New chief offers fresh look at police, city

Green Bay Police Chief Andrew Smith discusses issues he faces on his new
job.


New chief offers fresh look at police, city Green Bay Police Chief
Andrew Smith discusses issues he faces on his new job. Check out this
story on greenbaypressgazette.com: http://gbpg.net/20ZgXHq

  * Smith talks about what he's learned in first three weeks of being
    Green Bay's police chief
  * First impression is that structure is top-heavy
  * Keeping gangs from gaining foothold is a major concern

Green Bay Police Chief Andrew Smith started his new job Feb. 1.

We sat down with him this week to talk about a variety of issues he
faces as the head of the police department in Wisconsin's third-largest
city. He discussed police department staffing, the start of a special
traffic enforcement unit, gangs, the department's need for a new
headquarters and returning to Wisconsin after more than 25 years with
the Los Angeles Police Department.

*Now that you've had a few weeks to look at the department, any first
impressions of the relationship you’re going to have with the staff?*

Before I came, I had plenty of opportunity to look at Green Bay from a
distance and develop some of my thoughts, and my impressions were pretty
much on. It's a terrific group of officers here, dedicated to keeping
Green Bay safe. They're very community-oriented. Certainly like any big
organization, there are some issues, but we are working together. For
example, with the professional police association, we're trying to get a
contract through, and they've been very, very reasonable. I've had
multiple meetings with them.

One of our officers, Dave Schmitz, was just given a lifetime achievement
award for community policing. It was only the second time the award was
given. The first was Bill Bongle, who was a legend here, basically
across the country, for being a pioneer in community policing. Schmitz
will be retiring soon. It'll be a big loss for us, but there are other
young officers who are hard-working and community-oriented who will be
here to fill his shoes.

*Any observations about the structure of the department, any big needs
for structural changes?*

I put together a committee to look at the structure of the department,
to make sure the structure is right for the city of Green Bay. If
everything is the way that works best for Green Bay, we'll keep it
exactly that way, but there may be some areas where we could make some
adjustments.

*Such as?*

It seems to me we have an awful lot of lieutenants here. We have a
pretty significant number of captains here. I'm always more about tail
than teeth, as they say in the military; I'm always about putting more
officers out on the street, more people in those police cars and out
there talking and meeting people. That's where the rubber meets the road
for any police department, so we'll look at every position we have and
make sure it's as efficient as possible and maximizing the number of
people we have out in the field. - I'm hoping the committee takes a look
at it. - That would be some stuff that's going to have to be done through
attrition. Certainly if the committee says we have too many lieutenants,
we can't just demote a bunch of lieutenants. We'll have retirements, and
it may mean not filling them.

I want to make sure everybody knows who in the chain of command they
answer to. Right now, with the number of captains, it is a little bit
confusing for some folks. There's two or three different captains they
can approach and get two or three different answers. Everybody has got
to know their position in the organization, who they answer to, that
there's a real solid structure for that.

We're still looking at it. If it's working as it is now, if that's
what's best for the city of Green Bay, we won't change it. I want input
from everybody, so I ride around in police cars and get their position,
take the guys out for coffee, "where can we improve, what would you
change if you were me?" Obviously, I want to work closely with the
Police & Fire Commission. Also I run into people on the street,
different civic organizations, and I listen to their concerns. I had
breakfast with the Optimist Club last week, I'm planning on meeting with
the Rotary, obviously the Chamber of Commerce. The committee is
internal, but I'm using information I get from the community to give
that back to the committee to give them better direction.

*City Council members and citizens have been clamoring for more traffic
enforcement. Any plans there?*

Traffic was the concern brought by several aldermen when I met with
them, and some community members expressed concerns, especially about
speeding around the schools. On Feb. 1, we started a traffic unit. We
have two officers out there targeting speeders, especially around the
schools. I've looked at their recap - the number of citations they
write - and they've been very busy.

*Is that a formal traffic unit, or have officers just been directed
informally to work harder on traffic issues?*

Both. It's informal, in that we're telling officers this is a concern we
want them to watch for, but also formally, we developed a traffic unit.
Their job is to go out there and enforce traffic laws. Speeding around
the schools is a big one, but also seat belts, certainly, and drunken
driving enforcement, especially as summer rolls in. They're dedicated to
traffic. We already worked with the union, and it'll be permanent unless
something else in the department changes. Obviously a unit like that has
got to come out of the patrol force, but the good news is, we (have
hired) two new officers, so the positions aren't lost.

*Some members of the City Council also have clamored for a beefed-up,
full-time team assigned to gang issues. What has happened with that?*

I spent the bulk of my adult life dealing with gangs and gang members.
Gangs are a huge concern for me, because once gangs get a foothold in a
community, it's hard to reel that back in. I don't see Green Bay as a
city with a big gang problem. Of course, my perspective comes from Los
Angeles, where the gang problem is huge and started gang problems for
the rest of the country. I don't see that problem here. Certainly we
have gang members that come here and try to sell narcotics. We are aware
of that. We have a narcotics enforcement team out there working on that,
paying close attention to that.

