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ON THE TERMS OF THE CONTRACT ITSELF
BASIC TERMS
- Base Pay - $175K
- Pension - increase from 2.5% to 3.43% (see details below)
- Term - 4 years, 9 months (Mayor's term plus a year) - beyond the
Mayor's term because that helps depoliticize the police department,
and a new Mayor probably wouldn't have a Chief on Day 1 of his/her
Administration
- Severance - 6 months, same as before (with it pro-rating in last 6
months) - keep in mind that this means if the Mayor asked him to leave
for no reason, the only difference between the Chief and any other
agency head is that the Chief would get 6 months instead of 3.
SALARY COMPS FROM OTHER JURISDICTIONS
(mostly base, not including other soft benefits)
- Philadelphia -- $140K
- Dallas -- $140K (with $162K pending in local legislature)
- Louisville -- $145K (dept has 1,246 officers)
- Virginia Beach -- $150K and currently recruiting (dept has 777
officers)
- Montgomery County -- $160K for Moose in March 2003 (up from $150K)
- Boston -- $160K
- NYC -- $163K
- San Diego -- $166K
- Miami -- $173K for Timony in Dec 2002 (dept has 1,100 officers)
- Atlanta -- $226K for Pennington in June 2002 ($157K base plus $68K
in hard benefits) (population 416K, dept has 1,479 officers)
- LA - $239K for Bratton in Oct 2002 (plus some undisclosed other $36K
in comp)
OTHER SALARY JUSTIFICATION
- Chief Ramsey hasn't gotten a raise in 5 years. Under this contract,
it would be one raise in 10 years.
- If he had just received the annual increases that were given to
every other sworn member of the Department in the last five years (3%,
4%, 4%, 4%, 5%, 1999-2003), he would be making $182,500 today.
PENSION JUSTIFICATION
- Pension change yields a retirement benefit of about $60K annually
from DC
- If we did not change his pension but only gave him the salary
increase, his pension would be $44K a year. This is a $16K increase in
pension payout.
- If you take into account his $80K Chicago pension, he's at an 80%
pension level.
- If he stayed in Chicago for 10 years, he would have been
entitled to an 80% pension there.
- Retirees will need at least 70% - 80% of pre-retirement income
to live comfortably in retirement (Employee Benefit Research
Inst., 2003 survey)
- 80% is consistent with other Chiefs' compensation packages
ON HIS ACCOMPLISHMENTS
- On Overall Crime - During the past 5 years, DC has had fewer serious
crimes than any other period dating back to the mid-1960's when the
FBI began record keeping.
- Crime is down 14% since 1997 and 2+% this year over last.
- Compared to 1997, the rate of almost every major crime category
is down (except auto theft and rape).
- On Homicides - 301 in 1997. 233 in 2001. 262 in 2002. Right now we
are up about 10% over last year. There are other cities that are worse
per capita (e.g., New Orleans at a population of 485,000), though in
cities over 500,000, we switch back and forth with Detroit.
- On Use of Force - Since 1998, there has been a 62.5% reduction in
the officers' use of deadly force and the MPD's Force Investigation
Team is now a recognized national model.
- On Staffing - Under Chief Ramsey, the average recruit now has 13.5
years of education. The department is dramatically more diverse
through programs like Ramsey's recruitment campaign in Puerto Rico.
There are liaison units now with the Latino, GLBT, Asian, and
deaf/hard of hearing communities.
- On Infrastructure Investment - When Chief Ramsey arrived, his
mandate and mission were to invest in the basics of the Department.
That's what he's done.
- Training - no in-service training when he arrived and most
officers not recently certified in firearms. Now there is 40 hours
of in-service training each year, plus 16 hours of training in
firearms and use of force:
- Equipment - when the Chief arrived, officers were grossly
ill-equipped in all respects. Now, officers carry personal
protective gear to protect against bio and chemical substances.
They also carry less than lethal weapons.
- Fleet - the average age of the fleet has gone from 10 years old
to 3.5.
