Steve Minn's extraordinary missive is an eye-opening supplement to what's
been said from several political angles now.
If all of this opposition is substantive as it appears to be, why would this
City Council cave to a re-appointment? Seem strange to me, someone who
doesn't live with his system day-to-day, but whose only contacts with and
information about his department have been negative.
--
Andy Driscoll
835 Linwood Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55105-3325
651-293-9039
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> From: "Steve Minn" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001 19:47:14 -0600
> To: "Multiple recipients of list" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Chief Olson Rant
>
> I APOLOGISE IN ADVANCE FOR THIS RATHER LONG RANT ABOUT CHIEF OLSON.
>
> Chief Olson, in my opinion, is one of those technocrat/politicians that give
> police management a bad name, but reinforces how politicians can manipulate
> or control departments to the detriment of the public good.
>
> By means of disclosure...I never supported Olson, and in fact voted against
> and and objected to his predecessor, John Laux. I was always supported by
> the Police Federation in my elections, but opposed them on issues important
> to me like off-duty work, compression of promotion and certain pension
> issues. I guess my standards for a Chief are/were different that SSB's. I
> believe she passed over several good internal candidates, many of whom have
> left the department and are managing suburban departments in the metro area.
>
> To me, the measure of a good chief is someone who both inspires and
> motivates the troops on the street, while instilling public confidence in
> programs or practices that assure balance in law enforcement. Olson misses
> on all counts. He is uninspiring as a policy thinker. In fact, he is nothing
> better than a yes-man copy cat. SSB told him to get a NYC-type program after
> William Bratton and Rudy Guiliani turned NYC around. CODEFOR...is really
> nothing more than a rip-off of New York City's program. Typical Olson
> implementation though...he implements the street action first, without
> getting agreement from, or putting into place any of the infrastructure in
> the court system that made the NYC program so successful. All COEFOR did in
> Minneapolis was choke our courts and booking units, without the resources or
> prosecutorial agreements to expedite the arrests and put the repeat
> offenders in jail or prison for extended periods of time. (Want to read how
> the program really was supposed to work? Read: Turnaround by William
> Bratton)
>
> Olson is a terrible judge of people and managerial talent,and can not stand
> to be questioned by his troops. Rather than work to learn what good there
> was on the force,and who could motivate and help him professionalize the
> department's weak areas; Olson focused immediately on who would take orders
> from him and who would not oppose him. Two Deputies, Schultz and Jones fit
> this profile, as did two key Inspectors, Morris and Lubinski Only Deputy
> Greg Hestness...a great Chief candidate himself has had the guts over time
> to oppose the Chief internally. He was banished from the Patrol Division to
> the Administrative assignment. Olson retains him because Hestness has the
> loyalty of many senior commanders on the street, those that are left.
> Capable Inspectors have been punished for speaking freely. Olson demoted
> Inspector Bill O'Rourke, (he held an interim rank of Captain, too) because
> O'Rourke openly complained of CODEFOR implementation and the purpose of the
> Lake Street gimmicks. He punished Inspector Brad Johnson -- beloved by his
> troops at 5th Precinct -- by transferring him to Third Precinct in
> O'Rourke's place. Johnson's crime was to half-heartedly implement CODEFOR @
> 5th, but on his own, initiate MOBILEBEAT...a much more effective resource
> allocation tool. O'Rourke is now Chief in Prior Lake. Johnson... probably
> will be the next suburban Chief somewhere. To punish outspoken Council
> Members like myself and Lisa McDonald, Olson sent Christine Morris to 5th
> Precinct. An incompetent fool if there ever was one. Another political
> directive. Morris' performance was so disastrous at 4th Precinct that the
> CM's served by that area demanded Olson do something. He had to transfer her
> somewhere...and 5th is where she went. Its not coincidence that 60% of the
> Sergeants and Lt's that worked for Brad Johnson at 5th, transferred out of
> Morris' command within 15 months. And this, from a facility that was brand
> new, where the numbers were good, and the crime relatively low. The
> residents of SW Minneapolis still wave at the cops from 5th Pct. with all
> five fingers...so...you do the math. Eventually, Morris will have to be
> dumped. She's just incompetent.
>
> Slowly, Olson has been pushing out the old, and hiring and promoting his own
> people, who first and foremost have to understand that this Chief is not to
> be questioned. Over 70% of the Minneapolis street complement of 1990 had
> over 10 years or more street experience. Today, 70% of the street complement
> has five years or less! In 1990, 90% of the Lt's, Captains and Inspectors
> had 20 years or more experience. Today half have less than 15 years
> experience. The less experience you have, the more likely you are to make
> mistakes. Olson refused to embrace elimination/merger of the Inspector and
> Captain positions into the permanent rank of Commander. He rejected the
> Corporal rank as a means of recognizing street experience of our most senior
> street officers, and compressing the promotions to Sergeant This would have
> bumped officer promotional opportunity, helping retain good officers, It
> would have also reduced pension costs.
>
> I could go on about all the proper reasonable or even positive initiatives
> that were ignored by Olson, because he either didn't have the courage or the
> ability to implement them, but I have already ranted enough. It's too bad
> that Olson will only get 2 or 3 votes of opposition. He deserves to be fired
> altogether.
>
> Steve Minn
> Formerly of Lynnhurst
> ----------
>> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> To: Multiple recipients of list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> Subject: MPLS-ISSUES digest 924
>> Date: Sat, Jan 6, 2001, 7:22 PM
>>
>
>> Date: Sat, 06 Jan 2001 18:41:30 -0600
>> From: Annie Young <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED],
>> Subject: Re: Chief Olson
>> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>
>> Well, I have not wanted to get into the "Police" discussion but after
>> Wizard's remarks which rings home of many facts I've thought or knew of
>> over the years I did come to realize that there is another alternative
>> besides the "ranting, raving and protesting" about Olson which probably
>> will not get a change of heart inside the great walls of City Hall this
>> year. But this is the year we get to ask the candidate's all kinds of
>> questions... so as Wizard states, the Mayor chooses the Chief. Question to
>> candidates for Mayor: will you consider a change from the current Chief if
>> you are elected - and what kind of a Chief would a new "Chief" person be?
>> This should give us a pretty good clue as to the kind of City we want
>> Minneapolis to be as we live, work and play in the new century and
>> millennium. I plan to use the seventh generation as one of my measures for
>> who I select to govern our beautiful city - how about you?
>> That's my two cents worth on this topic for the moment.
>
