In the past 15 months, 15 sworn officers in a force of 55 have left the Durango Police Department, with several citing schedule changes, low morale and lack of communication with the command staff as reasons for leaving. Several officers, current and former, spoke with The Durango Herald to express concerns.
Durango City Manager Ron LeBlanc said he was unaware of the concerns and low morale.
“If they’re concerned, they should have come to see me, and I’m disappointed that they didn’t,” he said. “You have to work through the system to make changes.”
Chief Jim Spratlen played down the turnover, saying it has always been an issue at the DPD.
Officers have different reasons for leaving, he said. According to his tally, six departing officers were there less than a year, with four leaving because they did not pass the field training and two leaving town to follow a wife’s career. One was terminated, one retired, two changed to civilian jobs and a few have either gone to other area law-enforcement agencies in Southwest Colorado or the Front Range to work in law enforcement. Front Range agencies often pay higher and many have better familial support groups.
But that might not be the whole story.
The Herald spoke with 14 different officers, some still with the department and others who left in the recent exodus, having been with the department between six and 16 years. Six of those who left said the schedule change was the deciding factor in their decision. Several spoke off the record for fear of losing jobs or harming chances of finding new work.
“People kept telling me, ‘Don’t make waves, this is a small town,’” said Mark Glogowski, who retired as a sergeant from the West Palm Beach, Florida, police department after 22 years and moved to Durango, where he worked at the DPD for 10 months before quitting. “I just can’t believe it, what’s been going on is the most amazing story. The turnover, the low morale, the mistakes by inexperienced police working out there.”
A rotating schedule
Several officers said a schedule change at the police department that requires mandatory shift changes every six months was a leading cause for their departure. In a two-year period, each officer must work one six-month period in each shift, including days (from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.), swing shift (from 4:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.), graveyard (from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m.), and a fourth six-month shift of their choosing. Shifts also moved to 10 hours of duration from 12.
The police department, just like a hospital, must be staffed at all times. For many years, new officers were assigned the graveyard shift. As they moved up in seniority, they were able to ask for the shifts they wanted, with the most coveted being the daytime Monday to Friday slot, with weekends off. The freedom to ask for the shifts also meant that those who preferred evening or graveyard shifts could have them.
After every promotion, an officer would return to the bottom of the heap as the newest corporal or sergeant before working his or her way up the seniority ladder again.
“Our schedules are already tough, between often having to stay late to finish reports and get up early or come in on days off to go to court or attend an autopsy,” one officer said. “We get that, it’s part of the job. The seniority scheduling at least allowed us to spend time with our families.”
Every person interviewed stressed that the department perennially has several openings, in part because Durango is an expensive place to live on a police officer’s salary. Starting officers earn about $47,100 annually, not including overtime.
The department had seven positions open as of last week.
“I’ve been here for 20 years, and we’ve been fully staffed exactly two weeks of that time,” Spratlen said.
The shortage of police officers is a national issue. The February 2015 Police Chief Magazine estimates that 80 percent of law-enforcement agencies, big and small, have police officer positions they cannot fill. Los Angeles Police Department has 720 positions open, Houston is trying to fill 700 jobs.
The scheduling change at the Durango Police Department, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2014, is an attempt to retain more young officers, among other objectives. Overall evaluation scores increased after the first year of the new schedule, Spratlen said, so most officers and sergeants received higher raises.
Changing shifts also will give officers a broader understanding of the community, Spratlen said.
After the schedule was proposed, the chief said, they spent four months presenting it to the department, making several changes as a result of suggestions.
That’s not how the officers who left see it.
“It felt like they didn’t hear anything we said,” one said. “They met us with crossed arms, and we’re trained to read body language. That’s a sign you’re not going to listen.”
‘Used to be family-friendly’
As officer after officer told his or her story, the predominant emotion seemed to be sadness at feeling forced to leave a once beloved job:
“It used to be a place where families mattered, but as a single parent, I need to be home at night with my children,” said a former officer.
“I lived and breathed the DPD. They couldn’t have had anyone who was more committed,” said another.
Spratlen was sorry to see them go, he said, but he’s trying to make the department stronger for the future.
“I can’t run it trying to keep the 10 percent who are the squeaky wheel happy,” he said. “No organization can. It can be very hard for people to adapt to change, and I’m sorry about that, but we needed to make these changes.”
At what cost?
How to quantify the cost, if any, of losing experienced officers when it comes to public safety is impossible, although most officers interviewed felt there is a toll.
“The scheduling change was the beginning, and then things just snowballed,” said Adam Gehrke, who is beginning a new job with a Front Range law-enforcement agency after eight years with the Durango police. “Law enforcement isn’t like a normal business. When you lose five people who’ve been there eight, 10, 15 years, they can’t be quickly replaced. It can take several years to understand a community and a department and its policies.”
Among the skills lost, said several officers, are knowing how and where to patrol, where crime tends to happen, who tend to be the miscreants and perhaps, most importantly, how to defuse tense situations.
“Young officers often feel like they have to prove they’re in control of the situation, where more experienced officers will take their time to improve the outcome,” said one officer.
There are quantifiable dollar costs related to the training of new officers, which includes two weeks of classes and about 3½ months in the field with an experienced patrol officer. Spratlen estimated that the cost per new officer is around $30,700 – $8,700 to outfit them and another $22,000 for field training.
A continuing problem?
“I’ve just had some citizens express some concern in the last week,” Mayor Pro Tem Dean Brookie said. “Everyone’s very respectful of the chief but concerned about decision making.”
The departure of 11 officers in 2014 was not an all-time high – 15 left in 2011 and 14 left in both 2007 and 2008 – but losing several longtime veterans may be a problem.
“To have so many officers on the street still in training can lead to a lot of mistakes,” said one who left.
There are many with positive memories. Rob Haukeness, who retired in 2014 after 30 years in law enforcement, 10 in Durango, said Spratlen allowed him opportunities he had always wanted, including working as a motorcycle cop, a school resource officer and as head of the Special Weapons and Tactics team.
While both Spratlen and LeBlanc said many officers are happy with the new schedule, no one who spoke to the Herald said he was. Several declined to comment.
But Glogowski says the community needs to take a closer look.
“I was shocked there’s not more community involvement,” he said. “A lot of officers who were happy and did their jobs extremely well but can’t do this new schedule because of family obligations felt forced to leave. And it feels like there’s no communication between command staff and patrol officers.”
abutler@durangoherald.com
