Ignorance Is Not Bliss
[January 1, 2009]

            There is a new paradigm of Violent Crime now, except that Chief Tucker doesn’t seem to know it.

            Chief Tucker is operating in an arena of information ignorance.  He projects a blank fog in his public presentations and narratives.  There is no meaningful, credible or relevant data tracking or analysis of anything germane to OPD’s public safety operations.  One might wonder whether the violence in Oakland is so high because of this ignorance, or that the lack of information is purposeful.  Perhaps it is merely ignorance of the ignorance.

            From Homicides to abandoned cars, robberies to truants, gang activities to business activities, there are no analyses that afford any sense that Wayne Tucker knows what’s going on.  That’s the demand side. 

            From empty Beats to absent officers, from who’s working where to who’s doing what, from who knows what and who’s communicating it, there are no analyses that afford any sense that Wayne Tucker knows what’s going on.  That’s the resource side.

            From what it costs to put a cop walking or a cop in a car, or what it costs to recruit one or a hundred cops, or what it costs to buy high-tech versus employing low-tech, there are no analyses that afford any sense that Wayne Tucker knows what’s going on.  That’s the cost-effective side.

            From what cops or civilian employees think, feel, or have concerns about to the same considerations for Oakland’s citizens, there are no analyses that afford any sense that Wayne Tucker knows what’s going on.  That’s the emotional side.

            Check the transcripts. Wayne Tucker often tells the City government officials, who are starved to know what’s going on, what’s going wrong, and what’s the real cost… his favored phrase…  “I think it’s fair to say that…”  That’s it.  No facts.  On occasion, he or his spokesperson might present a chart or tabulation purported to be facts, but there are no citations are attributions that can be checked.  Having particular knowledge and access, I’ve checked them and found them routinely to be absurd.  Other times, the Chief, or Kozicki (as a good example) might “say” they’ve conducted research for a particular statement, but inquiring closely with OPD personnel who would know, or looking at the raw data myself, it is apparent that the word “research” is only inserted for effect.

            To their credit, I have seen Council members, when confronted with a number that seems to come out of thin air, ask Tucker or his spokesperson what the number means, where it came from, or what we can do with it.  Particularly they’ve asked for perspective, as in how does the number compare with other agencies or with our own history.  We’ve seen top OPD people shuffle embarrassingly and nervously, when asked in the public forum for details, confirmation, or opinions relative to what they reported in Chief Tucker’s behalf.  I happen to know that in many cases it is because they simply couldn’t support the official Tucker/OPD line.

            Homicides:

            The Chauncey Bailey Project found out soon enough what a dry desert it is to get any real information.  They were forced to inspect the raw data, after looking for what it could be and where it might be, to determine for themselves something as simple as a “clearance rate.”   It seems impossible to even tell definitively how many homicides occurred on any single day or by year’s end during Tucker’s tenure. 

            Crime Analysis:

            This is the Little Engine that couldn’t and doesn’t.  What should be the most basic and simplest of tabulations, the daily accumulation of crime numbers, is often days and weeks behind [ten days behind as this is written].  The data is so suspect that OPD personnel routinely scoff in wonder, knowing that homicides that occurred in the past few days are routinely omitted.  The highest acceleration of Violent Crimes in Oakland’s history, the four years of Tucker’s reign, is routinely listed as “Average.” If the most important crime of homicide is missing, then how accurate are the other numbers?  Tucker is now proclaiming great success in lowering the crime rate by 3%.  Yet Violent Crimes are up 4%.  Look closely at the figures for burglaries and larcenies… they are incredibly low. 

            The year-end numbers are particularly unreliable.  We all wondered all the way up to the second week in February of 2008 why the most important last day of the year [12/31/07] was not posted.  Crime Analysis posted an email that satisfied no one – it mentioned that the delay was due to the data being “recalibrated.”

            I’ve been in attendance as Ombudsman when Crime Analysis personnel demonstrated with digital projection certain crimes and where they happened.  Always, there was recognition by vocal objections that serious crimes known to have occurred were simply not on the screen.  At other times, there were so many crimes spotted on the screen that laughter broke out to demonstrate the futility present in the minds of those viewing the screen.  The information was graphic, but simply not actionable. [My apologies to Chuck and Marie, who are doing a hero’s job under the worst circumstances.]

