Monthly Archives: May 2014

ASU Police Budget: Where does all of ASUPD’s money go? Part 1

Many of us have asked, “I heard ASUPD has an 11 million dollar budget! Where does all that money go?”.

We know nearly all of the excess funds in the department have NOT gone toward improving morale in the department by increasing the salary for line level officers or civilian employees. Many of the vehicles and equipment at the auxiliary campuses are old and in desperate need of repair…the money definitely isn’t going there. What about to pay for more training for officers/civilians? Pay for secured parking? No and no.

Where does all that money go, then?

It pays for insignificant garbage. Instead of trimming the fat and paying its employees a more competitive wage, ASUPD has decided to give its officers a 10-cent pay raise and spend the rest of the department funds on nonsense.

This is only a sneak preview of what we were able to uncover….the rest will be in a much larger post.

That’s nearly a HALF MILLION DOLLARS for security at the BioDesign building, 2 “spy cameras” for Det. Dunwoody (costing 295 and 379, respectively)…and a pair of black elbow pads for the Chief, at a whopping $21.81. No knee pads?

ASU Police paying for biodesign security

ASU Police pay close to a half million for biodesign security

ASU Police Parker Dunwoody Spy Camera

ASU Police more covert cameras

ASU Police Chief John Pickens opts for elbow pads

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Breaking down ASUPD’s morale problem, piece by piece!

Shifting gears a bit, we are going to do a series of posts breaking down ASUPD’s morale problems piece by piece. If any of you have any suggestions for topics you’d like us to cover, feel free to drop a line to firstamendmentftw@hushmail.com.

First up in this segment, we’ll be discussing one major contributor to ASUPD’s low morale, and that is the lack of uniformity/transparency in the discipline or internal affairs (IA) process.

According to ASUPD’s Policy Manual PSM 261-01: : “It is the policy of the ASU Police Department to foster a program of discipline which
defines the word ‘discipline’ as ‘training or development through instruction’. This will enable the department to retain its discretionary authority for the ‘individualized’ imposition of disciplinary action while ensuring a systematic and consistent administration of discipline to all personnel.”

Essentially, the department has stated that it will determine what, if any, discipline is appropriate in any situation. It is possible to have two officers disciplined differently for the same offense. Also, who is ensuring that discipline is systematic and consistent? The department itself? This gives the appearance of an extreme conflict of interest; one sole entity (the Command staff) cannot be the judge, jury, and executioner for an officer’s discipline process.

Now let’s address some real situations where ASUPD has failed to uniformly discipline or investigate its employees.

  • Several employees have been investigated for allegedly “scuffing” a patrol car, this becomes especially important if one of those employees is trying to lateral out of the department, despite already notifying a supervisor and writing a memo for the entire incident.
  • Some employees get investigated for minor damage vehicle accidents, others do not.
  • An employee has been investigated for allegedly denting a patrol car weeks after the incident took place, after several officers had used that vehicle in the meantime and routinely haven’t signed it out for overtime events.
  • Several employees have been investigated and received some form of punishment for failing to submit their times sheets on time.
  • Several employees were the subjects of investigation, discipline, to include time off from work, for photoshopping pictures making fun of the workplace.
  • One employee trying to leave to another agency, with no discipline in his file for 7 years, was immediately notified of two outstanding internal affairs. Another employee trying to leave to another agency was notified of four outstanding internal affairs against him by the agency he applied to prior to ASUPD notifying him of the internal affairs!

Contrast this with issues including CRIMES of ASUPD supervisors that don’t get investigated:

  • A supervisor who has been investigated several times for using racial slurs (including to a black officer in training) and has received no punishment, his friends cover for him every time.
  • A supervisoe tases a handcuffed prisoner in custody four times with another officer present. No internal affair is done, instead a informal inquiry is done months later with no time off, administrative leave, for the employee. The “investigator” didn’t even bother to interview the officer who was there because he was told what conclusion he needed to have by the chief. (Sounds like aggravated assault, four counts.)
  • A supervisor who has allegedly falsified documents with no investigation or punishment into the situation despite this being common department knowledge.
  • A supervisor has allegedly falsified time sheets with no known investigation.
  • A supervisor who has taken home public documents and files (a recent Tempe PD employee was fired for this same situation).
  • A supervisor who has taken department-issued equipment home for personal use for months.
  • A former Assistant Chief who received no punishment and was allowed to retire from his position, despite the fact that the Chief had knowledge the employee had sexually harassed female employees and was being investigated by DPS. This investigation was delivered to the chief and sat on his desk for over a year allowing this employee to be eligible for rehiring by the university. When this employee “left” Chief Pickens was free to make the investigation disappear.
  • Another friend of the chief, a civilian employee entrusted with money, decides to give herself a pay raise. ASU human resources catches the crime, notifies Chief Pickens and the employee was allowed to retire once the money was paid back.

