Received this analysis in an email today from Deputy Police Chief Ted Silberstein, Ocoee Police Department, a 25 plus year law enforcement leader. Okay Marty, here is Teds post-debate network analysis and rating of everyones answers. Two candidates vying for the countys highest seat in law enforcement fielded a mixed bag of questions ranging from animal cruelty and job security to police shooting prevention and combating domestic violence during a forum Wednesday. It was standing-room-only at the City Operations Center as Sheriff Charles McDonald and his challenger, Martin Katz, took their seats for the forum, put on by the Henderson County League of Women Voters. Each candidate was allowed two minutes for opening statements, a minute apiece for questions and three minutes for closing. Judy Katz (no relation to Martin Katz) served as moderator for the evenings forum, asking questions submitted by those in attendance. The FBI has made animal cruelty a Group A felony category like homicide and assault, and authorities will have to report incidents and arrests to the bureau. The National Sheriffs Association spearheaded the effort to get the new category instituted because it has been proven that young people who torture and kill animals are prone to violence against people later in life. What would you do to enforce a stronger anti-cruelty law? Katz: My wife and I are pet lovers. We get animals from the Humane Society and we are responsible for them in every way. The county ordinance is strong but it could be made stronger. I would lobby to make it stronger as well as certainly enforce whats now in place. Humans are protected by the Eighth Amendment about cruel and unusual punishment including torture, and I think its time we took a similar stand for our voiceless pets. Until such a time, law enforcement will be their voice. Excellent: Not only immediately establishes you and your family’s personal affection for animals tapping into most people’s love of animals and protecting them, you showed that we should, and you want, to make laws protecting animals even stronger. McDonald: I do agree with the assessment that indicators are the people that grow up with that propensity certainly dont turn out well in later life. We certainly enforce all of the laws on the books from the state, certainly also our county ordinance regarding animal cruelty. We have a special unit that specializes in animal cruelty and abuse and investigations, so we would follow what the law provides and that would include further training, if necessary, but we have a very capable group at the helm right now. Not so good: Indicates he is satisfied with things as they are and feels no need to do any more than what is in place now. He comes off complacent and dispassionate toward abused animals and complacent. ************************************************************************** Sheriffs departments across the country have been under fire recently, and given several incidents in the United States in which questionable law enforcement responses led to death by gunfire or undue force, how are officers in the sheriffs department trained to respond to persons with guns or suspected guns? And how are they trained to avoid undue force? McDonald: A lot of times people dont understand really the kind of training and the kind of threat that these officers deal with. Certainly, in our history in this nation, there have been instances where there has been unlawful use of force and we deal with that through disciplinary measures, criminal arrests, if thats necessary, but the main thing we do is we train our folks how to deal with situations, how to do critical thinking, and we also support our guys 100 percent. We understand that the media doesnt always get it right, and I think its the sheriffs responsibility to help citizens know and understand what are the realistic expectations to have for these officers as they go out here and do their jobs. Not so good: His response is very whiney. What the reader hears is him saying that it’s the people who don’t understand what officers go through, and that it’s the media’s fault for making it sound worse than it is. Just saying that “we support or guys 100 percent” also comes off poorly because he didn’t qualify it, it comes off as if he may be saying we support our guys 100 percent even if they are in the wrong. ***************************************************************************** What would you do to make sure that what happened in Ferguson, Mo., will not happen in Hendersonville? Katz: What happened in Ferguson was a tragedy and one of the ways to prevent it is to have relationships before it happens with the various members of the community. Were talking, basically, about the incident that happened after the shooting. If you have those lines of communication open, when something happens, you can immediately reach out to the community. Once something occurs, you have to get ahead of it. In other words, you have to reach out to the community again and meet with them where they feel comfortable. Now we cant always predict the outcome of an incident, but we can certainly predict the aftermath of something like that by having communication and reaching out to the community, as well as training the officers in the use of force matrix and most up-to-date court rulings so theyre adequately prepared for what they do. Excellent: Demonstrates that while the incident may be bad, it’s often how the police handle