            Recruiting:

            What should have been the simplest information to provide, how many cops OPD had and how many were needed, it appeared to many that Chief Tucker had no clue.  At one point he said we had sufficient cops and the attrition rate was three per month.  Later, he appeared at the rostrum of government in a panic, begging to steal $7.7 million in Measure Y funds for a massive recruiting effort.  The epitome of ignorance becomes apparent when, in February of this year, he already had far too many candidates in the pipeline.  The consequence was a recent evacuation of dozens of officers from other important assignments to serve as Field Training Officers in the Area Commands.  When we should have only two dozen permanent and dedicated FTO’s, Kozicki now has 96 in his roster and says 76 of them have trainees riding in two-man cars. Tucker was apparently in so much ignorance of the facts, that he had to fire 41 recruits on their first day because he already had 834 cops - substantially over the 803 authorized.  This was embarrassing, demoralizing, and indicative of the deep fog of ignorance in which Chief Tucker operates.  It should also have been scandalous to those who were provided with misinformation when they opened Measure Y’s purse only months earlier.

            Attrition:

            Wouldn’t it be nice for an organization to know accurately how many personnel might be anticipated to leave in any year?  Tucker apparently is confused.  He spoke for two years of an attrition rate of three per month.  Then he changed his tune to five per month.  Finally, in a desperate effort to gain recruiting funds he showed a chart of how many officers would soon be eligible for retirement, as if they would all leave en masse.  I studied the numbers going back through the nineties and discovered real information.  Our attrition rates were actually declining.  When Tucker showed a listing of all the personnel eligible for retirement, either he didn’t know or didn’t care to show that the list was no longer than any other over the past twenty years.  People didn’t retire simply because they reached minimum eligibility.  When he said there was a “baby-boomer” effect and that we would soon lose large numbers, I pointed out that it was statistically impossible if we didn’t have hiring-booms.  Yet, it sounded good and it was parroted to the City Council.  All the while, if anyone noticed, there was never any tracking of attrition.  I know, because I looked and had to run the numbers from paper Personnel Orders going back years.

            Calls for Service:

            The most important function for OPD to perform in order to give confidence that the mission of public safety is being attended, answering calls for service from Oakland’s citizens, is dismally ineffective because of ignorance.  In today’s Area Command thinking, it is routine to have an officer from one Beat traverse the entire District to answer a call across many other Beats.  With the current 21 separate chaos-of-shifts, Sergeants and Lieutenants can’t keep track.  There may be three Sergeants working their officers over the same area at the same time.  A Lieutenant may have four Sergeants and their Officers working four different time patterns in overlapping shifts.  No one can find a Captain on-duty 80% of the time.  The Communications center is demoralized, frustrated, and stressed by the confusion.  I’ve checked, and the morale is so low that they simply cannot develop any enthusiasm to come to work (to put it mildly).

            The allocation of resources and the deployment of personnel depend more than anything on knowing accurate and predictable patterns of citizen calls.  Yet, the CAD system that is supposed to track this is not routinely even looked at.  Tucker and Kozicki crowed about how understaffed they were and held up an outside study [Freesmeyer] that said so.  The only real thing the outside study showed was that the data process was so corrupted or unavailable that the degree of accuracy was unreliable.  More devastatingly, Tucker and Kozicki disrupted the entire OPD for their ad hoc “re-organization” and they never looked at the CAD data themselves either before or since the outside study.  They can’t possibly know when or where calls are happening, or when or where our cops should be assigned. 

