ICP Supports MIDD

Islanders for Collaborative Policing Statement in Support of a County Tax

January 22, 2013

Islanders for Collaborative Policing strongly supports a new county tax to improve services for the mentally ill and chemically dependent. We also support a City Council resolution, considered on January 23, expressing Bainbridge approval for this measure.

The Mentally Illness and Drug Dependency (MIDD) tax will benefit the mentally impaired and their families. But the new tax will also benefit our police officers, and improve the quality of local policing. Mental illness and chemical dependency create complicated crisis situations, and yet we, as a community, expect our officers to handle these situations with few resources, limited information, and, until recently (and at least for some of our officers) woefully inadequate training. MIDD revenues will strengthen the local system of mental health services, and, in doing so, reduce the occurrence of crisis situations. (Police involvement usually indicates that no treatment is taking place, or that treatment is failing.) When crisis situations occur, MIDD funding will give officers a better mental health system to work with and more resources in the field. MIDD revenues, we hope, will also be used to fund crisis intervention training. Increased funding for officer training in the city’s 2013 budget is a good start. MIDD funds will, potentially, expand training opportunities and insure consistency of service throughout the county. It is well worth thinking about how officers in neighboring jurisdictions are trained since they frequently assist Bainbridge officers.

One final thought. Islanders for Collaborative Policing thinks police accountability and scrutiny are important. But support of our officers is important, too. We approve of the MIDD tax because it reflects our commitment to our officers, and our desire to help them perform their job in a safe, humane, and effective way. Mental impairment is a community issue, not just a policing issue. We are happy to pay a one tenth of a one percent tax to encourage a more holistic effort.

Related link: Kitsap Judges speak out in support of a Kitsap MIDD tax.

How to Pick a Chief

Strategic Government Resources is conducting the search for our new police chief. In response to their request for input, ICP makes the following recommendations. We favor chief candidates who:

1. Have a track record of building trust and good will within their organizations and in their communities. Strong, ethical and objective leadership is essential.
2. Will embrace a collaborative policing model—that is—one with meaningful citizen involvement (be it through working relationships with local professionals, partnerships with schools and families, or community conversations and forums). 
3. Accept and appreciate civilian oversight, such as in the form of a civilian complaint board or ombudsman, since these build confidence in policing.
4. Have experience with the Memphis Model, and/or other best practices for working fairly and effectively with the mentally ill and their families.
5. Understand the importance of strategic planning, and the importance of aligning department goals with those of the community.
6. Have experience with proactive and targeted officer recruitment. We need a long-term strategy for attracting high quality officers, whose qualifications match the specific needs of Bainbridge Island.
7. Understand the importance accurate data and regular data collection, as well as the need to keep local residents apprised of that information.
8. Have local knowledge and regional contacts, and the demonstrated ability to develop strategic relationships.
9. Have an understanding of, and preferably experience with, communities similar to Bainbridge Island. We have relatively little crime and expect high standards for our public officials. A different kind of leadership is needed here than in other places.

Link to our letter here.

December 11 Event on Mental Illness: Take Aways and Recommendations

On December 11, 2012, Islanders for Collaborative Policing hosted a community conversation on policing and mental illness. Police officers, mental health professionals, advocates for the mentally ill, and a representative from the Bainbridge Island School District (among others) sat around a table and exchanged views. There were no theatrics. There were no confrontations. There was, instead, a shared sense of purpose, and several common themes expressed. Click here for our memo describing the event, and our follow up recommendations.

December Event on Policing and Mental Illness

Islanders for Collaborative Policing will sponsor a roundtable conversation on Tuesday December 11, about policing and mental illness. The public is welcome to attend. 

The purpose of the event is to consider (1) the prevalence of mental illness in our community and (2) best practices about interacting with the mentally ill that are being used by law enforcement agencies. Four representatives from law enforcement will be on hand to talk about policing strategies (including two Lieutenants from the BIPD) along with the statewide coordinator for crisis intervention training at the State Criminal Justice Training Commission. The Executive Director of Kitsap County Mental Health Services will be on our panel, along with the Director of Health for the County Health District, National Alliance for Mental Illness representatives, and the head of Educational Support Services for the Bainbridge School District. This will be a rather remarkable opportunity, we think, to form some new partnerships and engage in creative thinking. 

The roundtable will be held at Bethany Lutheran Church on Bainbridge Island (7968 Finch Road NE). The program starts at 6pm and ends at 7:30--and, from 7:30 to 8pm, you'll have the opportunity to meet our panelists and engage in informal conversation.

Questions for the City Manager Candidates

Within the next few weeks, Bainbridge Island councilmembers will be choosing a new city manager who, in turn, will be choosing a new police chief. Click here for ten questions, from the ICP Board, to the final candidates. 

