65°
NORWALK, Conn. — The Norwalk Daily Voice accepts signed, original letters to the editor. Letters may be emailed to letters@dailyvoice.com.
To the Editor,
With a new police chief and new deputy chief in place it is now time to complete the redesign of the police department administration with the promotions of new captains. New captains will bring forth fresh ideas and enhance the direction of this department. You have a number of highly qualified, experienced lieutenants presently on a promotion list that will serve this city well. This promotion list has been in effect since November 2010.
Early in my career there were four captains and one inspector serving the city of Norwalk. One captain for each shift (three) and a captain leading the Professional Standards Unit. Presently there is only one captain, the captain of patrol.
In my dialog with the city the reason most often cited to me for not promoting captains is that a 1995 International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) study on the department's administration suggested they eliminate the position of captain. The study was re-visited in May of 2007 with the same conclusions. This study is 17 years old and to this point nothing has ever been addressed contractually with that suggestion. Further research showed that the IACP study suggested the elimination of the inspectors rank along with the deputy chief rank. To date none of these suggestions were followed. The city promoted a captain shortly after the 1996 study and continued to promote captains until now. The city has continued to promote to the rank of deputy chief.
Span of control in police administration is defined as the number of subordinates that can be effectively supervised by one person. My department's operational guide lines, The Directives, states, "To achieve effective direction, coordination, and control the number of employees under the immediate control of a supervisor will not be excessive". The IACP in their book, "Police Supervision," believes that the generally accepted ratio is six to nine subordinates for every supervisor. Police expert Nathan Iannone in his book "Supervision of Police Personnel" expresses the belief that the optimum number of subordinates supervised at the top level of an organization is relatively small, three to five. Presently 12 lieutenants answer to the deputy chief.
The Greenwich Police Department with a force of 150 and a population of 62,000 has three captains. The Stamford Police Department with a force of 273 and a population of 124,000 has seven captains. The Stratford Police Department with a force of 112 and a population 51,000 has four captains. The department that most closely mirrors Norwalk, The Danbury Police Department with a force of 163 and a population of 82,000, has four captains. These organizations all find a need for captains.
If the city opts to end the captain's rank it would effectively create a "glass ceiling," finishing a Norwalk Police Supervisor's career at lieutenant. Why would the city of Norwalk want to be responsible for not developing the future leadership of this department?
Sgt. Thomas Roncinske Jr.
President Norwalk Police Union
Comments (10)
The rank of Captain used to be an appointment and Captains had some prospect of being appointed to higher rank. After the union successfully negotiated for promotional process similar to other promotions, no captain has ever been appointed to a higher rank. All appointments to ranks above captain have been from the rank of Lt., one rank below captain.(including Deputy Chief Skeeter and former Chiefs Rilling and LaBianca) The union is right, there should be more captains, but the various police commissions, since they lost the power to appoint captains for political reasons, have been apparently determined to eliminate that rank altogether and probably replace it with some rank they can appoint. In the past, when they wanted to appoint people who were not captains, they have invented a rank called inspector and that may happen again. There seems to be some fear that captains who had earned promotion could be too influential, while appointees were assumed to be more loyal, and less likely to speak out about manpower and other budget issues.
I REALLY NEED TO GO BACK TO THE MENTAL WARD
WOW ITS A RECORD THE TROLL MADE 12 POSTS AND NOT ONE IS ACCURATE.
It seem our resident troll is now posting as Awon Apooponyou. The moron has just open his account today and has already trolled 12 of my posts with his usual lies , spam,and not 1 accurate fact. Are these trolls so fearful of my posts that they waste a Saturday morning reviewing weeks of My posts? I guess I should consider this a compliment..Shame that the troll has no life.
Congratulations Tim T, real original of you! You copied and pasted the SAME EXACT post to rebutt each post I made.
The tactics of a simpleton. Feels like I'm fighting an unarmed man.....
And while I'm on the subject, it should clearly pointed out that the #1 on the Captain promotional list is Hispanic. According to the Wikipedia listing for the City of Norwalk, "The number of Hispanics, who may be of various races, is up by 10,889 — a 61 percent increase from the 12,966 who were counted in 2000."
The last minority to make it past the rank of Lieutenant at NPD was Malcolm Skeeter 25 years ago! And there have been dozens of captains since that time. See a problem here? I do. And I'll tell you why. The city plans on letting the #1 die on the promotional list when it expires in November. It has been whispered in the department that they will revisit the need for Captains on the NEXT promotional list. Again, see a problem here?
If one looks at the supervisory ranks in the NPD, there are very few minorities. There are just 4 minorities at the rank of Sergeant out of 24 total Sergeants. And that will drop to 3 when one of the minority sergeants retires early next year. And correct me if I am wrong, the next two on Sergeant's promotional list are Hispanic.
Lastly, it has also been whispered that when the assessors were here for reaccreditation of the department, they inquired why the minority supervisors did not reflect the make up of the community. According to Wikipedia, Norwalk is 31% minority. 4 out of 24 Sergeants is roughly 16.6%.
Maybe Commissioner Torrano or Mayor Moccia can answer this...
Tim T at it again. Complaining without making a single suggestion for improvement. Can you imagine working or living with this guy???
There is another thing that is being left out here. The main opponent to the rank of Captain is a certain police commissioner who used to be a former NPD Captain himself. He has said in the past, "I was a captain, and captains don't do anything." Well if that's the way he chose to run his career, that's on HIM. Not all captains, or any police supervisor for that matter, feel that way. If he had no honor in his rank, again, that falls on HIS shoulders. Did he once ever walk into the Chief's office and advise him that he didn't have enough responsibilities, or what else could he be doing for the betterment of the department? He never did. Sounds to me like if he didn't do anything as a captain for the last decade of his career, maybe he should consider giving back his salary to the city.
NPD will be the ONLY police department I know of that does not have the rank of captain. And this is not Chief Kulhawik's fault in the least. His hands are tied by the police commission.
Tim T.: The fact is that on the current captain's promotion list the top three candidates are all Norwalk residents. When the only captain left in the department retires this December, there will be 12 lieutenants and one sergeant all reporting to one deputy chief. There will be no patrol division captain to oversee three patrol shifts, no captain to oversee four investigative services units, and no captain to manage four administrative units. The union is not only looking out for it's members on the department, many of whom are Norwalk residents, but they are looking out for the police department itself. Something that the residents of Norwalk deserve to have run in the most effective and efficient manner possible, and not fall to victim to political games.
Tim T:
It is obvious to most readers of the NDV that you do not approve of Norwalk's current mayor or its police department as it now stands. If you were to develop a mayoral candidate platform promoting improvements where necessary, what positive changes would you make and how would you implement them?
Also why no mention of the overpopulation of sergeants and lieutenants in Norwalk that actually have no supervisory responsibility??/
Of course the real purpose of this letter is the union head looking for more opportunity for his members at the cost of the taxpayer. Will the union agrees to have these new promotions actually live in Norwalk unlike the chief? What the NPD actually needs is change from the top down...END OF STORY.