# Consultant Calls Springfield Police Force 'Dysfunctional'



## ROBOCOP1982 (Sep 4, 2002)

Consultant Calls Springfield Police Force 'Dysfunctional'

SPRINGFIELD (AP) -- A consultant hired to review this cash-strapped city's police force called it "dysfunctional" and called Friday for settlement of police contracts, removing the police chief's position from civil service and demoting the police commission to an advisory board. 

Carroll Buracker of Harrisonburg, Va., who was hired by the city's financial control board that oversees the city's operations, said he had never seen anything like the kind of upper-level friction as between Police Chief Paula Meara and the deputy chiefs and other senior officers who sued over her appointment. Meara was elevated from captain to chief in 1996. 

Buracker rated the department's management as a two on a scale of 1-to-10, but gave the rank-and-file officers a grade of eight-to-nine, calling them very highly educated and honest. 

Among the other 200 recommendations in the more than 400-page report submitted Friday to the financial control board were the hiring of more civilians so at least 48 officers on the 460-member force could be moved from desk to patrol jobs and revamping the administration of the department with the addition of a third deputy chief. 

Still, he said he could not make recommendations on such things as cost and staff levels, because the city's data on crime statistics was a shambles and information on some things, such as crime clearance rates, was not being tracked. 

Meara, a 30-year veteran, said she and prior chiefs had tried to implement many of the recommendations, but had been stymied by contract provisions. 

As for the strife, she said, "It's no secret that everyone wanted to be chief."


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## frapmpd24 (Sep 3, 2004)

*Re: Consultant Calls Springfield Police Force 'Dysfunctional*

Now there is a surprise...a scathing report from a police consultant with 400 pages of "You should do... this or that". And how much will ever get changed? Out of the laundry list of recommendations for a Worcester County about five years ago after a "management study", the only thing done was to take the TV out of the station. Yeah, that has alot to do with the "management" of the department. :roll:


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## MVS (Jul 2, 2003)

*Re: Consultant Calls Springfield Police Force 'Dysfunctional*



> Consultant Calls Springfield Police Force 'Dysfunctional'


I wonder how much the City spent on this bozo... any Tom, Dick or Harry could have told you that department is F'd up. I think it lost its credibility when it cut 100 Officers from its force a few years back.

Have you ever been to the Eastfield Mall after dark? :shock:


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## MCOA41 (Sep 5, 2002)

*Re: Consultant Calls Springfield Police Force 'Dysfunctional*

Streamline Streamline Streamline.

Let Civilians do the jobs that do not need police officers.

Been saying this about the SPD Dispatch for ages now.

Lets see if anything good comes of this and lets see if Puala holds onto her job.


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