See a discrepancy here? We do!

One very incident in which a supervisor (Sgt. Pam Osborne) disobeyed a direct order from a supervisor is a prime example of the arbitrary nature of ASU’s discipline process (and one major contributor to low morale, which eventually leads to a higher employee turnover). Sgt. Osborne was issued a direct order from her supervisor advising her NOT to park in from of the Tempe Station (which she routinely did and continues to do).

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After this email was sent out, Sgt. Osborne continued to park in front of the Tempe station, after explicitly being instructed NOT to. Another employee also continued to park in the PD compound ALSO after being told explicitly not to. Neither employee has received any discipline nor been involved in an investigation, despite disobeying orders from a supervisor. However, an employee WILL be investigated for submitting a time sheet late, even if the mistake was not intentional.

Lack of uniformity and transparency in discipline at ASUPD only serves to harm morale. and subsequently officer staffing! If employees don’t feel they are being treated fairly (while others act with impunity), they have ZERO motivation to promote or stay invested in ASUPD. Furthermore, circumstances such as the above mentioned just further prove that Command staff has no ability to impartially investigate its own problems. (The public visible license plate identification is blocked to protect the subject in question. Police employees do not have safe parking, but must park their vehicles in Parking Structure One or any other lot with the rest of the public. We were notified that Commander William Orr and Assistant Chief Mike Thompson both claim to CARPOOL to work and have preferential CARPOOL parking spots on the south side of Parking Structure One. They both ride to work alone and do not see or care about the integrity issue of lying to state government, ASU Parking, about carpooling, what’s next? Handicapped parking?)  The ASUPD command routinely does employee retention internal affairs for little or nothing on baseline employees, we expect them to do what they’ve done so far with these lying employees who pick and choose what rules to follow, nothing.)

Thank you for the photo submissions, this was by far the best one received. We would also like to thank the Arizona Department of Public Safety, Highway Patrol, for educating ASUPD’s undereducated command staff on the difference between a crime and what is at best a policy violation. This is a whistleblower on a supervisor of police officers breaking the law, Tempe municipal code. Read the sign again and obey the oath of ethics you swore to uphold. Don’t dishonor the uniform any more than you already have.

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Student organization plans to file a half dozen more sex abuse complaints against ASU

PHOENIX (KSAZ)As federal investigators are looking into how ASU handles sexual violence and misconduct complaints, some students claim the university is turning a blind eye to a culture of sexual misconduct at the Barrett Honors College.

The students say the problem goes beyond a couple professors sleeping with students. They go so far as to say it’s a way of life within the college, where faculty flirts, dates, gropes, and has sex with students without consequence.

One group is trying to change that they started a petition asking the university to fire the teachers who do this. That petition has received a lot of support so far with nearly a thousand students have already signed it.

Jasmine Lester founded the group Sun Devils Against Sexual Assault, she says professors continually get away with taking advantage of their students sexually.

She says her professor took advantage of her during a study abroad trip.

“She would go out drinking with all the students getting me drunk holding me up feeling me up,’ said Lester.

Lester launched the petition to put a stop to what she calls the rape culture at Barrett. Since then, more than 900 have signed it, and many women have come forward with their own stories.

She describes a situation one of her peers encountered. “she and her professor were in a relationship while she was a student in his class that’s where the power dynamic comes in he had control over her grades letters of recommendation scholarship letters etc.,” said Lester.

The woman told FOX 10 via email that “she felt like she owed him sexual favors in exchange for things like letters of recommendation and extensions on class assignments”.

That professor no longer teaches at ASU; he left suddenly, in the middle of the semester after the woman says she filed a sexual abuse complaint.