*What is the difference between having gang members here and having them
establish a foothold here?*

A lot of what I've seen, and I've heard from the officers, is that gang
members from other places come here, deliver narcotics and go away. What
we don't want is for gang members to move in here, live here, bring
their pals here and start taking over neighborhoods or taking over
different pieces of geography. That's what we see in cities across the
country. I don't see that as happening here. Certainly we see people
move here with bad intent, to use this as a base for starting to sell
narcotics, but we're on top of them. You can see that from some of the
prosecutions. I'm concerned about people from other cities and other
states coming to break the law, and we want to do everything we can to
prevent that, but how we do that with a new structure we haven't
addressed yet.

*How have you been getting along with the City Council?*

People have approached me with concerns over how I'll deal with the
council. I took the opportunity to meet with just about everybody
personally, sat down, found their concerns, listened to the input they
had. I really hope to build a good working relationship with them. I
know there are some big personalities who have been in office for some
time. I'm looking forward to working with them. I'm used to working in a
high-profile position in a high-profile agency. We all have the same
thing in mind: what's best for the city of Green Bay. We may
respectfully disagree on how to do it, but in the end, we're all working
for the same group of people, the citizens of Green Bay, and want to
make it a better place.

*You come on board just as the city is discussing the need for a new
police station. How do you feel about that?*

Fortunately, I have some experience with new police facilities, having
spent a year or two with a construction advisory group looking at how
big, who should be where, how much space we need. I've also moved into
new facilities three or four times in my career and have had the
opportunity to see some of the pitfalls if you don't plan ahead. I'm
really glad to be here on the ground floor when we've just started planning.

*What are some of the needs?*

If you look at what we have now, it's old, tired, has some structural
issues, there are places where the plaster is falling off the walls. But
one of the biggest problems is there is not enough room for evidence
storage. We've taken over different offices downstairs as our
requirements for holding evidence gets bigger and bigger. There’s not
enough room for storage, not enough room for the officers to write their
reports. I'd like to see a community room, where different groups come
and meet with the police or use this facility to hold community
meetings. I want people to feel real comfortable with the police.

Some of the equipment in the interview rooms has got to be upgraded,
there are recording systems we have throughout the building that are not
working. I have concerns about the safety and security of the parking
lot. The lot is well patrolled but really has no gate or secure parking.
Also for evidence, if we impound a vehicle and want the lab folks to
take a look at it, we don't have a special loading bay where they can
close it, lock the door and have the technicians go in there and do the
type of analysis they have to do.

*Would the new facility likely be on the same site or elsewhere?*

I've had experience where they decided to tear down the existing
facility and build on site. They had to move all the officers into
trailers. It was a huge operation, difficult, stressful. For about three
years, all the officers were packed in a couple little trailers. In a
perfect world, we'd build on a different site.

*Any chance an existing facility could work?*

It's tough to find a building available that's vacant and suitable for
use as a police facility. There are a lot of things a police building
has that not a lot of buildings have, security concerns, structural
concerns, space concerns. Finding that perfect building would be a miracle.

*When would such a facility be built?*

From beginning to end, my experience is that it's usually three to five
years. Maybe in Green Bay, as efficiently as it's run, it could be
quicker, but usually it's three to five years from when they first say
go to moving in.

*How does it feel to be back in the Midwest after 27-year career in Los
Angeles?*

It's been wonderful to come back to the Midwest. The people are
different. I walked into the Attic with a lieutenant to get coffee, and
there was a group of elderly gentlemen playing cards. They struck up a
conversation with me right away. It's just a friendly group of folks.
I'm seeing that everywhere I go, whether it's the Quick Mart by my house
to the day care where our kids are. It's just really nice folks that are
here. People waving to you in the parking lot. Honestly, the first time
they did that, I thought, "My goodness, what do they want?" I wasn't
used to it. I've got to get used to it. The waves you get in Los Angeles
don’t usually include all five fingers, if you know what I mean.

The weather was the way I expected it to be. My kids are still enjoying
the snow. It's challenging doing police work in the snow. I've watched
our officers writing tickets when the snow is coming down.  They remind
me every once in a while. "Hey, Smith, you haven't written a ticket when
it's below zero, have you?"  Maybe I'll have an opportunity to do that.

/psrubas@pressgazettemedia.com and follow him on Twitter@PGpaulsrubas/

*Andrew Smith*

*Age:* 53

*Home town*: Born in Waukesha, raised in Delafield and Iron Mountain, Mich.

*Education*: Bachelor's in psychology, University of California at
San Diego; master's in public administration, University of Southern
California.

*Professional experience*: Los Angeles Police Department since 1988,
rising to rank of commander. Former member of Police & Fire Commission,
Redondo Beach.

*Family*: Wife, Susan, a lawyer and writer, children Conor, 4, and
Katherine, 3.