Frank L. Milstead Seattle Chief’s Process 2014 1. Describe your realistic 5-year vision for the City of Seattle Police Department? What specifically will success look like after year one? Three? Five? 2. As specifically as you can – describe three operational/tactical actions you will take to achieve success in year One? Five? 3. What is the ideal relationship between the Police Chief and the Mayor, including in terms of engagement and autonomy? 4. Describe how in your first three months and first year you will prioritize establishing internal and external relationships and who/what groups fit in each category? 1. The success rendered in year five we be predicated on the goals set in year one. The bonds with the community and the strength of relationships realized in year five will be the direct results of efforts in years’ one through three. The DOJ will have returned control of the Department as we will have met and exceeded the terms of the Consent Decree and illustrated two-years of ongoing consistency and compliance. The Department will have a new look both figuratively and literally. Officers will instinctively recognize the mission of the Department and respond accordingly. Policing with honor, integrity, courage and empathy will not be a banner or a slogan, instead they will be indissoluble values that will not be compromised. Beginning year five, the appearance of the uniforms and the patrol cars will have changed. Implementation of new uniforms, radio cars and seamless community cohesion and interaction will be something of firm reality. Members of city government and the community will have as much confidence in our officer’s decisions at 2:00 AM as we do at 3:00 o’clock in the afternoon. We will have confidence that our officers are making decisions based upon sound judgment, training and values that will not be merely expected, it is all that will be accepted. Said expectations will be implemented my first day as the Chief of Police. Claims of enforcement based bias or misapplication of force will be rare, albeit ideally non-existent and if such instances are to occur they will be investigated with attention to detail, due-process, veracity and timeliness. There will be a reduction in the need for review and auditing from sources outside the Department, as we will have fully embraced a system of self-auditing and investigation that lends to intrinsic integrity. As a result of public confidence we will have public support for new capital improvement projects and staffing. Year One      DOJ compliance will have been completed or we will near closure. I realize work has been completed on conformity issues, but I will instill great emphasis on the remaining issues, facilitating forward movement toward the stage of maintenance and consistency. I will direct review of all policies to ensure they are up to national standards. I will lead the Seattle Police Department once again to the pinnacle of policing techniques and innovation. At the end of the first year all policies will have reviewed and updated. I will review the acumen and dedication of the training section staff, those who have failed to adapt and embrace the change to policy will be replaced. Robust community outreach will be instituted. I will develop teams of management and line officers that will rebuild relationships with the various demographics of our community. The executive team will fully engaged in this outreach process, illustrating to the lower levels of the Department its level of significance. I will meet every member of the Department. I will establish focus groups that meet each month, so we can deal with issues that are personal to the employees, apply a remedy to those that have gone unrecognized. The chief and his executive team must spend time with mid-management and line level troops. This time will spent identifying their needs to continually set the culture for the Department moving into the future. This work is never complete; it is a sphere that must be necessarily infinite. I will build a durable relationship between all of the bargaining units within the Police Department. I believe most things can be handled informally, but this has to be based on trust from both sides. Ostensibly, we are looking for the best for our employees. Year Three I will have lead the way to meeting and exceeding the requirements of the consent decree. We will establish consistency in the changes for a minimum of two-years. This will ensure the DOJ returns control of the Department during year three. Frank L. Milstead Seattle Chief’s Process 2014   The mission and goals of the city and executive team is demonstrated in the day-to-day operations within the Department. Cultural change will be apparent and notably evident in respect to application of force and bias policing. Conduct a city-wide survey of citizens to bench mark the performance and respect of the community. Year Five See Paragraph one 2. Describing the implementation of a tactical action I am answering in the context of a tangible action taken in pursuit of success and positive outcomes. Taking such actions is often incumbent on ancillary dynamics. It is evident; the morale of the officers has been affected by the variables of policy and governance. Therefore, in order to have a constructive impact on morale it is imperative I achieve effective communication and interaction with the monitoring group and the Seattle Police Officers Guild. In so doing, I can now personally deliver our goals and missions to the employees of the Seattle Police Department. Examining the leadership and buy-in of the personnel on the Department, ensuring I get the right people in the right positions. This in and of itself will move us forward. Year One    Review and meet with all command staff personnel. Identify their strengths weaknesses and commitment to change and compliance with the DOJ. Assign people to leadership roles in which they excel or have committed experience. I am a firm believer in mentoring and developing staff, but that will be secondary to the immediate needs of department. Those who are not motivated or fail to embrace the change will be removed from the Department as personnel rules allow. It obvious that there is already much frustration on multiple fronts with the slow response to the consent decree and I will change that perception. Meet with the monitor and Federal Judge. Use that meeting to start a positive relationship. There is little doubt that they have specific areas of concern that I can address immediately. There will also be secondary issues that will be of significant importance. One of the key appointments in the administration is the assistant chief and captain assigned to the compliance team. They must work with a sense of urgency and commitment to fulfilling the compliance issues. The employees of the Department are the face of the Department, palpably, members of the community will deal with an officer on a regular basis, not the Chief. It is essential I develop and provide a mission and direction for the Department based on the policies and recommendations of the Consent Decree, but equally based on my leadership and direction for the Department. The goals and mission of the Monitoring Group and of me must be clear and definitive. All too often I have read policing plans that are so complex the employees don’t grasp nor glean the goal or mission. Therefore providing our employees a definitive and stated mission and direction would be time critical. Year five     Citywide comprehensive Survey of the Police Department. Respond accordingly. Perception is reality. Ensure the Training Unit is updating modules as needed. Continue and enhance community outreach. Provide additional advanced training and ensure compliance.   