This is Chief William McManus' testimony from this afternoon in front of the City's Public Safety and Regulatory Services Committee. McManus is Mayor Rybak's nominee for Chief of Police. The City Council will vote on his nomination January 16.
Thank you for this opportunity to share my philosophy on the role of community and police in making our neighborhoods safe. I will also spend a few minutes sharing a few specific examples of how I handled public safety situations in Washington, D.C., and Dayton, where I've spend nearly 30 years in law enforcement. I hope this will give you a clear picture of the kind of leadership I will provide here in Minneapolis if I'm chosen to be the city's next police chief. It is impossible to understate the value of community involvement in contemporary policing. Police officers can no longer simply drive around on patrol and "arrest away" chronic crime and disorder in our neighborhoods and expect to be effective. Police have tried that for decades. It's never worked in the past, and it's not an option for the future -- especially in light of shrinking budget dollars. Police and community leaders must actively look to create strategies that work. Crime prevention -- law enforcement's ultimate goal and true solution to public safety concerns -- can only occur through true partnerships between police and the community we serve. Community and police must work together to set priorities and strategies for making neighborhoods safe for our families. Community policing is not some "warm and fuzzy" approach to such serious problems as drug dealing, gangs, and predators that victimize law abiding citizens. It is a smart, collaborative, big-picture approach to tackling crime and, equally as important, fear of crime. Mutual trust is a key ingredient to successful partnerships. Community policing is no exception. This works both ways: police must embrace the communities they serve, and communities must likewise embrace the officers who put their lives on the line every day to keep peace and order. It is critical for both sides to address differences and conflicts that may arise and then work together toward common goals. Police officials in leadership roles have the responsibility to bridge differences that may exist in the police culture and community expectations. Police and the communities they both serve both benefits from a team approach. It deepens the connection both groups feel -- cops and communities take more ownership, and police aren't seen as an anonymous sea of blue that descends on a neighborhood only to dust off their hands and then disappear after a few quick arrests. Officers who are more engaged with the community to solve problems find their jobs more rewarding. The recent mediation agreement was one of the best examples of what can happen when police and community roll up their sleeves and work together to find common ground. Building strong relationships and good will up front and not waiting until a critical incident occurs is imperative to improving and maintaining a solid police-public partnership. Citizen police academies, working proactively with the media, and consistent communication cascading from the top of the department are ways to accomplish that goal. This type of approach guarantees a reasonably high level of support for the police and ensures that both police and community are strategically and philosophically aligned. I'd like to share some of the countless public safety challenges that I've faced in my nearly 30 years in law-enforcement: a Presidential assassination attempt when I was a young officer, investigation and follow-up of a major bombing, rescue and recovery efforts of the Air Florida crash into the Potomac River after hitting the 14th Street Bridge on a snowy winter evening, the shooting of the Mayor and subsequent simultaneous take-over of the City Council chambers and B'nai British Jewish Center by the Hanfi Muslims, planning and providing security for no fewer than four presidential inaugurations, the assassination of a DC police sergeant and two FBI agents in DC Police HQ, planning and providing security and traffic control for the week of events leading up to and after the NBA All-Star game in 2000. No city has more demonstrations that the nation's capitol. As a police official, I played a leadership role in planning for, and managing from the front-line, countless demonstrations both large and small, some violent and some not, that routinely occur in the District of Columbia every day. They ranged from anti-war, animal rights, and anti-abortion protests and bike rallies. My strategy was always to allow free speech and to attempt de-escalation before things could get out of hand. It was not always an easy balancing act, but I'm proud of the fact that in most instances we were able to successfully avoid confrontation. Many of these events involved working alongside the FBI, ATF and other federal agencies. Let me now fast-forward to the last major event I was involved with in DC- the crash of an airliner into the Pentagon on 9/11. This one event forever affected the lives so many people, not to mention the lives of the hundreds of public safety personnel and federal agents involved in the investigation, recovery, and clean-up efforts. Street prostitution is a problem in every major city and DC was no exception. As Assistant Chief, I worked with neighborhoods and residents in the Logan Circle and Thomas Circle sections to implement various strategies that significantly reduced a chronically entrenched prostitution market. Because prostitution was so severe, the effort required a community-police partnership even stronger than the prostitution problem itself. Through this combined, persistent and focused approach, residents were finally able to sleep in peace at night without constant traffic and carrying-on in residential neighborhoods. As Commander of First Precinct and then as Assistant Chief, I worked closely with the Downtown Business Improvement District. In the months, weeks and days before and during the World Bank and WTO demonstrations in DC I made sure the business community was informed on how the overall police operations plan would protect their establishments. Also, along with the First Precinct Commander and the BID, we initiated "Operation Outta Sight" to reduce thefts from vehicle in the downtown area. In those same positions, I worked with neighborhood leaders in southeast DC to move a violent, open-air drug market out of their neighborhood - an area similar to the Jordan neighborhood. It took some time and considerable effort, but we were successful. Again, as Precinct Commander and then as an Assistant Chief, I worked with community leaders and the African-American clergy in the North Capitol Street corridor to reduce gang-related violence in that area. Through police-clergy intervention and assistance from the Department of Recreation we reduced the number of youth-related homicides and assaults to nearly zero the year following the implementation of the partnership. I would take this kind of collaborative approach in Minneapolis as your chief. In Dayton, we worked with residents and community leaders to reduce five chronic call locations in each precinct. Results were significant: calls for police were significantly reduced, crime reductions ranged between 16 and 39 percent. As Chief in Dayton, we implemented a community policing model that helped reduce violent crime approximately 10 percent and property crime approximately six percent in 2003. Few events frighten a community more than unsolved, violent crimes. Nationally, the homicide clearance rate is worsening, meaning far too many criminals are able to roam free and commit new crimes. Minneapolis is no exception. The unwillingness of citizens to cooperate with police is often a key problem. As Assistant Police Chief working with the community in DC and using focused law enforcement strategies, we were able to reduce homicides by 10 percent in the Central Region. In closing, hard working officers need support up the entire chain of command so they don't feel as though they're on their own and isolated. Police managers must provide them with the tools and training they need to do their jobs in an exceptional way. If I am selected Chief of Police in Minneapolis, it will be my duty and responsibility to set the tone, and the tone promises respectful, professional policing, and accountability -- starting at the top. As I said in the beginning, it can't be done without a close working relationship with the community. Thank you for your attention. Laura Sether Office of Mayor Rybak Standish-Ericsson REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 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