But in the end the students say their complaints are not taken seriously by administrators and in some cases even discouraged.

“She said when we think of sexual harassment were thinking more shove you up against the wall kind of thing because a lot of what I’ve been describing was emotional harassment that shed been putting me thru,” she said.

Lester says she wants professors to be held accountable and administrators to educate students about the different forms of sexual abuse.

They don’t say this is what consent is and this how power can compromise that and just so you know your professors might behave inappropriately with you its not just frat boys its also people in positions of power,” said Lester.

We asked ASU to address these specific claims, they would not. The university did issue a statement: “Arizona State University is a community where sexual misconduct is not tolerated. The university has policies and procedures in place to handle such matters. We take all sexual misconduct complaints very seriously, thoroughly investigate them and deliver swift and appropriate punishment if violations are found”.

The group, Sun Devils Against Sexual Assault is preparing to file a half dozen more complaints about sexually abusive professors with the university.

 

No, the problem isn’t limited to frat boys. Unfortunately, the problem with people behaving inappropriately very much includes people in positions of power, some of which are employed by ASUPD. As mentioned on The Integrity Report previously, a former Assistant Chief (who is still employed by the university in a different capacity) was allowed to retire before the conclusion of his sexual harassment investigation against another employee was finished. This person STILL has access to the police department building (and the same female employees who worked around him before) even though he does not work at ASUPD anymore!
What about the lack of an appropriate punishment for an officer who majorly mishandled a sexual assault case, and who was later allowed to train several NEW employees?
Or the chronic underreporting and reclassifying of sexual abuse cases under the Clery Act? These situations represent only a few of MANY situations where university officials (in this case, ASUPD Chief Pickens and his illustrious Command staff) failed to respond appropriately to rectify these problems.
The university administration does NOT take complaints of any nature–be it sexual abuse, harassment, bullying, etc–against a member of faculty or staff seriously at all. The ASU approach to handing complaints lodged against faculty/staff/administrators is to discredit the individual making the complaint, labeling him/her “disgruntled” or “angry”, only to going through the motions of making it look like the university has done their due diligence in investigation the claim. However, if the issue at hand causes the university to look bad (and subsequently lose money), only then can a complainant expect some resolution or action on behalf of the university, This is apparent with ASU’s half-assed resolution to Ms. Lester’s situation, as well as ASU HR’s failure to properly investigate complaints against the police department.
We are hoping the additional sex abuse complaints will place additional heat on the university, eventually forcing out all the ASU administrators who failed to respond to this situations appropriately. Hang on, folks; it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
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Updated: ASUPD’s staffing…by the numbers!

We wanted to provide an update to several posts where we discussed ASUPD’s alarming staffing numbers (check out a few here and here). The current staffing numbers were provided courtesy of ASUPD’s roster following shift bid. It’s important to note that these numbers are only for sworn employees and do NOT include investigations nor Sergeant rank and above.

To patrol ALL of ASU’s four campuses (Tempe, Downtown, West, and Polytechnic), for a total of over 76,000 students, ASUPD has a grand total of 45 bodies assigned to patrol. Of those 45, 12 are Sergeants (supervisors who may not be patrolling the campus), and 5 Corporals. When those “supervisory” positions are factored out of the equation, that leaves 28 officers to patrol 76,000 students. The current staffing setup relies on the fact that none of these people assigned to patrol will get sick, injured, take FMLA leave, take military leave, and be forced to go on leave for purposes of IA.

28 officers is INSANE! According to the DoJ, ASU should have 2.1 sworn officers for every 1,000 students. ASUPD isn’t even REMOTELY close to that officer/student ratio.

For any students, parents, or members of the media reading…you should be extremely disturbed by these numbers. These numbers, unfortunately, keep getting lower due to recruits “failing” out of FTO, or laterals quitting as soon as they step in the door.

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Local media outlets pick up on ASUPD’s Clery issues

From abc15.com:

TEMPE, AZ – Most public universities are required to follow the Clery Act — which states a university must post accurate crime statistics.

The federal law requires universities to ask neighboring police agencies for Clery crime statistics in three separate areas: on-campus, public property (as in streets, sidewalks and parking lots near campus) and non-campus areas.

