Campbell PD restores lieutenant position

By EMMALEE C. TORISK

etorisk@vindy.com

campbell

The city’s police department soon will reinstate its lieutenant position — a post it has lacked for more than 30 years.

After the position was phased out through attrition, beginning in 1983, the department was left with a large number of full- and part-time patrol officers, and not enough supervisory posts. Its absence, said Police Chief Drew Rauzan, also has contributed to one of the department’s biggest problems: consistently losing quality officers to police departments that offer additional opportunities.

Currently, a patrol officer in the Campbell Police Department can be promoted only to sergeant or to chief. The options for a sergeant are even fewer.

“If a sergeant doesn’t make chief, he’s stuck for the rest of his career,” Rauzan said. “This provides another avenue for advancement. With the more chances for advancement in any organization, the more [the organization] can retain personnel.”

City council voted to restore the lieutenant position Wednesday. According to the city ordinance that establishes the classified position, the lieutenant “reports to and is responsible to” the police chief and the director of administration, and is responsible for “the supervision and direction of work” performed by others within the police department.

More specifically, the lieutenant will have command of the patrol division, assist in administrative matters within the police department and assume command of the department if the chief must take an extended leave of absence.

The addition of a lieutenant position, along with the filling of a few vacant posts, will result in a better supervisor-to-employee ratio, Rauzan said. Once the remaining two out of four full-time sergeant positions are filled, for example, one sergeant will be assigned to supervise about five patrol officers, of which the department has roughly 20.

The one full-time lieutenant, then, will serve as a “middle manager” of sorts, to “supervise the supervisor,” Rauzan explained.

“It takes some pressure off me,” he said. “I would like to stick to bigger-picture issues ... while the lieutenant will help on the day-to-day operations of police work.”

Rauzan added that the department is looking to fill the lieutenant position and the two sergeant positions within the next three to six months. But before then, the city plans to make a few changes to the ways it tests candidates for those positions.

First, the content of questions asked on the civil-service exam will change. The exams are based on material from criminal justice textbooks, Rauzan said, but soon will be entirely based on “350 pages of city ordinances” that pertain to police work in Campbell.

“It’s something [officers] should learn anyway,” he said. “Even if they don’t get promoted, they will have still had an exercise on something that will be beneficial to them on a daily basis.”

This new exam, too, will be taken by all who are applying for a supervisory position, instead of having a separate exam and a separate testing date for each available position. This will save the police department money, because instead of paying $3,000 for each exam that a professional exam-writer is contracted to write, it will pay that amount just once, for one exam.

Different minimum scores will be required for each position, however.

Rauzan said he’s hoping to add a physical component — which would include a timed, one-mile run and strength exercise — to the exam, as well. All entrance applicants to the police department already are mandated to take both a written and physical exam.

“Why should we require something so stringent out of people we’re going to be supervising and not the supervisors?” Rauzan said. “If you want a promotion, you have to pass. It’s going to require our guys to stay in shape, and is literally going to take money out of your pocket in the long run [if you don’t].”

Mayor William J. VanSuch agreed, adding that police work often requires physical fitness — including situations where an officer might have to chase after a suspect. In addition, having a civil-service exam that is specific to the job at hand will better prepare officers for policing the city of Campbell.

“It’s for their benefit and for ours,” VanSuch said.