I started the tour meeting with Betty Horrigan who is the Records Unit Manager. She does most of the reports that need to go to the Federal and State governments and to other law enforcement agencies, or just reports that the Town might need. She uses the database that the Town Clerks office has as well to supplement her data. They are working on making this whole process more digital and reducing the need for the large storage space. While, of course, they keep permanent records for homicide cases there are some records that have to be kept for 99 years! Geez, who is going to be around to shred those documents? Betty oversees the clerks who help citizens who come in that need to get their car out of impoundment, get fingerprinted etc… They also answer phones and any questions that might arise. They are the public face of the administrative side of the police department.
I then went on a tour of the new police facility that it attached to the Marana Municipal Complex. (It’s really nice that all the services are located in one central place, Courts, Police, Development Services etc…). I was able to walk through the evidence room and the Crime Scene Unit. The storage system is so organized! Shelf after shelf of case files and evidence that is associated with each one…it would get exhausting trying to keep up, but those men and women over there do a great job.
Then I went up to the dispatch area. There were two dispatchers, Grace and TJ. At first I just sat and watched what they were doing. How the phone calls came in and how they redirected them to either a department or a police vehicle. They are responsible for most all of the calls that come in, not just 911. They respond to the inquiry or problem on the other end and the redirect the best they see fit. They know what questions to ask and what code goes with what problem and then send out the right officer. It was pretty impressive. They have massive computer station with five monitors each on presenting something else, location of the vehicles on patrol, phone numbers, maps of the area; you name it they can find it! They also act as support for the officers on patrol. They can ask to run a license plate or something to find out more information about someone they stopped. They have an awesome system over there!
For the rest of the afternoon I went on a ride-along with Officer Larkin. She is a newer officer, only in the department for 2 and half years, and she was great to talk to. Not only did she answer all my questions, which I’m sure was tedious; she also was able to give me a female perspective, which I appreciated. We talked about how she sees the Town growing and where policing needs are going to be.
We made one traffic stop, a guy was speeding down Tangerine, and we responded to an alarm going off in Dove Mountain at an AMAZING custom home! She told me that she likes to get to know the managers, workers and neighbors of the area she is patrolling just in case anything should happen they know to contact her. It was really reassuring knowing that there are professional and dedicated officers policing the Marana streets, not that there was any doubt of that beforehand!
PHEW! That was just day 1…
One the second day it was much more discussion. I talked with Sgt. Steve Johnson who is an incident committee member, which means he works on emergency management and disaster planning type things. We talked about how the Town prioritizes what types of disasters can occur and how to be proactive should something horrible happen. He also has the responsibilities of a commanding officer of 7-10 patrol officers. This means he handles complaints or disciplinary action that might come arise and reviews their paperwork before it goes into Betty’s storage rooms. He gave me some great advice of how to keep safe in my regular life also. Keep your keys in your hand and get off the cell phone while walking home ladies (and gentlemen).
I next sat with Judy Capen who is the Administrative Manager for the department. She does all the admin things like paying bills and submitting things to the Finance Department, processing time off requests…things like that. She told me about the awesome volunteer program the department has. She said there are about 50 people that are trained and come out to events to help direct traffic, block off roads, fingerprinting, and neighborhood watch programs. They are trained by a sworn officer and are there to help keep their community safe, which I thought was great. Not to mention that they are helping to keep costs down (sorry, that the bureaucrat in me). Judy is also the Arizona Public Safety Retirement Board Secretary and we talked quite a bit about the retirement process and approvals and benefits.
Then came the big time…my sit down the Chief Terry Rozema. We were able to talk about his new plan to move towards more “community policing” meaning that the officers are out and getting to know the managers and workers (nice job! officer Larkin) and beginning in July officers are going to be assigned to the same area when they come to work, to help build up trust between officers and residents should anything happen. He just wants to make “reasonable decisions.” Does what you are asking for, both budgetary and administrative, make sense. This is how I would run a department as well. I think it mandates more accountability and responsibility, which will then increase the service provided. We had a great talk about why we do what we do, and that is to serve the public, whether you are an admin person or a sworn officer, you are there to provide service. Ok, off the soap box.
We talked about the Town’s strategic plan for growth and how policing and safety fit into that, and also about recruiting practices including how to get the best officers to come to the Town. (Why they would not want to it beyond me). He is having a more active role in the day to day of the officers, producing videos that are sent out relaying his message for the department. He is doing all these things, in only 5 months mind you, in order to get the department up to what he thinks it should be. While it is currently great, there is always room for improvement and he gets it.
I spent the afternoon with Janice Moser, the crime analyst and Det. Joe Castillo. Janice has probably the coolest job. She works with data and maps to predict where crime has the potential to happen. She develops targets for prevention and increase patrol in order to reduce crime! She made me want to go back to school and get ANOTHER master’s to do her job. It was really awesome to see her modeling and mapping and charting the crime statistics for the Town. She also helps the detectives searching for suspects and linking them to other crimes, so they can be prosecuted by the County Attorney. She said her job is all about helping to make decisions. Could not be more true! Her maps helped prevent some truck thefts!
Detective Castillo and I sat for a while discussing how his job differs from other sworn officers. He was working on collecting evidence for some sensitive cases in order to bring them down to the Count Attorney to present for trial. They have a hard job getting interview data and searching (using Janice) for suspects. They will not take something downtown unless they are sure the suspect is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. They are hard working and have a lot of cases going at the same time, making it that much more difficult.
I just want to say thanks again to the men and women I met in the department. Criminal Justice was not an area that I studied in school and they gave me a crash course in community policing. Public Safety takes up a large portion of the general fund budget and it could not be more worth it to have people like those I talked with.
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