- Technology - Mobile computers in much of the fleet now allowing
electronic dispatching and records checks from the field.
Crime-mapping in the morning crime briefing (like New York's
ComStat). A state of the art Joint Command Center for major
events. A closed circuit TV network in several public venues.
- On 911 and 311-When the Chief arrived, the 911 system was completely
unreliable and "crashed" not infrequently. There is still
work to be done, but in 5 years, there has been significant progress
under the Chief.
- The Chief implemented a state-of-the-art, Y2K-compliant Computer
Automated Dispatch, used both by Police and Fire/EMS.
- 311 was introduced to lessen the burden of non-emergency calls
to 911.
- A new Public Safety Communication Center co-locating both Police
and Fire/EMS and personnel was opened on McMillan Drive, NW. Not
only did the PSCC further the consolidation effort, it allowed the
District to implement a state-of-the-art front end telephone
switching and call-answering system.
- Through stronger management, including more efficient staffing,
progress is being made on reducing call-answer times.
- Currently hiring a full complement of civilian call-takers and
implementing a pilot of the universal call taker (answering both
police and fire / EMS)
- On Traffic Enforcement - Thanks to an aggressive traffic and photo
enforcement campaign implemented by the Chief, traffic fatalities are
down 21 % since 1997 while the national trend is on the rise.
IN RESPONSE TO COUNCIL ISSUES
- On hiring up to 3800 in the past - the Council asserts that Ramsey
has always had the finding to hire up to 3800 police in prior years
and has failed to do it. In no meaningful sense is that true. There
are two primary issues:
- Funding the salaries of 3800 officers, while simultaneously
grossly underfunding other essential areas such as
non-discretionary court related overtime, forces MPD to redirect
the salaries money to other areas to cover the gap.
- The OCFO consistently did not even properly budget the full
compensation costs of 3800. They would, for example, apply the
percentage pay raise due each year only to the salary line and not
to the overtime, benefits, comp time, or other compensation lines
in the budget, creating an automatic spending pressure that was
again covered by salary lapse.
- On Homicide Clearance rate - Like other major cities, DC continues
to face challenges in closing homicides (more execution-style
killings, lack of witness cooperation, etc). 2002 closure rate of 55%
was a 5% increase over 2001, and is on par with other cities this
size. To improve the clearance rate, Chief Ramsey has implemented new
promotion, training and accountability measures for detectives.
- On Managing Large Events and Protests - This stems from last fall's
IMF demonstrations in which a number of protesters, and allegedly some
innocent bystanders, were caught up in a mass arrest sweep that they
are now challenging in court. Regardless of the legal merits of that
claim, it can not be said that MPD has a pattern or practice of
engaging in unconstitutional policing techniques to control
demonstrations and protests. DC experiences dozens of major events and
protests annually, and manages them exceptionally well. Chief Ramsey
has consistently demonstrated his commitment to letting protestors
protest, while protecting the public and private property throughout
the city.
- On the PSA System - Chief Ramsey is leading a redesign and
restructuring of the current Patrol Service Area (PSA) system to
maximize resources and enhance community policing. The new boundaries
will align to the Neighborhood Clusters that are used for planning and
other service delivery and will help MPD align more closely with
natural communities and other city services. Councilmembers and staff
have been heavily involved.
- On Deployment - Twice as many officers are assigned to PSAs as were
assigned when the program began in 1997. "Redeployment" is
putting even more officers on the streets in hot-spots. Ramsey has
committed to putting all of the new nearly 200 officers who will be
hired in FY04 into the PSAs. He has also committed to deploying 62% of
officers, sergeants, and lieutenants in the Department to the PSAs.
- On Dealing with Terrorist Threat - Chief Ramsey has created an
excellent operating relationship with the federal partners at FBI,
DHS, and all of the relevant agencies. Through his Joint Command
Center, Chief Ramsey has improved the intelligence sharing and
operational coordination immeasurably. This is the best way to
leverage resources to make sure that officers are able to stay in the
neighborhoods while still protecting the monumental core of the city
during these trying times.
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