Police commission reviews survey results

MOORESVILLE — The Mooresville Metropolitan Police Department Board of Commissioners met for a public meeting on Thursday night at the Mooresville Police Station, where the commission discussed the results of department surveys at the meeting.

Mooresville Police Commissioner Danny Lundy informed those present that the commission had received 26 responses out of 34 sent out, noting the high percentage of responses. Lundy said that of the 26 respondents, 23 left written comments, indicating that there was a good deal of buy-in from officers in the attempt to solicit feedback.

According to Lundy, the results showed that the department scored more than 40 percent positive in six of the 14 categories with safety and discretionary effort being the highest scoring categories.

Lundy said the department had several areas for improvement, with compensation and rewards scoring the lowest, followed by leadership, and culture and values.

He noted that based on the responses, many department employees feel underappreciated, with their individual performance and contributions going unrecognized. Lundy said that the commission wouldn’t be able to begin to address the issue without the survey responses and thanked all of those who had participated.

Incentive pay proposal

The commission discussed an incentive pay proposal at the meeting.

Lundy explained that he had been working on with Mooresville Metropolitan Police Chief Richard Allen and the Mooresville Town Council. He said he had received input from both and presented a new incentive pay proposal for approval.

Lundy said that — if approved — the new rule would make it so that new training would have to be planned for in advance based on departmental needs and budgetary constraints. Lundy explained that officers would have to apply for incentive pay training and said that the selection process would follow the same guidelines of the promotion process.

Lundy noted that whenever department officers underwent training, they became more valuable employees and said they should be recognized as such.

“The only way to properly recognize better employees is on their paycheck,” said Lundy.

Lundy noted that the proposal would not take effect unless town council approved it.

Lundy made a motion to approve General Rule 2019-01 to get the incentive pay going to the town council, which passed unanimously.

Towing

Allen and the commission revisited SOP 9.07, which mandates that towing and recovery services used by the department arrives at the scene of an incident or accident within 20 minutes.

At the previous meeting, Allen had asked the police commission to approve to the SOP, changing the 20 minute requirement to 30 minutes.

On Thursday, Allen explained that he was now asking the department change the SOP to state that towing and recovery services arrive within “a reasonable amount of time.” He said that this would give wrecker services a little bit of leeway in their arrival.

Amanda Carnell, Records Clerk for the Mooresville Police Department, presented the Wrecker Stats for the month of May to commission. Carnell also informed the commission that she spoke with law enforcement agencies in Johnson and Hendricks counties and said that their SOPs did not stipulate a time for wrecker and towing services, only requiring that they arrive within “a reasonable amount of time.”

Lundy said that he believed it was a good idea to give officers a bit of leeway given that traffic, weather, time of day and other factors could change response times.

Mooresville Police Commissioner Fred Settle said that he hadn’t changed his position on the matter from the previous meeting and said that he wanted to keep the SOP as it was, stipulating that wreckers arrive within 20 minutes. Settle said that he believed the time limit provided an incentive for the wreckers to perform better and get to the scene as quickly as possible.

Settle made a motion to keep the SOP the same for the time being that passed unanimously.

Chief’s crash

The commission also discussed disciplinary action to be taken for a recent accident that Allen had been involved in.

Allen explained that the review board could be called for a variety of things — including accidents — to see if any rules, or SOPs had been violated. Allen explained that normally the review board would bring the findings to him, but since he was involved, he stated that he believed it proper to bring them to the commission and have them take action.

Settle said that he wanted to make sure that the disciplinary action taken was fair and that Allen received the same discipline as any other officer would. Allen said that the department currently has more cars than officers, so he reissued himself a new car while his vehicle was being repaired. Allen said that previously there had only been one spare car, so previously when officers had wrecked vehicles, they had to make use of a pool car.

Mooresville Police Commission Attorney Charles Braun noted to the commission that he has been handling police discipline for over 40 years and said that he believed the review board’s recommendation to be typical for the state of Indiana.

The review board recommended that Allen have 24 hours without his take-home car and take remedial defensive driving training.

Lundy made a motion that the commission follow the recommendation of the review board that passed unanimously.

Personnel document requests

Lundy informed the commission that a town council member had made a request for a large number of documents and recordings from the police department, many of which were sensitive in nature, some going back as far as five years.

Councilwoman Jessica Hester acknowledged on social media Friday that she, in fact, had made the request. She’s the wife of former Mooresville police officer Chris Hester, who left the department about six months ago to work for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.

Among the requested documentation was all of the recorded audio and video from Allen’s accident, which was under review at the time. Lundy said that the request was made via text message and said that legal counsel for the police commission and the town council recommended that the police commission ask for a formal request in writing through a standard Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) form.

Lundy made a motion to give Allen approval to release any accident reports and associated disciplinary action to any town council member requesting them through the appropriate written procedure. Lundy also include the waiving of any fees involved in his motion. The motion passed unanimously.

Lundy said that due to the sensitive nature of some of the personnel documents, any requests for information beyond the accident reports would need to be reviewed by the commission prior to release.

Police Commission Recognition Program

Lundy said that the survey results had made it clear that the commission needs to do more and show more appreciation for officers and proposed a new rule to create a commission recognition program.

Lundy explained that the program would recognize the five-year service of officers by inviting them to the meeting. He also said that other awards and recognition could be presented at the commission’s discretion.

Settle made a motion to approve General Rule 2019-02, establishing the police commission recognition program that passed unanimously.

Leadership training

Lundy suggesting training looking for leadership and said that he had been talking with Braun and Allen about ideas.

According to Lundy, training was being looked into for those lieutenant rank and above.

In other business

• Settle made a motion to approve the minutes from the previous meeting that passed unanimously.

• Allen presented monthly statistics for the month of May to the board.

Allen reported 255 incident reports, 67 arrest reports, 171 citations, 455 warnings and 2,984 computer-aided dispatch calls. Allen also said that in April, there were 47 accident reports, 42 instances of property damage, four personal injuries, one hit-and-runs and no fatalities. According to Allen, there were 472 total 911 calls for April. Allen also stated that the department had reported 49 hours of comp time, 102.5 hours of overtime and 23,206 miles for mileage.

• Allen also provided updates on the police station to the commission. He informed them that Endeavor Communication was putting in computers, monitors, and printers. Allen said that the sidewalks poured, and that the curbs and parking lots would be completed soon. Allen explained to the commission and those present that the move-in date had been pushed back from June 24 to July 8 due to the work left to be completed and delays caused by weather.

• Allen also informed the commission that the departments three new hires would be sworn in at 10 a.m. Monday morning by Sandy Perry at the Mooresville Government Center.

The next meeting of the Mooresville Police Commission will be 6 p.m. on July 8 at the Mooresville Police Station, 104 W. Main St.

~ By Anthony Woodside | Reporter | Published June 21, 2019 in The Mooresville Times