• City Auditor Gary White presented the results of the 3rd quarter FY 2010 Citizen Satisfaction Survey. A total of 61 percent of residents said they were satisfied or very satisfied with the quality of local police protection. Click for full survey results.
• City Councilwoman Cathy Jolly, chair of the Public Safety and Neighborhoods Committee, said she was pleased with the success of the city’s red light cameras program and was in discussions with Union Pacific to install similar cameras at railroad crossings. She said the rail company had approached her about initiating the project. She also explained the success of the city’s Aim 4 Peace program and the ongoing efforts to find funding for it.
• Deputy Chief Cy Ritter said KCPD is down 70 officers in the field at present. However, two classes of 30 recruits each are currently attending the Police Academy. D.C. Ritter also said police had been working to increase their visibility in neighborhoods throughout the city by placing Mounted Patrol and Canine units on patrol.
• Deputy Chief Kevin Masters reported that the Investigations Bureau is devoting a considerable amount of resources to investigating a serial rapist in the Waldo/Brookside area.
• Human Resources Manager Doug Weishar presented about the development of a computer program for an employee early warning/risk management system. The program is called SEERS – or Successful Employee Enhancement and Retention System. The program is being designed for sworn personnel and will track such things as Office of Community Complaints cases against the officer, officer-involved shootings, response to resistance reports, accidental discharge of firearms, assaults on the officer, arrests involving resistance and sick time usage. Weishar said the purpose of the program is to identify individual officers who may be having job performance difficulties and work to correct those issues as quickly as possible.
• Board Vice President Karl Zobrist said he would like to commit to paper some of the standard practices the Kansas City Board uses to maintain the highest standards of conduct to avoid some of the issues facing the Board of Police Commissioners in St. Louis. Some of those practices of the Kansas City board include: rotating office-holders annually, having an audit committee and notifying the rest of the board and public if a member has any conflict of interest in an issue and abstaining from the vote if he/she does.
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