            Absences:

            No one seemed to notice who was not reporting to duty.  An outside consultant found that 40% of the Beats were unattended at any one time.  Tucker/Kozicki had no clue.  It was such an unbelievable number that I had to find out for myself.  Remarkably, there is no computer tracking of attendance or absences on OPD.  I had to go to ignored file cabinets where “Daily Details” are kept and hand-count who was assigned to every Beat on every particular shift and see if he/she was actually there.  It took days to study and verify just one week, and I looked at three weeks in the winter and another three weeks in the summer.  Startlingly, OPD did indeed suffer a 40% absentee rate.  Howard Jordan was charged with getting the facts.  He presented a sort of excuse that officers were routinely missing but not really absent.  Kozicki said he was able to reduce the rate from 39% to 19%.  Neither gave indication of where they might have gotten this information.

            The Deputy Chief of Field Operations once inquired three times by telephone with his assistant eight floors below… how many cops do we have assigned to work the Beats?  She gave him three different answers after three different hand counts of the latest pay period.  The Patrol Division Administrative Captain was consulted, but he didn’t know.  Finally, for purposes of “planning” the new Area Command, they settled on 256.  This was not a number anyone had counted, but it “sounded good.”  I was in the loop then as Ombudsman.

            The solution to the Beat staffing problems appears to be simple for Tucker/Kozicki, and fits their ideas of policing well.  The new Area Command simply eliminated the Patrol Division 35-Beat System entirely. 

            Measure Y:

            Perhaps the most direct slap at the citizens themselves, who voted with hope and anticipation for 57 Problem Solving Officers to work their neighborhoods, there was never any data or intelligence apparatus dedicated to assuring the program.  The money was tapped, but the PSO’s were never staffed as planned.  Claiming understaffing, but really just gross inefficiencies in deployment balances, Tucker routinely prioritized Kozicki’s “Big SAC” CRT’s for his beloved roving “hot spot” team deployments.  PSO’s, those that were allocated, were rotated and assigned to work multiple Beats.  They were confused about their assignments but received notice they were to put on a “good show.”  They attended neighborhood meetings, but felt as dissatisfied as the neighbors.    They did their best under the confusing circumstances.  Kozicki had the gall, challenged by Council members, to tell them that PSO’s assigned as CRT’s or to answer radio calls, were acting within the definition and spirit of Measure Y as he and Tucker saw it.  They rebuked him for it.

            Broken Windows:

            Tucker/Kozicki wanted to emulate Bratton’s successes in addressing the minor neighborhood blight issues and they promised the Council they would hold all Beat Officers and PSO’s accountable to identify and correct such problems.  Drug houses and liquor stores were particular needs everyone knew about, and so were absentee owners, stripped vehicles and indeed a whole litany of neighborhood nuisances.  In fact, before Tucker arrived, there was one particular unit responsible for addressing these issues that coordinated multi-agency cooperation.  It was called Beat Health and both the Chief who invented it and the Sergeant who made it successful received national (and international) awards and acclaim for their successes.  Oakland Community Organizations (OCO) was the leading supporter and backer for the program.

            I visited the remnants of the Beat Health unit while still OPD’s Ombudsman.  The unit was disbanded by Chief Tucker in 2005 and the Sergeant was ultimately transferred to Patrol.  Only six personnel, cops and PST’s, opened over 3,000 Beat Health cases and closed almost all of them as successes.  There are meticulous records, illustrative binders, and full tracking of all the cases.  They languish, ignored, in an old filing cabinet.  Every case was logged and tracked, reviewed and attended… before Tucker arrived.  In four years under Tucker, no one is tracking anything about neighborhood blight issues.  The PST still silently handles the Drug Hot Line but no one tracks his work.  He is a forgotten person today, but still disseminates the tips and information as he can, alone and at his own volition.  He receives over 4,000 calls a year now, and each of the past six years has seen an increase in frequency, but no one seems to care.  Meanwhile the 30 or so PSO’s who were to do the work of Beat Health over the past four years and the hundreds of Patrol Officers who Tucker/Kozicki said would be held accountable to focus on neighborhood blight problems haven’t even come up with two dozen real cases.  Think about it… six people worked over 3,000 cases with full tracking, whereas Tucker or his people on the Eighth Floor have no clue today.

            CrimeStop:

            Perhaps the biggest source of entertainment for OPD managers today is the weekly CrimeStop meeting attended by around three dozen of the top command at OPD.  Universally regarded as a “dog and pony show,” it is represented by Tucker as Oakland’s answer to Chief Bill Bratton’s [NYPD & LAPD] Compstat.  It is anything but.