Meet with all demographic advisory groups to ensure the Department has continual connectivity and is meeting their needs. Conduct on-on-one meetings with Mayor and Council to ensure we have a united focus on community needs and outreach. 3. Whether in my personal or professional life, my experience has confirmed relationships are predicated on trust. And while many people may echo such sentiments or beliefs, what is most important is living by those beliefs and recognizing the type of trust necessary for a successful relationship. I would coin the type of trust between the Mayor and the Chief of Police to be one of ‘empathetic-trust.’ It is imperative I recognize and understand the challenges facing the Mayor. Moreover, it I critical that he can trust the information I provide him is timely, candid, accurate, and accountable. The practice of ‘empathetic-trust’ is one based on reciprocation; with candid and trusted communication, more can be accomplished, thus avoiding assumptions and group-think. Pragmatically, this is a very challenging time for the relationship between the City of Seattle as a community and the Seattle Police Department. I recognize the relationship Mayor Murray and I share will need to “hit the ground running” from the first day. Although email and text seem to have become our millennial culture of communication, I am a believer in face to face communication and phone calls on matters of significance or concern, or even those I think could rise to such a level. Beyond casual discourse I hope to enjoy with the Mayor, I would expect the Mayor to receive a “State of the Department Report” from me on a weekly basis and receive a quarterly report that would be open to the media to discus successes and challenges. Even casual discourse develops communicative bonds and ease with communication. I also recognize I am the only one responsible for the decisions I make. Historically I have proven I will always take responsibility for the Police Department and the decisions I make, I do not and will not default to others particularly the Mayor. Leadership of a police department is a challenging undertaking, ownership for leadership decisions is an imperative characteristic that I possess. I also recognize, the Mayor provides me the platform to lead and succeed. He should share in the success we accomplish. Choreographing media response to successes with the Mayor and his staff is critical to success for all of us, but most of all the community. As the community recognizes we are united in our pursuit of reclamation of reputation, it is my belief the realization of our goals should be celebrated collectively. We as a Police Department should be leading the nation in practices and procedure. As we realize these accomplishments, which we will, the Mayor and his staff should be viewed as a pillar of that success. 4. It is imperative to find a balance between internal and external relationships, to an extent they are symbiotic, each group must know their input is valued and validated. The validity of these relationships will be the basis and latitude with which the Department can successfully navigate and evolve. The cultivation and construction of these relationships must take place in almost a synchronized fashion in order for one to benefit the other. The goal is one of informal and in some cases formal unity between the community and the Police Department. The Community must feel it is “their Department” and the Department must feel it is “their community”. Often during the course and phasing of cultural redefinition of organizations, particularly law enforcement organizations, leaders will note a bunker mentality has taken root. As a result, the care and compassion for the employees was forgotten while carving the path to redefinition. If in fact this is the case, building unity with the community will be a more difficult task if the employees do not first feel appreciated and valued. In fact, this would be one of the first simultaneous places to start. The women and men of the Department must believe in and trust their leader, they may not always agree or like the direction, but they must respect the integrity of the leader. This trust and followership affords many Frank L. Milstead Seattle Chief’s Process 2014 more applications of building community partnerships and trust. Historically, police employees glean and garner their valuation through peers, police leaders and mayoral and political support. Conversely, community members may be more apt find their support and voice through neighborhood or geographic connections. But more importantly, in my 30-years of law enforcement experience and life experience for that matter, I recognize many people who often feel underrepresented find deeper and more immediate identification based on ethnicity, orientation, culture or religious identity and beliefs. It is within this critical diversity we must identify the formal and informal leaders. They will be the people who will carry the clout to facilitate change and carry on the message of the mission. Building these relationships with the community must be cultivated and strengthened year after year. Community bonds are not a temporary panacea for corrective action, they are a foundation that strengthens the trust of the community with the Police Department. During times of crisis, these relationships will be critical for the peace and coalescence that couples the community and the Police Department. With the implementation of Compstat, officer accountability and beat accountability, we can accurately track and set standards for each diverse neighborhood. My idea is to Compstat each geographic area and to implement beat accountability strategies that will ensure the same officers are working the same beats to build community relationships. This allows for each of our diverse community’s to recognize an officer of the year in their neighborhood. Those selected officers would receive official recognition from the Chief’s Office in an awards ceremony and a ribbon they can wear proudly on their uniform. While this seems like a simple coupling it is not. An officially recognized departmental award presented by citizens groups to officers transcends novelty, it is a tangible declaration that we are together in our pursuit of public trust and public safety.