Update September 19: City Council unanimously picks Doug Schulze for new city manager. In Mr. Schulze's application, he refers to his interest in promoting open and transparent government and--more particularly--his efforts to create a professional and respected police department in Medina. Welcome aboard, Mr. Schulze. We look forward to working with you.

RECOMMENDATIONS RELEASED

ICP invited island residents in the spring of 2012 to meet and discuss policing issues. In response to an evident groundswell of concern, a citizen committee was formed, open to all islanders. Despite differences of opinion, we shared a single main objective: to improve the relationship of Bainbridge Island residents to their Police Department.  We are less interested in prior police practices and incidents than in how the Department operates in the future. Our goal is a city that takes pride in its police department, with residents who trust and respect the officers who are our neighbors and who serve our community.

The report is the result of our deliberations.  It contains seven recommendations for action, summarized as follows:

1. Our City and Police Department should publicly commit to genuine collaborative policing, a style of law enforcement that sees community members as active participants in policing and draws its legitimacy from the support of citizens. It envisions policing as a partnership between community residents and officers, as opposed to a “top down” relationship where residents passively receive policing services.

2.     The BIPD should establish clear goals and objectives, and should communicate these in a strategic plan to the community.

3. The BIPD should adopt two initiatives for improving police response to situations involving mental illness: increased/enhanced crisis intervention training and creating a crisis intervention team to assist officers in the field.

4.    The BIPD should share information about crime/public safety with the public and City Council on a regular basis.

5. The BIPD, City Manager, and City Council should support an independent intake/advisory board that receives citizen and officer concerns.  We’ve developed a proposed structure and operating principles for further development and will be happy to share these with you. 

6.     The BIPD should adopt initiatives that enhance youth/officer relations. More specifically, we recommend that the Department re-establish a School Resource Officer and establish a high school student ride-along program.

7.     The BIPD should maximize positive interactions in the community by emphasizing foot and bike patrol. 

We are releasing our recommendations today to city officials, the press, and residents. We hope this document inspires specific changes at the BIPD, and a cultural change toward collaborative policing. We also hope it marks the beginning of a new, and positive relationship between island residents and the BIPD. 

We will communicate again to the community in 30 days on movement and changes made to date in response to our report. We look forward to sharing good news.

Click here for the full report

Click here for the BIPD response

Guild to Chief: No Confidence

On June 11, the Bainbridge Island Police Guild publicly announced "no confidence" in Chief Jon Fehlman. In a 29-page letter delivered to the Mayor, the Guild calls for the Chief's resignation, citing his "poor executive leadership, indifference, lack of integrity, and poor policy decisions." The ICP Policing Committee released the following statement on June 19:

Islanders for Collaborative Policing (“ICP”) was formed in 2011 to promote a better relationship between Bainbridge Island residents and their police department. It organized a citizen’s committee with the goal of proposing policies to foster collaboration and build trust between the community and the BIPD.

We, the ICP citizen’s committee, take note of the Police Guild’s recent vote of “no confidence” in Police Chief John Fehlman, and its June 11 letter to City Council urging the Chief’s removal from office. We neither support nor oppose the call for Chief Fehlman's termination. Nor are we in a position to verify the Guild’s list of asserted failings. We do, however, endorse the following general propositions: 

First, BIPD must build a collaborative relationship with all island residents. The Chief’s practice of speaking only to friendly audiences and/or his refusal to speak to some community groups would, if true, represent a big part of the problem impairing BIPD's relationship with the Bainbridge community. If this is an accurate portrayal of the Chief’s attitude, it must be corrected. 

Second, BIPD should have a strategic plan, or — at the very least — definitive goals and priorities that are communicated to both Island residents and City officials. According to the Guild's letter, the Chief has no short-­‐ or long-­‐term plan for the Department, and does not meet (or even communicate) with supervisory staff to establish objectives. If so, this too calls for corrective measures. 

Lastly, the Chief — like all members of the BIPD — must take laws, rules, and policies seriously. We agree that all public servants should be held accountable for improper or illegal actions, especially those substantially impairing their job performance and other public interests. If the City's investigation corroborates the Guild's charges, and if those findings indicate a substantial breach by Chief Fehlman of the law, the rules governing his employment, his performance expectations, or the terms of his contract, we urge the City to take all reasonable and lawful steps to remedy that misconduct. 

We applaud the Guild for taking a public stand and insisting on ethical, collaborative, and competent leadership. The ICP citizen’s committee shares these goals, and looks forward to working with the BIPD and City to achieve them.

update, September 11: Bainbridge Chief Resigns Post