My response to the e-mail was bumped by the List Manager was bumped because
over 10k, so I will resend in two installments.
A few responses:
David Wilson contributed:
> Eva Young wrote: Anderson's point was that McManus was great at PR over
> substance.
>
> and: I think Anderson's point was a question about how well McManus
> manages
> people. McManus didn't stay in Dayton long enough to follow through with
> his ambitious reforms.
>
> My response: What do you call McManus's experience in Washington DC?
> Chopped liver?
>
> I think that if you make your arguments based on the rather slender
> information we have about his tenure in Dayton, Ohio, then you are using a
> rather thin reed. Plus by not including his long-term executive
> experience in DC, you distort his record.
Mark Anderson:
My point wasn't that McManus doesn't have experience -- it was that we have
scant evidence of his success. Because McManus has been in Dayton such a
short time, one can't really determine his long-term effect on policing
there. I'd love to be proved wrong about the evidence by a showing of a
decrease in crime and/or thumping in a jurisdiction he was in charge of in
Washington. Has anyone heard any such thing? Instead what I've heard in
his favor is that he has experience in key areas in the past
(demonstrations, air crashes, minority relations (incl his wife, ha ha),
dealt with FBI, etc.), that his philosophy is the sort of thing we're
looking for, and he has done a great job with community relations. I'm
suitably impressed by such a background, but how much does all this have to
do with the competence and behavior of the cop on the street? I think the
professionalism of the street cop is what we most care about. Maybe McManus
is a great manager of the street cop, but I'd prefer to see evidence of this
BEFORE we hire him.
I think there's a great difference between political skills and management
skills, and I'd like to do a little segue to explain what I mean. I've
worked for medium and large companies for the last 23 years, so I've seen a
lot of bureaucratic behavior, good and bad. One of the types I often see is
the person who always "looks up" the chain of command, and almost never
"looks down." He or she spends much time palling around with his/her
bosses, creates reports for upper management with grand ideas to save money
or expand market share, and generally promotes him or herself to the muckety
mucks as the second coming. If this person is responsible for a Department,
he/she will pretty much neglect those duties as less important than the
other stuff (and not nearly as much fun). His/her idea of management is the
occasional moral building speech telling everyone how important they are to
the organization. It usually takes a few years for the bad results of such
neglect to come to the attention of the top Brass, and by then this person
is long gone to another job. Unfortunately, if such people are very skilled
at politicking, they can rise very high, wrecking many Departments along the
way. Politicos are valuable to an organization because of the energy and
ideas they bring to the group, but they should never be put in charge of
functional departments. The management folks are those that actually
implement changes in an organization, including the grand ideas the
political types come up with. At high levels, the system can work when a
management type reports to a political type, but then the competence of that
top-level manager is key. I'm sure I've over-stereotyped people into two
camps. But the key point is that I've never seen anyone who was excellent
at both politics and management.
Our current chief is a management type, and in my opinion a pretty competent
one. McManus appears to be the political type. He will succeed in Mpls if
he hires great managers underneath him, who have the competence and are
giving the authority to make the changes needed. I don't have a lot of
confidence in Mcmanus' skill at this.
Jonathon's examples of "substance":
- Rose in rank in DC from offiver to Deputy Chief
- 12 percent drop in violent crime and an 8 percent drop in property crime
during the first 18
months he was chief in Dayton.
- completely restructured how policing was done in a department that has
about 600
officers and civilian employees.
- instituted a proactive community policing philosophy.
- changed his command staff, hired two high-ranking black officers.
- created policies banning racial profiling and police pursuits.
- Direct oversight of 1,200 sworn members in DC.
- Managed regional operating budget of more than $77 million (DC).
- Member of negotiating team for 2001 FOP labor union contract in
Washington, D.C.
- Played key leadership role in planning and directing successful
operations
during three days of unrest and mass demonstration during World Bank
and Monetary Fund Conference in 2000.
- Reduced homicides by 10 percent in Central Region in 1999 using
focused law enforcement and problem-solving strategies.
- Directed continuing, significant crime reduction in three police
districts
he
commanded.
- Conceptualized and directed the Department's Anti-Prostitution Task
Force and nearly eliminated the District's entrenched prostitution
markets.
- Increased morale by elimination double-standard discipline in Dayton.
- Serves as Dayton department's liaison to gay and lesbian community.
- Implemented staffing changes designed to put more officers on the street
during high crime hours in Dayton.
- reduced police shootings by 70 percent in 1999 and 2000 "through training
and policy
changes.
- credited with raising residents' level of confidence in police and
reducing complaints
against officers by installing video cameras in squad cars in Dayton.
- The No Confidence vote was for putting restrictions on the use of deadly
force and police
chases, how can you realistically argue against that?
Mark Anderson:
Sounds like great experience. But I see very little in the way of
sustainable achievements there. The few items that indicate improvements
are over such a short time period that they are just as likely to be due to
the previous regime as to efforts by McManus (such as the drop in crime in
Dayton, and the reduced police shootings in Washington). The other items
indicate he's got experience and he makes changes, but doesn't say he has
succeeded at anything. McManus does have an impressive resume. But how
will he be at managing our police department?
Mark V Anderson
Bancroft
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