one specifically for TPD.
He said the previous system, which often relied on what kind of discipline was handed out in the past, didn't meet the growing needs of the department.
"The old system lacked transparency," Miranda said. "It left people with negative perception as to the decisions made."
It also left employees guessing what discipline they may receive.
"In the past, if you worked on the South Side of town you may have had different discipline for the same infraction than if you worked on the East Side of town," said Detective Mike Gurr, head of the Tucson Police Officers Association, the officers' union. "Now people know what to expect."
Miranda agreed. "It stopped a lot of the Monday-morning quarterbacking that was going on with the old system," he said.
Tucson police Capt. Robert Shoun, professional standards division commander, said the goal of the matrix was not to correct behavior but to provide consistent guidelines and clear expectations.
"We had employees that were working their way through the rule book of violations," Shoun said. With the matrix, he said, the discipline is increased significantly with the second or third infraction in the same category and may put their jobs at risk.
"Typically, I'm disappointed when officers are fired because I have a strong emotion for this police department, and the officers who work for this agency have committed themselves to this community," Miranda said.
"When we do have to administer serious discipline, I'm disappointed for the other officers who work for the agency, because for a period of time I think there's a feeling it might reflect on them."
Miranda stressed that only a small percentage of the more than 1,000 officers in the Tucson Police Department act out in extreme ways and he does not view those extremes as a failure of the system.
"I see the system as working," he said. "We've been aggressive in terms of our investigation and in terms of our discipline."
Besides automatic investigations triggered by the matrix for incidents such as losing equipment, complaints can come from residents who report them to the department or through the Office of the Independent Police Auditor, a job created by the City Council in 1997 and held by Liana Perez since.
The public filed 315 complaints in 2006.
"Rudeness and attitude," Perez said, are the two most common complaints she hears about cops, often from the same people.
Officers also complain about other officers, with 149 such complaints in 2006.
"Officers are proud enough of the department to step up," police spokesman Sgt. Mark Robinson said. "People you work with are not going to tolerate bad behavior."
The harshest discipline is termination but some employees resign rather than be fired. The second-harshest discipline is demotion and suspension but there has been only one demotion in the past five years.
Suspensions ranged from a day to two weeks. There have been 21 suspensions of 40 hours or more since the new matrix was installed. The database didn't show the length of suspensions before 2005.
Suspensions hit police hard in the pocketbook, Gurr said.
"Sometimes we pay more for what we do than criminals pay for what they do," he said.
Gurr said a civilian crime might be punished with probation and a $200 fine. Police misconduct, even when it's not a criminal offense, can cost $1,000 or more if it comes with a 40-hour suspension.
Some officers are wary of the matrix, a trait that helps promote correct behavior, Gurr said.
"I've heard people say 'I don't want to get into the matrix,'" he said, "like it's the evil black hole and pretty soon you're spiraling down. That's just not true."
The police union, which can dispute the outcome of employee investigations, and the independent police auditor, who goes to Internal Affairs with civilian complaints, say the department does a good job.
Overall, the union disputes few of the investigations' outcomes and gets even fewer disciplines reduced. From January to September last year, Gurr said, the union filed 46 grievances, with less than half resulting in reduced discipline. He said that's about average.
Neither the union nor the Citizen Police Advisory Review Board has the authority to change a decision or sway an investigation, but they can make suggestions and look over the paperwork.

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Tucson Citizen - Tucson,AZ,USA22 January 2008

662 Tucson cops disciplined si

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Tucson Citizen - Tucson,AZ,USA
22 January 2008