What is the Common Denominator?
1995
2005
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50 to 70 officers below authorized strength
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100 to 140 officers below authorized strength
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low moral
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very low moral
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perceived heavy handed discipline by the rank and file
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perceived heavy handed discipline by the rank and file
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no confidence vote in the Chief
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no confidence in Chief
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high crime rate
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high crime rate
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record number of homicides
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near record number of homicides
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elimination of 1 Police District
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2 Police Districts eliminated
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downsizing with the elimination of CO positions
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downsizing with the elimination of CO positions
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elimination of the Street Corner Narcotics Task Force
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elimination of the Street Crimes and Gang Units, narcotics unit cut by over 50%
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seized drug money put it into City coffers instead of using it for the Police Department
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seized drug money put it into City coffers instead of using it for the Police Department
The common denominator is that Jerry Abramson was Mayor then and he is Mayor now. Mayor Abramson said in his press conference the other day that public safety is his number one concern. That is obviously not the case. The Mayor also used his press conference and interview to report that "He Knew" the FOP survey was biased, that every question was biased and that one person filled out multiple surveys. p> Here is a little history behind the questionnaire. Back on the early 90's, Jerry Abramson used to have the Southern Police Institute conduct a yearly evaluation of the Chief of Police through the form of a questionnaire sent out "randomly" to members of the department. Amazingly they kept coming back with glowing reports akin to the Chief having the near ability to walk on water and that he was universally loved by all. Well the FOP and the majority of the Officers did not agree. It seemed everyone that we talked to back then didn't't fill out a survey, and nobody on the Board of the FOP received one. Abramson's allegation that one person filled out multiple forms was an idea he seemed to already had considered back in 1995.
The FOP conducted their own questionnaire based upon the questions used in the SPI questionnaire, however there was no randomness as to who received one. EVERY member of the FOP that was actively employed by the Louisville Police Department received one. 644 questionnaires were sent out and 456 were returned to the Lodge. (70.80%) When the results were tallied there was no longer any doubt that the Officers doing the job and riding the beats felt that Chief Hamilton was headed in the wrong direction and that the Mayor was blindly allowing him do continue on. (Sound familiar?) The results were 90.41% in a vote of NO CONFIDENCE.
Recently when FOP President Dotson decided that circumstances were once again becoming intolerable for the men and women of the Police Department he authorized a questionnaire about current Police Chief Robert White. We decided that the questions used in 1995, taken from the SPI questionnaire were as valid today as they were back then. Several new questions were added to address current situations. EACH member of the Louisville Metro Police Department was sent a questionnaire to their home address with a return addresses and pre-paid postage metered FOP Lodge 614 envelope. Nobody sat around filling out multiple surveys. To ensure the validity of the process only a handful of people were allowed to tally the results.
Mayor Abramson has repeatedly questioned the validity of the FOP's questionnaire. In 1995 the Louisville Board of Aldermen took note of the results and had the author's of the SPI Questionnaire, Dr. Debra Wilson and then FOP President Rick McCubbins in at their monthly Aldermanic Meeting to ask them about the strange differences in the results. When Aldermanic President Barbara Gregg asked Dr. Wilson if the Board could review the questionnaires themselves to ensure the findings were accurately portrayed, she informed the Board that they had been destroyed. When they asked her who gave her the authority to destroy property paid for by City Government funds, she replied that she thought the County Government paid for it. When the Aldermanic President asked Cubby about the FOP questionnaire he invited them all to come to the Lodge that they were more than welcome to review the results themselves. Who was hiding what??
Jerry claims conducts his own survey by talking to Officers all the time in Kroger and such and nobody ever tells him about problems on the Police Department. We encourage and support the mayor to have an independent group conduct a questionnaire if he questions the validity of the FOP's Survey.
Strange that after 10 years, history seems to have repeated itself.