the aftermath that makes it worse, and your understanding that our rapport with the public before things happen correlates directly to how well the public will cooperate and trust us after things happen. Harkening back to the Ferguson incident, the moderator asked: What is your position… on lapel cameras for police and sheriffs? Katz: Technology is here whether you like it or not. I support it. Its great for evidence. It will eliminate frivolous lawsuits. The downside is it only sees one dimension and it doesnt see exactly what the officer is looking at when he turns his head. While it has some good benefits and sound, it doesnt present the whole picture, so I wont make that the whole basis for a case, but I am in favor of it. Excellent: Supporting the cameras is a response that demonstrates you believe in transparency which fosters trust. Following up with a thoughtful understanding why even though the technology is value added, it still has limitations and may only give one view of an event, again fosters trust. McDonald: I think a lot of times we tend to run from one side of the ship to the other in reaction to certain events that happen. I think everybody would agree in here that the best way to avoid misuse of force or officers acting illegally or unlawfully is certainly having accountability standards, certainly having professional standards in place to vet and take care of complaints… Mr. Katz is correct that those things can be of evidentiary value, but the thing I worry about, truly, is the well-trained, well-intentioned officer whos out here dealing with a critical judgment in a life-and-death situation who may be thinking what if and worry about his actions and second-guess himself just long enough to get himself hurt because of the presence of that camera… There are better ways of dealing with issues of wrongness or conduct than putting a camera and a tape player on everybody. Not so good: His response that “there are better ways of dealing with conduct than putting a camera or a tape player on everybody” is callous and shows he is a dinosaur in terms of technology and demonstrates he believes the recording of incidents will show is deputies to be in the wrong more than in the right, and will diminish his ability to color investigations in the light that makes it easiest for him. His attempt to reason that having a camera will cause a deputy to hesitate to take action and get hurt, is like saying that hockey players should not wear helmets because that will make opponents hit them in the head more often figuring it won’t hurt them. Absurd responses that do not go over with the listener. ******************************************************************************************* What steps should be taken to give our deputies some protection against arbitration and personal dismissal? Katz: I plan to offer a form of security up to the rank of captain where no one can be transferred or no one can be demoted or fired without due process with a grievance board. The idea is if you give someone security that way, morale is increased, citizen complaints go down. I worked for a sheriff one time that fired 82 people his first day in. Another sheriff gave us somewhat job security. Its not a union, but its job security where if you do your job, you have your job. Its not up to just one person, its up to a grievance board, although the sheriff has a final say in all matters. Mr. McDonald, what are your thoughts on demoting, promoting, transferring or terminating employees based solely on political reasoning? McDonald: Im totally against it. Its against the Constitution. Its against the law. I wouldnt have anything to do with it… Im interested that my opponent would not guarantee the rank of folks captain and above because I think theyre as deserving as anybody else of whatever process he may be speaking of… We have a grievance system; in fact, weve got processes in place now that we didnt have two-and-a-half years ago. But one of the issues weve had with some folks is that weve done away with the good ol boy system. I will tell you, however, that it certainly is my policy to hire and promote the best and the brightest within our agency. People know that to come in here and do a good job is what we expect them to do. And as a sheriff with the fact that vicarious liability attaches, in other words, anybody out here doing the job represents me directly and legally, I think I need to have the option to be able to say who I hire and who I fire, but certainly I would not do that for political reasons, only for job performance. Both descent answers, BUT: Perhaps he scores a slight point higher by trying to make some kind of hay about the fact that you mentioned your job protection plan doesn’t protect commanders higher than Captain. But he probably ultimately loses that slightly higher point anyway because most people knows he’s being disingenuous and doesn’t mean it, and also most people understand that a Sheriff actually needs the autonomy to pick his top management team and make changes at that level without the more stringent processes afforded the lower ranks. That is how it works in the corporate world, that is how corporations maintain success and the Sheriff’s Office is no different, and again the listeners know this. ************************************************************************** Domestic violence seems to be an issue thats growing in this community, and it seems to be handled in different ways. How is