Attorney Judd Nemiro says, “Non-campus places would be things that are owned and operated by ASU, but not specifically on campus, so things like student run organizations.”

Crimes handled by Arizona State University Police get reported immediately, but the ones that occur near campus don’t always get added because they fall into a grey area.

For example, back in 2010, ASU student Kyleigh Sousa was brutally killed directly across from campus.

The 21-year-old was robbed and then dragged behind a car. However, the robbery started in a private parking lot. Under the Clery Act, it doesn’t have to be included in ASU’s crime report.

ASU’s Annual Fire and Safety handbook says various police departments are “unable to provide a statistical breakdown appropriate for the Clery Act.”

ASU would not go on camera for an interview.
ASU Assistant Police Chief James Hardina said police departments do supply the necessary data.
 
He said it had not been brought to his attention, that the handbook accused police departments of not providing data to ASU.
However ABC15 found a discrepancy. Back in September of 2013, Tempe Police Chief Tom Ryff did question ASU about the inaccuracy of the clause. You can read the correspondence here.

ASU Official Julie Newberg says that clause doesn’t mean the police departments don’t provide the university with information.

“Letters are sent to each of the agencies every year and many of them do respond with the statistics that they can filter out,” said Newberg.

Newberg says it’s because how data is reported differs.

“Cities report data by FBI standards, which is not the same as universities that are asked to report crime data according to the Clery Act,” said Newberg. “Definitions of crimes also differ according to the difference in federal reporting law. That is why the statistical breakdown of city crime data is not appropriate for the Clery Act report.

Newberg says police departments do send them information and ASU filters out what statistics work under the Clery guidelines.

ASU says they provide a third party link to a website to get local statistics for “extra measure since the definitions of what each captures is different,” said Newberg.

Violating the Clery Act could result in losing some federal funding.

We’re happy the local media has decided to probe further into issues surrounding ASU’s Title IX and Clery Act reporting; hopefully this will be the first of many stories the local media does on these issues.

In the video on the abc15.com site, you can see excerpts from emails sent on behalf of Tempe Chief Ryff to ASU Chief Pickens, in which Ryff expressed concern over ASU stating they were not able to appropriately report some crime statistics. It is very concerning when another agency’s Chief has more regard for providing accurate crime statistics than our own Chief does.

Finally, Commander Hardina: you are very much aware of the department’s assertion that it was unable to provide a breakdown in crime statistic information; in addition to the fact that Pickens was discussing this issue with Chief Ryff, we have mentioned this assertion several times on The Integrity Report (and we know you are an avid reader, sir).

In the interiem, standby folks…this article could be the start of something bigger

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Another day, another ASUPD staffing concern!

Another decent ASUPD employee left the department today, which has been a routine occurrence in light of the ongoing staffing crisis transpiring at the department.

The Commander over the Tempe Campus, K. Williams left ASUPD today with only two days notice (presumably for greener pastures). Commander Williams was a seasoned 20 year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, and managed to survive ASUPD for only four years! This should speak volumes about the type of toxic work environment that exists throughout the department…even amongst members of Command staff!

Best of luck in your new ventures, Williams. We hope you go to a department that appreciates your experience and education.

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Head of ASU’s HR, Kevin Salcido, failed to properly handle a complaint regarding inappropriate behavior by a faculty member…sound familiar?

This is a long article but definitely worth the read. It illustrates how the head of ASU’s HR, Kevin Salcido, has repeatedly been informed of issues among his faculty members (whether they are professors accused of sexual harassment, or a Police Chief accused of incompetence), and has repeatedly failed to take appropriate and timely action against university employees.

From abc15.com

The federal government confirmed Thursday that Arizona State University is under investigation for the possible mishandling of a report of sexual assault or harassment.

An ASU alum wants to trigger a second inquiry.

Jasmine Lester said she plans to file a Title IX complaint against the school sometime in the next few weeks.

“Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in all education
programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance,” according to a U.S. Department of Education news release.

ASU is one of dozens of schools nationwide with an active Title IX investigation involving sexual assault or harassment, the Thursday release said.

Lester said she will file her complaint because, among other reasons, a university administrator discouraged her from filing a sexual harassment complaint within the university system.

