A first-reading ordinance read by Township Attorney Ira Karasick was added at the last minute at last night’s Township Council meeting established the position of a police director, with only Councilor McMahon casting the only vote against it.
McMahon spoke to Baristanet and said he thinks “it’s entirely unnecessary,” and had much more to say on the issue:
There probably would be few, if any, issues if the Town Manager would work with the Chief and accede to his continuing request to appoint a replacement for Deputy Chief Perry Mayer who left almost 2 years ago.” Failure to work cooperatively has engendered several lawsuits for which Chief Sabagh has undeservedly taken the brunt of the blame. The Council, in June as I recall, gave the Town Manager an assistant’s position which he has yet to fill. Now he wants yet another assistant to add a layer of bureaucracy just to deal with the Police Department. A little cooperation between the Manager and the Chief would resolve most of the issues. Rather, the Manager seems to want to insulate himself from his own statutory responsibilities while blaming the Chief for the discord the Manager himself has sown. I don’t think this is anyway to run an airline. The Manager should appoint the Deputy Chief and put any remaining resources toward boots on the ground rather than to continue to sow the seeds of discontent and undermine the workings of an otherwise outstanding Police Department.
Baristanet also reached out to Township Manager Dashield and Mayor Jackson for response. Dashield has not responded at this time.
Mayor Jackson explained that the Director’s position will be funded instead of the vacant Deputy Chief position making the budget neutral. He added “The Township Council feels that it is important to bring greater oversight and strategic management to the MPD and has determined that a Police Director is the right move.”
This is already a bloated and ineffective police department. Adding more bureaucracy will make matters worse. Reduce the number of police officers in the town, starting with the ones who occupy desks.
idratherbeat63 – with all the crime in town, how could you say reduce the PD’s staffing? Ask Newark/Trenton/Camden how that’s working out for them, on pace to set a new homicide records. The Chief apparently has a discord with the Manager and Town Council, thats apparent. If only one council person is agreeing with the Chief while the other 6 feel he is doing a horrible job, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck…
The Chief has the authority to recommend a replacement for the departed Deputy Chief. I don’t believe he has made one. If I’m wrong, please someone give us the name of the Chief’s suggestion, that was apparently NOT approved by the Manager. If you want real change, sometimes you have to start at the top, not with the troops on the ground (or desk as you put it).
I beat this drum repeatedly during the campaign and will do it one more time here: The Police Department has more captains and deputy chiefs than any comparable neighboring department, and more than it needs. We have captains commanding patrol shifts when other towns have lieutenants performing the same function. I’m not for demoting anyone, but as these very senior positions become vacant, we simply should not fill them. The budget savings should be used to hire more patrol officers, which we badly need.
Some towns have civilian police directors, others have sworn chiefs. Very few have both, and in my opinion Montclair should not join this small club. I don’t pretend to know what’s going on between Chief Sabagh and the Manager/Council, but whatever it is, the solution isn’t to spend money putting someone over the Chief’s head. Rich McMahon is right that these issues should be worked out among the existing players, and if they can’t be worked out, then determine which party is to blame for that breakdown and take action.
What Jeff said. And it’s a further reminder to the fine people of Montclair what a horrid mistake they made last election. And, by the way, isn’t about time to “upgrade” the manager – get someone who’s actually qualified to do a complete job?
Has Marc Dashield established residency? His 18 month extension must be over.
Jeff Jacobson is head of the Capital Finance Committee and has substantial large city municipal government experience with these types of staffing/valuation issues. LeeAnn Carlson, also on the CFC, is an experienced management and organizational consultant.
Our Council might do well to pass this one on to them, as well as some other staffing/management referrals for organizational overviews. It might help cut through this apparent personal and turf war drama to get to the heart of the service benefits and improve efficiencies.
Further, isn’t it time we also consider some sort of Civilian Police Advisory Board to assist our police department with best practices? Right now, the force continues to remain an insular club and outside “management review” has always an issue.
I know of at least one criminal justice professor living here who teaches at John Jay College in NYC (the police college) who could help. There are also a few retired police officers around (former democratic club player Al Smith for example) who could bring different insights and a more dialectical approach to reviewing our policing policies. This way, both the Chief, Manager and Council might start to hear some alternative points of view.