            Going around the long conference table, everyone has a few moments to tell everyone else what they’re doing.  There is no intelligent inquisition, no detailed reporting with anything resembling actionable data tracking.  It is an exercise in meaningless motion. I’ve attended many such meetings where Kozicki stood with his awesome frame to bark the successes of his “Big SAC,” but no one dared to question in Tucker’s presence why Kozicki’s efforts had no positive effect on Oakland’s overall crime rates.  No one could ask, but everyone wondered with frustration, why their units received such few resources while Kozicki’s operation had the best headquarters and the highest priority for precious personnel and equipment.  Tucker’s favorite even had his prized motorcycle boots on and motorcycle steed wherever he went, as tokens of Tucker’s appreciation.  It’s been reported as a source of chuckles that Kozicki never worked as a Traffic Officer on the streets of Oakland.

            The most obvious missing attendee is the commanding officer of the Planning and Research Section… because there isn’t any such independent unit today.  OPD opened P&R in the early sixties, and it was copied by agencies throughout the nation.  It was regarded as having the best of the best engaged in this think tank.  A Captain commanded it.  Tucker closed down our Planning and Research in 2005.  

            Area Command and Geographic Policing:

            These are the jewels in the crown of ignorance worn by Chief Tucker.  When the Harnett report came out, Chief Tucker bragged that he influenced much of their work toward his own concept of policing for OPD.  Particularly, he is proud of having created the Assistant Chief position, a useless duplication of ignorance.  [Howard Jordan is a nice guy.  His personal appearance and resume are impressive.  He is admired as a family man and soccer dad.  He cares deeply about public safety and I think feels somewhat bewildered.  He travels extensively all over North America (including Canada) to find the magic to bring back to OPD.  I like him very much and cherish what little rapport we have, considering the obvious effects of Chief Tucker’s animosity.  Howard hasn’t yet found the answer, even though I used to tell everyone on the Eighth Floor constantly that OPD lacked an information network.]

            Only one Deputy Chief sought to inform Tucker that what he wanted in the form of Area Command was not sufficiently thought out, ill advised, and simply not ready.  He was transferred.  Tucker implemented (imposed) his version of Geographic Policing without a scintilla of verifiable or properly vetted information.  The five command officers ‘teamed” to come up with the plan were so frustrated by Tucker’s lack of direction that they resorted to giving Tucker a checklist of several pages where he was asked to simply check off what he wanted to do.  They would do his beckoning.  They would bypass all their own misgivings.  If only Tucker would just make a decision.  They wouldn’t even question him.  He was, after all, the Chief.  How many Area Commands did he want?   They gave him a few columns with many lines of rudimentary choices.  All he had to do was check the boxes.  The genesis of Tucker’s Geographic Policing  was not an intelligent selection of choices based on cogent information, because there was no information of any reliable consequence available.  He simply wanted it, and his infamously unworkable 2-2-3 shift debacle.

            Information:

            The antidote for ignorance is information. 

            The answer for OPD is information – reliable, timely, relevant and credible.  The flowers of information are all around OPD, but they are ignored as raw nuggets of gold in a ground unstirred.  If you want to determine the waste in overtime and the cost effectiveness of it, don’t listen to the official “estimates,” go to the actual paper submissions and the Manager of Accounting.  I have, and I can tell you the official reports of how overtime is used is a sad misrepresentation that hides the inefficiencies of ignorance and neglect.  Go to the Stop Data Forms and wonder why such helpful information sits in cardboard boxes.  Go the Personnel Distribution Reports [PDR’s] and wonder why they are so inaccurate.  Go to the Daily Details and see who’s really missing and why.  Go to the Chief’s banks of filing cabinets where in the past they were overflowing with documents of information and notice that now they are empty metallic echo chambers or full of office supplies.  Go to OPD’s library where the shelves of books have been emptied.  Go to the Communications Division and see the disconnected turmoil and discontinued data.  Go to the Internal Affairs Division and question why such important management information isn’t even generically available.  Go to Crime Analysis and see why two old-timers can’t do more than just tabulate data as they get it, without verification, correlation, or any form of real analysis.  Go to the three Area Commanders and ask them why they are so frustrated.  Look at the software companies trying to organize OPD’s information with confusion as to what it is, where it is, or how it should be processed.  Ask the 98% of cops surveyed why they felt the Tucker/Kozicki Geographic Policing and shift plan wouldn’t work.  Ask the citizens of Oakland whether they feel Tucker’s idea of policing is working or a failure… just check off the appropriate box.  Ask Oakland’s government if they feel satisfied with Tucker’s performance, or even his reporting of it.

