The Virginian-Pilot
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CHESAPEAKE
The city's police force doesn't have enough people, works in inadequate facilities and clears relatively few serious crimes, an independent review concluded.
Despite Chesapeake's extensive waterways, the Police Department has no marine unit, relying instead on irregular boat patrol. There is also no unit dedicated to emerging crimes, the report said, and lieutenants are left to coordinate police activities late at night and on weekends.
Still, the city has one of the lowest crime rates in the nation. The report's project manager, Carroll Buracker of Carroll Buracker & Associates, said the force was in the top 10 percent of the more than 200 the company has reviewed and among the most educated he had seen in the country.
Those are among the highlights of the 600-plus page report - commissioned in late March for $219,000 - that Buracker presented to the City Council on Tuesday afternoon.
Police Chief Kelvin Wright said the results did not surprise him. "It's a very candid, accurate report," he said. Wright took over the top job April 1, replacing Richard Justice.
City Manager William E. Harrell has called the review a blueprint for mapping out the next decade. He announced the city's plan to hire the consultant in January, shortly after a police detective was shot to death while serving a search warrant in January.
Harrell has said the report was needed prior to that, and the executive summary did not specifically address the case.
Chesapeake has the lowest ratio of officers per 1,000 residents of any city in Hampton Roads, the report said. It recommends increasing the number of sworn officers by 44 over the next two years to 425 and bringing the total department to 632.
Councilwoman Debbie Ritter said she has long been concerned with staffing levels.
"This isn't new information," she said. "I've been hearing this for years."
The report recommended creating an 11-member marine unit and a 23-member tactical team that would respond to incipient crimes such as burglaries and thefts.
"It's unusual not to have a tactical unit," said Buracker, a former police chief of Fairfax County.
He recommended moving 11 positions "out from behind a desk" and onto the streets.
The report also suggested that a precinct captain always be on duty, a change from the lieutenants now left in charge late at night and on weekends.
The clearance rate for crimes in Chesapeake - defined as identifying a suspect and securing a warrant - is around 16 percent, the report said. The average for comparable cities is about 18 percent.
Wright called Chesapeake's rate unacceptable and said he would redirect resources wherever possible to help clear crimes.
Police should respond to high-priority calls such as armed robberies and fights in progress within five minutes 80 percent of the time, the report said.
It recommended increasing minimum staffing requirements in several areas - from two to six officers on midnight shifts in Western Branch and Greenbrier, for example - and focusing less on traffic citations.
The report also called police facilities inadequate - including the current public safety building that houses the administration of the police and fire departments.
"The entire issue of facilities does not seem to have been a priority in the past," the report said.
Buracker called the training academy building "one of the worst I've observed" - old, cramped and prone to flooding.
The report praised the department for steps taken so far to combat crime in South Norfolk, the city's busiest precinct and home to several high-profile killings, including that of the police detective.
The city should upgrade lighting there, use closed-
circuit, real-time television cameras in public areas and hire a full-time crime prevention officer, the report said.
The chief has already enacted some of the report's other suggestions, such as hiring a full-time recruiter and reducing the amount of overtime.
Harrell said that as work begins in October on next year's budget, he and city staff would look into staffing and facility recommendations.
A copy of the report is available online at the police department's Web site.
Staff writer Mike Saewitz contributed to this report.
Kristin Davis, (757) 222-5208, kristin.davis@pilotonline.com
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79 pages of report available now
The executive summary is available at http://www.cityofchesapeake.net/services/depart/police/police/index.shtml I have heard all will be available as the city gets the info uploaded.