Talk can be cheap…but in this case, more talk and outside review from knowledgeable parties might be potentially helpful. Let’s stir the police pot a bit especially in light of that reactive Mission Street detail that’s still in force.
martinschwartz, good suggestion on the Civilian Police Advisory Board.
It would be interesting to know what these 100+ police do all day. There is no indication that they are preventing crimes or solving them in any significant way. It could very well be that a police force of 50 would be as effective or more effective.
Rich McMahon is spot on about this one.
There have actually been considerable complaints about the police administration policies over the years (not our officers) largely about inadequate and a lack of proactive on street presence in high crime areas.
Residents in these areas have long been asking for more presence to proactively turn things around, but it’s been the command’s policy to continue to keep the police in their cars everywhere. So it’s very easy to understand today why residents on Mission Street are upset that the police administration only seemed to respond after soe high profile shootings – and then put more boots on the ground.
Since I’ve been here, no Town Manager, nor our Councils have been able to have real impact on police policies — it seems because of the way the State’s separation of powers laws are written. So hopefully, this new Police Director position (also suggest appointing a civilian advisory board of knowledgeable experts) will provide outside policy and structural oversight for the elected and appointed reps. We need to shift the way too insular administrative climate that has long dominated Montclair’s police culture.
No government arm should be allowed to operate without real checks and balances — to make sure it is adequately responding to constituent needs. Including the police.
McMahon and Jacobson are right. Time for the other members to grow up and get along.
CPA boards are political at best. How can civilians or members of academia, who spend their lives reading books and theories, really have an impact on police? Thats like me saying, “I’ve read a few DIY books on construction, I think I willI build my own house?” Probably not a good idea. It’s a little more complicated than that.
The involvement of citizens without intimate knowledge of law enforcement procedures and legal limitations will only muddle the review process. As professionals, law enforcement administrators must be held accountable for training and discipline to prevent misconduct. They must remain above the political fray in order to ensure their freedom from the vagaries of political influences. In any case, other avenues of review or redress, such as civil litigation, legislative investigative powers, and the mass media, already exist. In an era of fiscal conservatism, citizen review appears to be an expensive extralegal appendage to the existing system of internal investigations.
You speak of bureaucracy already in the PD, now you want to add more? Can’t speak out of both sides of your mouth. Has anyone reviewed to see what the total manpower of the PD is? Are there enough officers to fill all the necessary roles in the community? We want to keep our budget down, however want more cops on the beat, well the money has to come from somewhere.
“The involvement of citizens without intimate knowledge of law enforcement procedures and legal limitations will only muddle the review process.”
—as opposed to, say, you commenting anonymously online about how the department should be run.
Bravo to Rich McMahon
Following the Mission Street shootings, the chief made a point of saying detectives would be in uniform and senior officers would be on the scene for as long as it takes. That was a good move.
Now, with those extra boots on the ground, and butts in squad cars, there’s been a down tick in shootings, visible drug activity, etc.
Maybe it is time to require detectives and brass hats to put 1 or 2 shifts every week in uniform, working the street. If you can add the equivalent of two or three additional officers, that’s a huge win for Montclair.
Austin M. – the U.S. joint chiefs report to a Secretary of Defense who is the link between civilian policy makers and the military command structure. That Secretary – along with the elected President then appoints the Joint Chiefs of Staff and oversees all military budgets.
Seems to me this is the same kind of structure now being applied here locally — be it on a smaller scale.
Further, U.S. civilian (political) military policy makers have all sorts of defense experts and “academic” analysts for policy review. The military then executes that policy with boots on the ground. A similar civilian Advisory Board I propose could have former senior police officials and other knowledgeable police training academics to review best practices. It would not be the typical “community” politics.
Really, no one is looking to tell the police how to enter a building on a bust, or engage in similar back seat driving. But there is an ongoing feeling that the command administrative structure here has not been responsive enough to some resident’s security needs. And to date, there’s been little or no structural civilian oversight or input to influence that policy.
After the recent shootings on Mission Street, there were 300 people in a room at the fire station — effectively seeking change. Were you there? I was and I’m glad that the Council is now stepping up.
We need checks and balance as an inherent part of any governmental system – even for (and sometimes especially for) the police and military.
No man should remain an island…even the Chief of Police.