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A probe didn't confirm that 5 fired officers were on a hit list, but did echo the complaints officers made in a survey.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 14, 2001
PINELLAS PARK -- A consultant hired to investigate allegations that police supervisors had targeted five officers for dismissal found no written "hit list" but reached this damning conclusion: "The Pinellas Park Police Department is on the verge of implosion."
Many city officials declined to comment until they finished reading the 37-page report, but Tampa attorney Robert Lewis' findings echoed the strife that was reported earlier last week in officers' morale surveys.
Significant tensions simmer between the road patrol officers and their immediate supervisors, the sergeants. And further hard feelings exist between the sergeants and the captains, who rank just behind the chief in authority.
As for the hit list, the consultant found no evidence to indicate that any adverse action had been taken against any of the five officers but determined that Capt. Robert Hempel, then second in command, had told another officer there were five employees he'd like to see gone.
(While Lewis says five officers, he names only four in the report: Charles Prichard, R.A. Cook, James Byers and Donna Saxer.)
Lewis wrote: "There is absolutely no evidence to support that this "list' was anything other than verbal and stemmed from one conversation between Capt. Hempel and Sgt. (Michael) Haworth made in the presence of Officer Craig Heneveld.
"There is extremely credible evidence to establish that as of March 2000, Capt. Robert Hempel made a statement to Sgt. Michael Haworth to the effect that his life would be easier if certain employees were not around, or that there were five people who were a "pain in his a-.' It is further determined that Capt. Robert Hempel made subsequent statements to Officer Natalie Pehote and Officer John Hicks about police officers who were supposedly on the alleged list."
Lewis concluded: "Capt. Robert Hempel made the actual statement which gave rise to this investigation."
Hempel was off duty Friday evening and could not be reached for comment.
However, according to Lewis' report, the captain denied making either statement. Hempel also told Lewis he thought the investigation had wrecked his career.
Lewis said that after talking with other officers he had a "hard time accepting Capt. Hempel's version of this event."
Reaction to Lewis' report was sketchy Friday as city officials and police officers poured over the 37 pages.
Pinellas Park Mayor Bill Mischler and Bill LauBach, executive director of the Police Benevolent Association, declined to comment, saying they had not read the report.
Pinellas Park police Chief Dorene Thomas did not return a phone message asking for comment.
Pinellas Park council member Rick Butler said he'd only scanned the report by early Friday evening but found it "confusing."
It was troubling, he said, that Lewis did not seem to realize that Thomas is the permanent chief. In his report, Lewis kept referring to her as "interim chief." That sort of mistake, Butler said, made him wonder about other parts of the report.
Prichard, one of the officers allegedly targeted by Hempel, summarized the report as "poppycock."
Prichard said Lewis had omitted things that would support his claim that he had been adversely affected by the list. But Prichard did agree that things are bad in the department.
"I think they're very bad and I think that by the end of January, beginning of February, you're going to see another mass exodus (of officers)," Prichard said. "We're going to be working minimum staffing and below."
Former Pinellas Park police Chief David Milchan said the results were mostly what he expected.
"I would assume that a hit list is a list of people you are trying to get rid of and are going to get rid of. Based on that, (there's) absolutely no truth to that at all," Milchan said.
Milchan added, "This whole thing of the hit list is just nonsense in my opinion."
Council members decided late last summer to hire two outside consultants -- one to conduct a morale survey and another to investigate Prichard and Cook's allegation that a hit list was directed at older officers and those who were seen to be outspoken.
The climate survey was a response to discrimination claims by three women officers and to Prichard and Cook's union grievances.
In officers' handwritten comments, which were released Tuesday, employees wrote that they were shorthanded, worked with old equipment and thought their managers ruled by intimidation and retaliation.
Lewis described the situation this way:
"Most of the road patrol officers cannot stand and do not respect most of the sergeants. This is based on the fact that while the sergeants met the prerequisites on paper and passed the exam, they are, for the most part, very young and lack the police experience and management skills to be in a supervisory position and effectively manage other officers."
As for the sergeants, Lewis wrote:
"In general, the sergeants feel that they are between a rock and a hard place. They deal with many patrol officers who do not respect them and in many cases, openly and publicly challenge their authority. . . . many of the sergeants feel they do not get the backup and support they need from the captains.
"The one thing that the patrol officers and several sergeants seem to agree on is their perception that the captains do not know what's going on as to the rift between the officers and the sergeants, nor do they seem to care."
Lewis had several suggestions to improve the situation:
Hire a strong chief of police. Lewis apparently failed to realize Thomas is the department's permanent chief, calling her "interim" throughout his report. If Thomas is appointed chief, he said, she must be strong and have the conviction to do what needs to be done regardless of whether the decisions are popular or politically correct.
City Hall must stay out of the day-to-day operations of the police department and its internal conflicts.
The requirements to become sergeant should be reviewed and more experience required for those promoted to that level.
"At its current level, it is very difficult for even the most talented of applicants to gain the requisite law enforcement and management experience needed to effectively lead and manage patrol officers," Lewis wrote.
"This is one of the core problems at the Pinellas Park Police Department. A group of sergeants who, even though they passed the test, do not have the law enforcement experience necessary to command the respect of senior officers."
Review the department's pay plan and bring the officers' salaries up to the level of other law enforcement agencies in west central Florida.
Consider allowing officers to drive their police cars home at night.
Lewis pooh-poohed the idea of sensitivity training, saying it would not solve any of the department's current problems.
"Leading any organization is difficult," he wrote. "It isn't alway accomplished with milk and cookies and the truth sometimes does hurt. No amount of sensitivity training, group counseling or hand-holding can take the place of effective leadership."
Notes point up officers' low morale