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May 22, 2003
Omnibus Public Safety Agency Reform Amendment Act of 2003 (Bill 15-34) and Other Legislation
Michael J. Fitzgerald
Executive Assistant Chief of Police
Metropolitan Police Department
Chief Charles H. Ramsey delivered the following statement to the Committee on the Judiciary, the Honorable Kathy Patterson, Chair, Council of the District of Columbia, on May 22, 2003.
Madame Chair, members of the Committee, staff and guests – Chief Ramsey had to leave town unexpectedly because of a death in his family. He has asked me to represent the Department at today’s hearing. I have a prepared statement that I would like to read into the record, and then staff and I will be happy to answer any questions you may have. As is customary, the text of this statement is posted on the Police Department’s Web site.
Last October, as you know, Chief Ramsey presented detailed testimony on the Public Safety Reform Amendment Act of 2002. Most of that testimony remains applicable today, so I will refer the Committee to the Chief’s earlier statement. I do, however, want to re-emphasize some key points that were made last October, and offer a few additional ideas endorsed by the Chief, as you continue your deliberations on this important piece of legislation.
- First is the matter of the educational requirement for new recruit officers. Beginning in 2004, District law will require candidates to have completed 60 semester hours of college to be eligible for hire. The Department continues to support the enhanced educational requirement for officers, but would like to propose two modifications. First, we recommend that the 60 semester hours be required of recruits by the time they graduate from the Academy, not prior to being hired. Many good recruit officer candidates are very close to 60 hours when they are hired – in fact, the average recruit today already has approximately 13.5 years of education. Their time in the Academy will give many qualified recruits the opportunity to complete their educational requirement. The Department is currently working with members of the Consortium of Universities to make some of our Academy courses eligible for college credit, which would further support this recommendation. Second, the Department would support giving the Police Training and Standards Board the authorization to waive the educational requirement in certain cases, pursuant to standards established via rulemaking.
- The second area involves additional compensation for key personnel. The Department supports our Emergency Response Team members receiving additional “hazardous duty” pay, as proposed in this legislation. In addition, we would like the Committee to consider providing the Chief with authorization to offer additional “tech pay” to our PSA team leaders. As you know, the Department is proposing to restructure the PSA boundaries, which would reduce the overall number of PSAs from 83 to 39. As a result, PSAs will be geographically larger and there would be additional personnel to manage in most instances. Not only would the added compensation be a well-deserved benefit for our PSA leaders, it might also encourage more of them to remain in those demanding positions, thus ensuring greater continuity of leadership in our PSAs.
- Regarding adverse actions, the legislation as currently proposed would institute a mandatory, 45-working-day limit on initiating adverse actions against employees. As was detailed at the October hearing, our Department supports the goal behind this proposal – to ensure that adverse action is not indiscriminately or unfairly meted out months after an alleged violation occurs – but we continue to oppose the absolute 45-day limit, especially in complex investigations that may require more time. As an alternative, we would propose that the mandatory 45-day standard be removed, and that employees be given the opportunity to demonstrate how their ability to defend themselves was materially affected by any delay in the initiation of an action beyond 45 days. Supervisors will need to justify, in writing, any delay in investigations beyond the 45-day standard, and they will be held accountable, through their regular performance management plans, for completing investigations in a timely manner.
- In the area of physical standards for sworn members, we recommend that physical exams be required annually, not every other year as proposed. And for efficiency and convenience, we also recommend that members be given the option of having their own physician conduct the annual physical, with the costs covered by the member or his or her insurance. In addition, we once again recommend that requirements for regular psychological exams and physical agility tests be deleted from the legislation.
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