Guarino weighs in on the GPD consultant review:
There is considerable risk that the outside review of the GPD will be completely worthless if the City Council does not assert itself in the process of selecting the consultant, and guiding it with respect to what the public needs. If the process is left in the hands of the city manager and the police chief, it will be open to question how valid and useful the findings will be in terms of maximizing the performance and utilization of the department to reduce our crime levels.
Turns out the GPD consultant review came up at last night’s council meeting. A motion was made to present the report in to the council, the city manager and police chief at the same time in open session. City Manager Mitchell Johnson said he had no problem with that:
“I’m extremely proud of this department and I’m very confident of a review of the department and I don’t have a problem hearing for the first time with council, quite frankly, and I don’t think the chief does, either.”
Council member Robbie Perkins was the most vocal advocate for allowing the general public to hear the results right along with public officials. Perkins argued that if the council doesn’t immediately make the report public, they’re setting up the police department and the manager for failure because the results of the report will be questioned by the general public:
“I think it’s important that it come out at the same time that this council, as representatives of the public, hear it and have imput in it at the same time as the other entities just so the public will say this is a true, impartial, fair report and we’re going to move on with this situation that we’ve been struggling with for two years.”
Don’t get me wrong, I admire Perkins’ desire to make the report public and his efforts to assert the council’s right to hear such information up front as opposed to hearing out-of-context bits and pieces, as has been the case with issues surrounding GPD so far. Yet he seems to think that simply making the report public will validate its findings. That’s a somewhat naive point of view especially if, as Guarino fears, the process “is left in the hands of the city manager and the police chief.”
