Committee accepts 33 of 34 recommendations proposed in KPD Audit

The Operations Review Committee accepted today all but one of the recommendations contained in the recently unveiled audit of the Kyle Police Department and, in the process, enthusiastically endorsed the methodology the auditors employed to arrive at their conclusions.

Of the 34 recommendations the audit suggested, the only one rejected was one to "begin utilizing the victim services coordinator to conduct welfare checks during normal business hours."

Assistant City Manager James Earp told the other committee members that he, City Manager Scott Sellers and Police Chief Jeff Barnett had reviewed the audit and that they agreed they heartily endorsed the audit’s recommendations with the possible exception of the one involving the victim services coordinator. He said he understood the reason for the recommendation was to relieve patrol from having to perform these functions.

"But, after thinking it through, I’m not sure I’m real comfortable with it," Earp said. "One, she doesn’t have a gun. Two, she can’t make entry if she shows up on the scene and realizes there’s an emergency on-going. Those are probably the two biggest things because not all welfare checks are routine. With the exception of that one, we’re completely on board with this."

"I strongly recommend not implementing that one," KPD Capt. Pedro Hernandez said.

Readers can learn more about the current responsibilities of the victim services coordinator here.

Police Association President Sgt. Tim Griffith said he had some concerns about the data the auditing firm used to reach some its conclusions, but added he completely agreed with the methodology used to arrive at those results and believed the department should embrace that methodology in the future when computing certain staffing levels.

Most of the recommendations have budget implications and, as a result, probably won’t begin to be implemented until the next budget cycle. It is expected the city manager will incorporate many, if not all, the audit’s recommendations in his next proposed budget which is expected to be made public the last week of July or the first week of August 2018.

Readers can find a summary as well as a link to the draft of the audit here.

Chief says city doesn’t want to tip its hat to bad guys

Police Chief Jeff Barnett said today the section of the Police Department audit that will be presented tonight to the city council that’s marked "CONFIDENTIAL (NOT FOR PUBLIC DISCLOSURE)," was deliberately withheld from the public to prevent revealing strategic information to "would-be criminals."

According to a news release distributed by the city today and available here on the city’s web site, the blank page near the end of the audit "contains information about police deployment and response times. Another section of the appendix discusses the security features of our facilities."

The title of the blank page is Appendix C — Patrol Staffing and Property and Evidence Analysis and Recommendations,

"By providing the number of police officers on duty at any given time or providing our average response time to calls, we could inadvertently compromise the safety of our officers and the community at large," Barnett was quoted as saying in the city’s release. "Telling would-be criminals about our security procedures and facilities is also not in the interest of public safety."

The city’s staff believes the audit endorses previous actions the city has taken in regards to the Police Department, according to today's release.

"The results of this comprehensive review of Kyle Police Department show that the steps we’ve taken to date to hire more staff and upgrade technology have had the desired effect," the release quoted Assistant City Manager James Earp as saying. "When combined with implementing the recommendations from the audit, we are confident that our police department will be even better able to meet the needs of our growing community well into the future."

However, the release also suggests it’s still open to question concerning which, if any, of the audit’s recommendations will be implemented. According to the release, if the city council signs off on the audit during tonight’s meeting, it will then go to something called the Operations Review Committee, the five-member board created by the city to select the company to conduct the audit. That committee will then "review the report and decide which recommendations to implement," the release said.

The release offered no clue as to when this committee might reconvene. There also doesn’t appear to be any information on the city’s web site as to the makeup of the Operations Review Committee.