Lester said a professor flirted with her for more than a year, took her out for drinks, and created “sexual tension.”

“‘We’re talking about sexual harassment as more of a shove you up against the wall kind of thing,'” the school’s Title IX coordinator said, according to Lester.

After Lester persisted and filed a report, the school found no evidence of sexual harassment, Lester said.

She said parties with a stake in the investigation went on a smear campaign against her, another reason for the federal filing.

Multiple calls to ASU for comment were not returned. As such, details of Lester’s complaint with the school could not be confirmed.

 

What is interesting about this article is Jasmine Lester previously met with the head of ASU’s Human Resources department, Kevin Salcido (you can view the transcript of the discussion here). In this discussion, Jasmine and another individual mention to Salcido how some of Jasmine’s concerns regarding inappropriate behavior by a faculty member were brought to the attention of ASU officials, who waited three years to initiate any sort of response (Salcido responded,  “it’s unfortunate that it took a while for that to make it our way”).

Salcido also avoids answering direct questions about why the faculty member was allowed continue to lead  study abroad trips (where Jasmine’s incident occurred), or why it took so long to fire professors engaged in sexual relationships with students.  Salcido states that if he isn’t informed about such incidents, he can’t do anything about them (despite the fact Jasmine reported her incident to both faculty members and ASU administrators).

Salcido goes on to lecture Jasmine about how the rules of evidence [in a university investigation] aren’t the same as in a criminal court, but how she needs witnesses, emails, text messages, etc. Salcido also has the nerve to state that he is speaking both as an HR person and “also as someone who was, in a prior life, a police officer”.

The lack of an appropriate and timely response Jasmine experienced with Salcido is nearly identical to the response Salcido has given to the 10+ ASUPD employees who have spoken with him. Many current and former employees have come forward to speak with Salcido directly in regards to the on-going problems occurring at ASUPD (staffing, the FTO program, supervisors engaging in illegal and unethical behavior). He has stated on several occasions that he “can’t just fire half the police department”, despite being told (again, by multiple employees) many members of the Command and training staff were/are engaged in illegal/unethical behavior. Several employees who spoke to Salcido about this topic also witnessed the negative behavior first hand, or provided Salcido with the names, dates, and documents that would prove the merits of the accusations.

In regard to the slew of former employees ASUPD has left in its wake, Salcido has more or less stated the opinions and experiences of the people who have left the university aren’t relevant to what is currently transpiring within ASU, and speaking to them would be essentially pointless.

Much like his interactions with Jasmine Lester, Salcido’s pledge to “look into” ASUPD’s problems were completely useless. When the head of the Human Resources department at the largest university in the United States is incapable of removing problem employees from the university DESPITE witnesses and evidence…it makes one wonder how many other issues Salcido has failed to act appropriately on.

P.S. Mr. Salcido, you could never be a police officer, even in a prior life. Your deliberate indifference in the face of adversity illustrates your complete lack both compassion for others and a moral compass.

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ASU faces a Federal investigation over complaints of mishandling sexual abuse cases

We initially wrote about how easy it was for ASUPD to skew its crime statistics in October 2013, just after ASUPD released its 2012 crime statistics (here and here).

In February 2014, we did a lengthy article explaining what the Clery Act is, the reporting requirements under the law, and how it is applicable to ASUPD. In March 2014, we followed up this article with a second part which analyzed ASUPD’s crime data and illustrated exactly how ASUPD misrepresented its crime statistics and violated the Clery Act. Shortly thereafter, we wrote an article explaining what Title IX is, and how ASU is also violating provisions of it.

After months of reporting about ASU has failed to meet the requirements of the Clery Act, as well as Title IX, a formal complaint has finally been filed against ASU. This complaint has now launched ASU into the national media spotlight (as well as ASUPD, for their role in under reporting/reclassifying of statistics).

Hopefully, the pressure of a looming Federal investigation is what will help ASUPD clean house, and get on track to establishing itself as a legitimate police department.

Stand by.

Here are a few articles on the situation at ASU:

http://www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/tempe/asu-among-schools-in-us-federal-sex-assault-investigation

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/01/us/colleges-sex-complaint-investigations/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/tempe/2014/05/01/arizona-state-universities-sex-assault-inquiry/8565811/

 

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