It has been a minute since the writers at The Integrity Report have crafted any sort of ‘editorial’. Our main focus is factually reporting events that transpire at ASUPD, and intertwining them with pertinent news articles, snippets from books, and data analysis. We aim to present this information in a manner that is very straightforward, because the subject matter is shocking enough to speak for itself. On occasion, this approach can feel one-dimensional, and sometimes fails to tie facts and ideas into “the bigger picture”; that is where our editorial perspective is most effective.
In a very predictive fashion, ASUPD’s response to The Integrity Report has been incredibly reactionary in nature. The issues discussed on the blog have been a recapitulation of problems that have plagued the department for years, but the primary difference between the issues in the past and those in the present boil down to publicity. Because ASUPD’s problems are now out in the public realm, Chief Pickens and his Command staff are forced to react to this information, if only for the purposes of saving face.
This “kneejerk” response on behalf of command staff is readily apparent in the haphazard methodology in which the department has utilized to address problems. Instead of sitting down and hashing out a strategic plan to dismantle the self-destructing time bomb (which is common practice in the public sector when new programs/initiatives are implemented), Pickens has chosen to focus on the low hanging fruit–looking at the short term problem of staffing and ignoring the long term question of, “what is causing this chronic staffing issue?!”. Answering the latter question would require an honest and open assessment of the abilities and skills of your subordinates, as well as oneself (and its much easier to blame problems on “bad attitudes” or poor work ethic of your employees).
Nonetheless, the most recent and reactionary response [of the continuous bad press] by Pickens and Command staff is to have mandatory meetings for employees at the satellite campuses. These “meetings” have done nothing productive for the department’s employees and have only served the purpose of verbal masturbation–ie, tell me some positive information so I feel better about myself. If the department was truly serious about showing its employees it was actively working to fix problems, it would have some tangible thing to present (a game plan, if you will) that would serve the duel purpose of being an informative tool, and providing accountability to Pickens and Command staff.
Merely telling us that golly, you’re working really hard to make ASUPD a nicer place to work serves no purpose. It does not prove you have actively done anything but sit in meetings all day, freaking out. This is the same plot line as the movie The Wizard of Oz: we’re the leaders, you should believe everything we tell you, but you can’t know what secret plans we have going on, and you CERTAINLY can’t look behind the curtain!
Well Pickens–the gig is up. People from all over the valley are now paying attention to ASUPD’s missteps–other university officials, other police departments, the City of Tempe, the media, and private citizens, to name a few. You can’t hide from answering the hard questions anymore. If you are really serious about fixing the department, show us the receipts; outline the steps you and your Command staff are taking to tackle the hard issues. If not–to borrow one of your colloquial phrases–McDonald’s is always hiring.
The numbers don’t lie like our command; the numbers represent a permanent record, money in, money out. It’s black and white. If the truth of where they have been spending public money came out there would be hell to pay, plain and simple.
The truth needs to be made public. The truth of how they can’t account for huge amounts of money, the fact they can authorize their own pay raises, authorize their own requisitions for a bunch of non-department shit, the special raises for special people for no special reason other than cronyism, and the list goes on. The last people who are going to see any of this money are the people on patrol, fuck those guys right?
You wonder why a brand new hire out of state lateral officer with no experience at this agency gave you a resignation letter once he got sworn in, well there it is, yet another F U chief. It goes both way and command doesn’t realize it. Pickens isn’t a leader. He can lead his pen to write a letter without his secretary stepping in to save him from embarrassment.
Morgan Olsen, Crow, when a brand new officer with no experience here give a giant middle finger to this organization shortly after coming on board you might want to look closely at what’s going on here. Look at how they are spending the money you trust them with. Look at how “leaders” are minted with no supervisory training, prior agency experience, and especially look at how many employees have come and gone under Chief Pickens.
You don’t need a PHD in psychology to spot a bunch of selfish assholes who don’t give a shit about the people under their command. It’s not just about us and our workplace, it’s about when lives are on the line and the 76,000 students of this university really, really need us we won’t be ready…again.
