PPOA Board Member
Crime Analyst, LASD
jwalker@ppoa.com
Election season for the PPOA Board arrived last month, and I was honored to find no one filed to run against me, so I will be around for at most another two years. My plan was to leave sooner, but life can be unpredictable.
As I start my final term on the PPOA Board representing Unit 621, I want to share some goals for our members.
The issues affecting the future reconfiguration of the desk operations/dispatch need to be more transparent and more publicized. The plans to have our dispatch function more centralized are being discussed at the highest levels of the Department, but I want to make sure this information is made available to our PPOA people and our members. So, expect a lot more updates here. So far, I have seen very little in writing as to what the grand plan is.
For all of us who grew up in the Department, the way it works now has always seemed perfect. Citizens of L.A. County call 9-1-1, and the calls are immediately routed to their local stations. And when I say immediate, I mean immediate. I grew up in the LAPD Northeast Division, and it was very common to call 9-1-1 in the early ’90s and get a recording.
That was why when I was on the Department for a few years, I made sure to move to the Sheriff’s area (Temple City), where response times were lightning fast and the LET or Deputy answering your 9-1-1 call was sitting at a station nearby. I have heard that there is talk about changing this configuration, something that I personally think is a terrible idea and that I am sure our citizens would agree does not enhance public safety. A very smart person I know at the Sheriff’s Communication Center told me that there are no dispatch systems available “out there” that can match our current setup. This will be something I will watch closely, and remember that what’s best for our members is also what’s best for the residents of our communities.
Our crime analysts continue to face unique challenges. Because our work products and names are often put out to the public, PPOA has recently had to fend off issues of citizens attempting to find personal information about our analysts. I will keep you posted on this. Another recent issue that was dropped on our laps was something no one ever dreamt could occur.
For 30-plus years, our Narcotics Bureau has had an assigned crime analyst. For all those years, it was one person, and they used her unique skills to assist the bureau operations in many excellent ways. When she retired earlier this year, close to a half-dozen seasoned analysts expressed interest in the open spot. With the opioid crisis tearing our country apart and so many fentanyl deaths, being the crime analyst at Narco Bureau would be an awesome job. Imagine being able to support Narco crews and patrol with drug-sale hot spots, arrest trends and instant updates on overdoses and even cartel actives. A super specialized job like that is even something that we could bring forth in negotiations as a job so special that it deserved a bonus in the same way Narco detectives make more than other sworn spots.
Well, someone thought otherwise. While we are still trying to sort out exactly what happened, someone in authority decided that this vitally important spot would not be filled by a highly trained and credentialed crime analyst. It would not be filled by someone with years of station experience who knows the demographics and crime trends of each area. It would not be filled by someone with years of law enforcement experience. Instead, somehow, they decided that a National Guardsman with no background in the Sheriff’s Department is going to sit on that position instead, snatching away one of the most highly coveted positions in the Department. No one was told of this until he was already “working” in the position. Unfortunately, the Department did not follow our longtime policy of “meet and confer,” where they let us know their ideas, and we work it out together.
No one can really figure out where the precedence of replacing budgeted items of represented employees could be substituted by active or reserve members of the armed forces. Those of us who follow U.S. history can recall that there is a long history in the U.S. of avoiding inserting state or federal military personnel in local policing as much as possible. This is why we don’t see soldiers patrolling the streets unless there is a clearly stated emergency, and the No. 1 goal is to get them in as fast as possible, get the task accomplished and get them out as soon as possible.
What’s next? Replacing deputy vacancies with National Guardsmen? Stay tuned for updates on this extremely new development. Email me at JWalker@ppoa.com.