Greenbrier
IQ and Bruce - I did not say there is no crime in Greenbrier. I did suggest that people having bad experiences may have had the bad luck of ending up on a derelict st.(I'm sure there are actually a few) That does not make the entire area a pit of dispair-the post is still up if you would like to read it again for clarity. I am not up @ 2:00 am watching drug dealers, I work for a living. I do know all of my neighbors and their children and they are not out in the street @ 2:00 am dealing drugs. I hope you would take the time to meet the people around you - chatting with mom and day and waving hi to the troubled teen may encourage the idiot to move his trade down the street. I assure you the police would be happy to chat with them - especially at that time in the morning - have you called the police when you are awake at 2:00 am watching these events take place? You both sound very angy, maybe you should get more involved in your neighborhood or move to Portsmouth or Norfolk, I hear they are real safe.
I agree with Brucek
The person who thinks Greenbrier is clean and crime free must not be seeing things as they really are. If she's [I assume patriciag is a she]ever been to the foodmart at Riverbirch and Eden Way all she needs to do is pay attention [this same store's been robbed multiple times and the last owner died at the hands of a 17 year old!]. And all those miles of sidewalks through the neighborhoods --- really convenient for meeting up and buying drugs - day or night. Get up in the middle of the night and look out a window....see who hangs out after midnight. And look at all the trash left on the streets between midnight and 6 am. It didn't just fall out of the sky - it was thrown there by those who need to visit fast food places after midnight but just can't seem to take their trash in the house. The traffic [mostly non-residents]cutting through on Eden Way chuck trash out on that main road on a continual basis. Lovely
Best consultants are the police managers.
Unreal, neighboring cities have also wasted money on a Carol Burracker study, he comes from Fairfax where the cost of initiatives isn't any concern. Recommends an 11 man marine unit? Give me a break, based on what? Miles of waterways? What are concerns or calls for service on the waterways? Wow! with that mentality I'm sure he recommended a 75 man traffic unit based on the miles of roadways. Next time keep your money and ask the police rank and file and managers, they can tell you what the real needs are in response to calls for service, and the needs of the department and community. $200K equals at least 4 police officers for one year!
Doc, you miss the point
The review was not in response to the murder of det. Shivers. That is simply when the decision as to who would be conducting the review was made. The City an Department had already asked for an impartial review to determine if the department needed improvement, and if so, where.
Nope, I didn't hear the review
It was held with almost no notice on a work day, so it was impossible to reschedule in time to be there.
So far, the bond hearing for Ryan Frederick was rescheduled with no notice, the preliminary hearing was moved to a different courtroom with no notice and now the review, which was announced in January by the police chief in response to criticism of police procedures in that case, whether it was planned before or not, was presented with no notice to the public.
I want very much to believe the police have nothing to hide, but in the words of Auric Goldfinger, "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action."
The public's business should be conducted in full daylight, and I don't see that happening here.
To the person in Greenbrier.
For the person living in Greenbrier, you must be living under a rock somewhere if you haven’t noticed the encroachment of crime and drugs in the Greenbrier area.
In addition to that, the Greenbrier P.O.A. is about to turn out the lights in the common areas it maintains due to lack of funds.
So talk to me after the lights go out and the crime does reach you.
Doc, you are wrong again
The shooting did not "trigger the review," it had already been put out for bid prior to the shooting. Get your facts straight before you spout off at the mouth! As for the department being short staffed, duh! Also no surprise that overtime would be reduced if fully staffed. I too would like to see the full report and hope we don't have to wait the 60 days the manager gave council to review the report (channel 48). I did listen to the consultant advise there should be a crime prevention officer at every precint and the 6th precinct(Hickory) should be put on hold.
Dr. Tabor
With all due respect, this review was not conducted because of Detective Shivers' death. It has been reported time and time again that this review was long ordered before that tragedy occurred. And if you saw the head of the review speak, he said that he saw nothing wrong with the way the search warrant, etc was conducted that night. You are so eager to find a conspiracy here, when in fact there is none.
short handed?
Hmmmm..maybe thats why I never see a cop in Greenbrier when people run red lights at every intersection I go through, or the the streets look like a Indy 500 race. Why have laws if they are not enforced?