That’s preposterous! Tonight at 5:30 at the Water Utility the Police Policy and Review Committee will be discussing how they will spend the $50,000 the City Council gave them to aid them in their work. Funny thing about it is, they are still gathering information about their “work” and determining what it will be. How do they know this is how they want to spend that (relatively speaking) small amount of money?
This draft RFP was handed out at a meeting, but never linked, we finally have a copy. Allegedly they think that for $50,000 they can get (see page 6):
The City seeks proposals for an expert (s) to conduct a comprehensive review of Madison Police Department’s (MPD) culture, training, policies and procedures and obtain an understanding of the current status of the Madison Police Department and identify places for improvement. Particularly in the areas of racial disparity, implicit bias, use of force, dealing with people with mental health problems or who are under the influence of alcohol or other drugs, the rights of civilian witnesses, disproportionate contact with youth of color, and culturally-related behavioral variations.
More detailed, they are looking for this:
The expert(s) will thoroughly review the Madison Police Department policies, procedures, culture and training by:
1.Conducting an assessment of MPD Standard Operating Procedures and Code of Conduct.
2.Assessment of the culture of MPD through surveys, focus groups, interviews of staff, and any other means necessary to access desired information. This should include a broad cross section of internal MPD Groups, including but not limited to Madison Professional Police Officers Association Union, Association of Madison Police Supervisors, and civilian employees of the MPD.
3.Evaluate whether or not MPD processes and systems reinforce the Code of Conduct and community policing values of the department.
4.Meet with training staff to review curriculum and procedures of training surrounding use of force, implicit bias, mental health and alcohol/drug abuse.This will include a review of the most recent inspections of the State of Wisconsin Department of Justice Law Enforcement Training and Standards Bureau. MPD offers pre-service training, in-service training, and specialized training to law enforcement professionals.
5.Assess MPD’s efforts toward community engagement with community leaders who are representative of the African American, Asian, Latino, Native American, and LGTBQ communities.
6.Evaluate efforts related to Amigos en Azul and the youth academies.
7.Analyze MPD’s efforts toward community policing and problem solving. The analysis should include the information on whether or not the culture structure, and staffing support the community policing efforts.
8.Review past and present MPD Trust Based Policing Initiatives, the Racial Disparity Workgroup, and the work of the Diversity Inclusion Team.
9.The comprehensive review should include a thorough analysis of police data, training records, discipline, and racial disparity in arrests, traffic stops, and/or contacts.This will include analysis on officer initiated activities or contacts and citizen calls for service.
10.Examine how MPD tracks data and provides for accountability.
11.Review MPD programming that serves persons suffering from mental illness and/or drug abuse issues.
12.The selected vendor will make an extensive report-out on the current status of the MPD and how it relates to the City of Madison, Dane County, State of Wisconsin, and policing profession as a whole. Additionally, the selected vendor will make recommendations for the MDP moving forward. These should include, but are not limited to: how to improve culture, community engagement, best practices, training, hiring, and policy and procedure.
13.Presentation to City’s Committee for the Review of the MPD, Mayor,and Common Council on final recommendations.
14.Attend the MPD Policy Review Committee meetings to provide status updates
(insert huge belly laugh here)
First of all, there isn’t enough money to even pretend to do that kind of review! Especially if the people reviewing the department aren’t from Madison and have to travel (which, pretty much has to be the case) Number one alone would cost $50,000.
Second of all, the money was given to the committee to assist them in their work and they are still gathering information and determining what their work is, how do they even know what they need yet?
Third, “garbage in, garbage out”. It the consultant spends all its time getting input from the Madison Police Department, it will just vomit out the answers the police department wants us to hear.
Fourth, what are we asking them to recommend?
While the RFP language is 32 pages, the meat of what you need to know is on page 6 & 7 and cut and pasted above. The rest is mostly boiler plate language. If you have ideas about how the committee should better use the $50,000, please attend tonight and let them know!!!
Here are Matt Braunginn’s thoughts on the RFP. He won’t be able to be at the meeting. He basically says, don’t rush this. Appoint a subcommittee to look at this and get it right. I couldn’t agree more.
This is too important to bungle. I hope to see you there to tonight to let the committee know that. If you can’t make it tonight and want to email committee members, here’s their emails (at least the one’s available here).
acooper@nehemiah.org
christian.albouras@gmail.com
jackie.hunt@journeymhc.org
keith.findley@wisc.edu
ketchfish@aol.com
lyudice@madison.k12.wi.us
marios.sierra@gmail.com
sasaiz@uwalumni.com
smarsh@lelc.org
suekp93@charter.net
veronical@unidosagainstdv.org