            Conclusion:

            There is no antidote for ignorance of ignorance.  One finds it easy to conclude that likely Wayne Tucker is completely over his head, and perhaps simply cannot recognize the dots to connect them.  It’s as if a Captain of an oil tanker was asked to pilot a 747 passenger plane.  He looks like a Captain, but all the dials and gauges don’t seem to mean anything.  The auto pilot keeps the plane aloft, but who will fly it in this storm?  The passengers are terrified.

            There is no such thing as leadership or management without a constant reliable flow of information, and an understanding of how to utilize it.  Enough said…

            Final Note:

            My hat is off with sincere respect to the men and women who work in all sections of OPD under these dire circumstances.  Those working anywhere at OPD are very dissatisfied with what’s going on.  I can tell you from many personal contacts over the past three years that today’s OPD has as good or better personnel than we’ve ever seen.  As bees normally organize with efficiency in and around a hive, OPD cops have been caused to swarm without effect in this administration.  They are exhausting themselves physically and emotionally.  Their culture ironically protects the Chief with their revered code of silence.  I know the culture and respect it fully.  I’m a cop, and we all subscribe to “Once OPD, Always OPD.”  I carry my OPD Identification with pride as so many other retired officers.  I have a license to carry a weapon, and choose instead to use my keyboard. 

            As OPD Ombudsman, I couldn’t/wouldn’t say in public what was so disturbing.  I worked hard to offer many written narratives outlining my findings, but kept them internal for only the highest appropriate levels of government.  When, as Ombudsman, I was selected to be Mayor Dellums’ Public safety Director, I honored the silence of loyalty but spoke and wrote privately of the concerns.  I honor and respect the Mayor’s decision to go with Chief Tucker, and I have no disregard for the Mayor in any manner.  I’ve offered to work full-time pro bono (free and no strings) in any capacity and still extend that offer. I offered up to a million dollars of my own money to fund the establishment of Mobile Police Stations on each of 35 Beats, much akin to construction portables on major projects, along with offering a real plan for community policing.  I believe Oakland is full of volunteers.  I’ve engaged in conversations with past OPD Chiefs, retired commanding officers, chiefs of other police departments who left OPD, and chiefs of other departments who never worked for OPD.  All have indicated an eagerness to help.  All, however, honor the culture of non-interference if uninvited.

            The Mayor’s job is not an easy one, and I hope he is reading this.  He taught me many things as we campaigned together, he was a serious candidate for Mayor, and I was a serious student for learning Oakland’s issues.  He’s a good man who simply needs good people.  He used to poke me in the chest, telling me that he thought I was “brilliant.”  He often gave me a high-five, a tap of affection, or even a warm hug of endorsement.  I cry a few silent tears as I see the level of un-support around him.  We have a system of democracy we all cherish, and it is fair to criticize him, our Police Chief, or any public official.  I am an Oaklander who wants to work within the system to make Oakland the Model City we have the potential to become.  I want to work to help bring in and retain businesses, homeowners, development, students, visitors, residents, worshipers, and brighten the entire rainbow of color that hovers muted over Oakland.  I am not suited for politics, but when I ran in 2006 I took out 28 full page ads in four local newspapers to constructively offer one citizen’s thoughts toward a greater Oakland.  Every line of thousands of words was positive and optimistic.

            But first, and primary to any priority for Oakland, we must get our OPD apparatus functioning.