This is a police department, an extension of the government sworn to conduct itself above board and ethically. The swearing occurs, but not the type associated with an oath before god, friends, and family.
Accountability would be different if this was a privately run institution where failure, waste and excess was something accountable to only people within the organization. If that was the case we would be nothing more than a pointing finger. Instead we are whistle blowing on a bunch of under-handed hypocritical two-faced crooks who hide from their ultimate fear, truth.
Nothing to hide? Then publish the whole complete budget including requisitions accounting for the millions of dollars we aren’t seeing on the bottom floor of this government organization. Morgan Olsen, ask your subordinate chief for this information accounting for every penny during his tenure there and I would wager some people would be going to jail for felonies. In the very least they would be quietly terminated…early retirement.
Do the right thing, it’s unethical not to be transparent, all the secrecy leads to suspicion, full disclosure is required and expected.
Can someone email me I have multiple question!???
What are your questions? Feel free to contact the blog at: firstamendmentftw@hushmail.com
They won’t show the complete budget, they can’t, it would be too embarrassing. If they didn’t embezzle state money, we at least know they have mismanaged it on frivolous things they would have a tough time justifying and that would put egg on their faces, maybe more.
They sit for months on requisitions we need for equipment we use day after day for patrol, lose them, but when it comes to their frivolous junk its overnight.
There has to be a state or federal agency that can investigate fraud, waste, and get to the bottom of things. I’m guessing it would be the AG’s office.
I’m not seeing the 11 million dollars on the ground floor of our police department, so where are the receipts chief? I would be hanged out for one missing dollar, so where’s the full budget from last year and previous years? You have nothing to hide right?
All the other postings on here are good, but if you can catch people mishandling public, government money for their own purposes there is no defense for that, just jail. Go to jail, period. That’s the golden ticket!
It looks like CALEA will have their work cut out for them when they come back to review the department and hand out accreditation stickers for the cars. Will they repeat the last review? “Hey guys, we have missing public money, no receipts, don’t hate me bro, I’m just the messenger.”
They are so far removed from reality I’m sure the requisitions are quite interesting and unnecessary. Remember a big wig at the Fulton Center had their car stolen and immediately their knee jerk reaction was to buy two super-expensive license plate readers for our mall cop clown cars to identify stolen license plates.
They sat useless, not working for years, until they were able to be updated by mobile. When the bought them they didn’t know you had to physically take the cars to get frequent updates and clear out recovered cars. Now they aren’t working again, what a great use of university money to appear to your bosses you did something.
I wonder what kind of magical beans they are selling their bosses now. Crow and Olsen need to get an independent review of our police department by someone who knows what they’re doing and is impartial. The accreditation folks have to be nice because we’re paying them and even they found plenty of serious issues.
They will never willingly show anything, everything is a secret. When the requisitions of command were accessible people started asking questions, shortly afterwards access to these requisitions was denied.
Clearly they have something to hide, there’s no transparency. Now make sure you turn those gas receipts! Make sure you write a memo if one comes up missing, you can’t be trusted.
If you want to understand the priorities of any organization look at their budget. Is there any good reason we can’t see a clear no nonsense budget and all requisitions? This is a public government organization, this is a no brainer.
They can’t show you all of them and they won’t willingly show anyone any of them. When CALEA, Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, came here and an audit was done they, in a very kind way, said the same thing. ASUPD has crappy accounting techniques that are as shady as the day is long. Read the report, see for yourself!
The budget will be a sore topic for ASUPD command. They don’t want everyone knowing what they did with the money because it will be embarrassing. I won’t elaborate what I have been privy to because it would be too revealing of my identity, but there are other issues that affect the university as a whole and will make the individual PD budget look quite insignificant. The issues affecting everyone under our command at ASUPD will begin to affect their bosses at 300 E University Dr.
They have to keep secrets because we all know they have something to hide. It sounds like ASUPD needs to have many more public records requests submitted so the truth will become known and John Pickens’s secret regime of terrible management can finally come to an end.
A public school, founded and funded by the public, but the one branch of it that’s sworn to and supposed to conduct itself beyond reproach can’t even show you where the money went. What a way to run a police department!