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.
28 officers when ASU should have 2.1 sworn officers for every 1,000 students. ASU has 70,000 and growing, so by these numbers we should have 147 officers. Under the current management our department will be lucky to hold on to 28. Look at the record, we will be lucky. Some will come, more will leave, over and over, but we won’t grow.
They attempt to fudge the numbers, adding command and desk jobs to the on patrol number, but it won’t hold up to intelligent observation.
We have three men sitting in offices making close to a half million. Add up the useless commanders for an even million and ASU could afford some capable, experienced leadership with that public money, but it all starts with the chief.
The chief sets the tone and our chief has protected the problem people within our department who make our high turnover possible. His brilliant solution of promoting everyone to sergeant and corporal hasn’t paid any dividends. The cheapest loyalty, is the loyalty you pay for, the loyalty you don’t earn. Leaders earn loyalty. Pickens and his buddies are incapable of earning this.
This place is in perpetual panic manic mode unprepared for every day shift calls and completely unprepared when an emergency happens. Such a joke at the expense of an uninformed public.
You have people running ASUPD who weren’t on the job long enough to understand how it’s done. One has prior non-university experience, but he apparently caved into the BS for a paycheck. Furthermore they are indifferent to anything that doesn’t directly affect them. The toxicity is too much for normal people to tolerate and they leave if they have the option to.
Pickens will do everything in his power to negatively retain employees, IA’s, phone calls to their prospective new employers, but he can’t keep everyone here. Shame on him and anyone else there who act so dishonorably, their negative deeds will catch up to them.
Let’s be honest here. We can’t keep anyone. With so many departments hiring right now people are crazy to come here and not get a raise for nearly a decade. Our fearless command is their own worst enemy. Command keeps slamming their faces into the door that says pull.
They are incapable of seeing the issues within the department. Even if they did see the issues they wouldn’t know what to do with them. With the chief running around yelling hire more bodies, get more bodies, the place sounds more like a morgue than a professional police department. Fitting since so many LE careers died here.
What’s funny about this is the idea that anything will change anytime soon. If you are a good person and start working under a gang of assholes you’re going to have problems.
To the gang of assholes you are the asshole for being different. That’s the Arizona State University Police Department problem in a nutshell. It’s ran by assholes who invent and believe their own fiction.
Did you ever hear the phrase, If you are having problems with everyone then maybe you’re the problem. That’s what management above the chief needs to realize about the people running asupd.
The hostility comes from people who are very insecure about themselves, insecure about their standing in law enforcement, and are easily intimidated by anyone with the worthwhile experience they’re lacking.
The open holed schedule for 2014-15 is a shining example of the failure ruining what could be a good agency. Here’s a summary:
1. Failure to hire.
2. Failure to train.
3. Failure to supervise.
4. Failure to retain for many reasons.
5. Failure to see the previous four items as issues and keeping heads in the sand.
There are many other failures, especially under retention, but these are related strictly to staffing and numbers.
Doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result, that’s what we have here. The completely unimaginative mindset is disturbing.
It’s nothing short of reckless to operate the agency with numbers that low. It shows the public where the university’s priorities are, anything but public safety. Give Johnny Pickens another raise even farther out of reach from the other valley heads of law enforcement, his worker bees earned it by not having staffing for years.