it being handled in Josh Henderson County? McDonald: We go after it very aggressively. What weve done is, just recently, were putting in place a program whereby were working with the District Attorneys Office and various support groups that are involved with domestic violence. Right now were looking at instituting what we call a lever-pulling system that we believe we can use to reduce domestic violence or the incidence of aggressive domestic violence recidivism by 15 percent in the first year, once we get this in place. Weve got people together. Weve had a committee together. Weve done some basic training and weve been able to involve partner agencies… but well know Nov. 5 whether its something we can put in place or not. Okay answer, BUT: The “lever pulling system” sounds catchy and could resonate positively but he doesn’t explain what it is, AND, now that he has uncorked this new breakthrough solution that he claims can reduce domestic violence and possibly deaths, most people will want to know why he is making everyone wait until after the election to implement it. It comes off as though he is holding it for ransom – as if he is saying the people don’t get my potentially life-saving idea unless they elect me! This answer has potential to backfire. Katz: We need to move Henderson County from the unhealthy position of being sixth in the state for domestic violence cases resulting in death. I sat down, thought about it and I want to implement a program called, “You Are Not Alone.” Its a proactive program. What it does is helps educate people that there are services for the victim before it reaches critical levels, and then by coordinating all services through the sheriffs office, you help the person through the court system. Its traumatic enough going through a court system; worse if youre a victim. I also want to use the school resource officers to check and watch students, see their appearance and their behavior, because if youre diligent and watch the students, you can see a portal into whats going on in the residence. Id like to combine those efforts. Excellent: Your “You Are Not Alone” plan also has a catchy title, but unlike his answer, you explain exactly what your plan entails and how it will work in great detail. Further you opened with an actual eye popping statistic that Henderson County is 6th in the state in domestic violence cases which demonstrates not only that you have seriously done your homework, the people will not help but notice that this unfavorable statistic is also happening on the current Sheriff’s watch. That’s a double score! ****************************************************************************** Mr. McDonald, you have a budget of over $13 million. Why did you abolish the K9 unit, the drug interdiction unit and the traffic unit and what did you do with the money? McDonald: Wow. Abolish is such a strong term. Its really a $16 million budget. I dont get to take any of it home or pocket it, but Ill tell you everything I do is based on risk management. When I came to the sheriffs office… what I found was a system that hadnt been cared for or maintained properly. I found dogs that werent up-to-date on their training and certification. I found handlers that werent where they needed to be and I saw a big liability. And right then I said that we need to put it away until we can bring it up and reconstitute it, so its not totally abolished. I did, however, find two bloodhounds that werent being used properly, so we sent some officers to training and we got bloodhounds trained up and the officers trained up. Those dogs are a little bit less aggressive. On the drug interdiction program, we were trolling for dollars in Buncombe County too much at the time, and I felt like I needed to bring those resources back into Henderson County and work with our drug problem in Henderson County. And Ive got to stop so I cant even answer whatever the third question was, but it had an equally impressive answer. Horrible: First he opened with that “WOW!” which is a gross no-no. It comes off as an accusatory pompous indignation aimed at the interviewer, as if he is De Niro in Taxi Driver threatening “You talkin’ to ME?” Then he follows immediately with the next no-no, “I didn’t pocket it [the money]” Classic response that always conjures up a picture to people who hear it that he is a crook who indeed pocketed the money, even if it isn’t true. Once he said those no-no’s, everything he said after that didn’t matter anymore, his ship already sunk. Then the last thing he said “I can’t even answer whatever the last question was” shows he was rattled and forgetful under stress of an interview, and claiming that he had an “impressive answer” ready even though he forgot the question was nothing more than a poor attempt to cover his loss of composure with a clever comical retort, and it bombed badly to the listener. Katz: I do not have those inside figures, so I have no comment on that. Excellent: It’s not your office, thus you could have nothing to do with the K9 program or anything else involving the Sheriff’s budget so you are clean and green, while his answer on the subject left him looking and sounding utterly inept to the listener. Analysis: Katz clearly wins this debate decisively! Public Safety over Politics November 4 Elect Martin “Marty” Katz for Sheriff of Henderson County
Posted on: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 23:10:07 +0000
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