Other Cities Recruit Memphis Native for Police Chief
While Memphis Finally Starts Its Formal Search
While
local news media press Mayor Jim Strickland about the city’s murder rate
and a search for a new police chief, one nationally prominent candidate for
top cop in Chicago and other cities is a Memphis hometowner.
 |
| Anne Kirkpatrick |
Strickland
was reported as saying February 15 that the city would retain the search
services of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and that the
process would begin within three weeks.
More than 11 weeks later, the city has just finished getting its information to the search organization, and the job was officially posted late today May 6. Deadline for submissions is June 17. While Memphis has an interim chief in place, and the mayor would say, better to get it right than get it fast, movement on a new chief would quell clamor and uncertainty.
The
Chicago Police Board sifted through 39 candidates and spent $500,000 to conduct
a search for a new superintendent of police after Garry McCarthy was fired in
the wake of a scandal over a police officer killing 17-year-old Laquan
McDonald.
One
of three finalists for the Chicago job was former Spokane, Washington, police
chief Anne Kirkpatrick, who grew up in Memphis and served as a patrol officer
for more than three years in Memphis, 1982-1985.
Dysfunction in the Windy City
If
there is any comfort to Memphians in knowing that other cities have trouble getting
out of their own way, consider this: Chicago Mayor
Rahm Emanuel rejected the board’s three candidates and named his pick from the
existing Chicago police force – but only to be an interim chief, replacing the “old”
interim chief of five months.
Strickland
has asked interim Director of Police Services Michael Rallings to apply for the
permanent post, and Rallings says he will apply.
There
are two schools of thought on the subject of a new, permanent chief – that it
should be someone who came up through the ranks of the Memphis department, or
it specifically should be someone with a fresh perspective from outside.
Inside Out
If
any candidate is uniquely positioned to bridge both those concepts it is
Kirkpatrick, who presently travels the country as an instructor for the FBI's Law Enforcement Executive Development Association. As such, she teaches leadership to executives in local agencies and covers such topics as the problem employee, credibility, discipline and liability.
This
week Kirkpatrick was in Arizona teaching a class. But, it seems Memphis is never far from her
mind. In fact, Kirkpatrick’s’ parents
and two brothers live in Memphis, and she seems to find herself in Memphis
regularly – sometimes for work with the FBI and sometimes to visit – as
recently as last weekend.
“I’m
a change agent,” Kirkpatrick said while on a break between class sessions. “I think I would be a good fit for Memphis.
“Memphis
has almost double the murder rate per capita as Chicago,” Kirkpatrick noted.
“What
I am looking for is to be a part of a city and police department that wants to
really change the culture of violence,” Kirkpatrick said. “Chicago met that
criteria. Memphis meets that.
A Time to Heal
“I
want to come into an agency that struggles or has some major issues, and I want
to be part of the healing of that. I
actually think I would be a good healing leader for them and could set them on
a course for an excellent future.
“As
a community, too, Memphis needs to not accept the level of cultural violence
that they have accepted. They play a
part in that as well.
“If
I were to apply for the Memphis job it would be as an outsider with an insider’s
foundation,” said Kirkpatrick, who also is a licensed attorney in Washington.
Kirkpatrick
says she will not apply if it appears the mayor, who appoints the director with
city council’s approval, already has his pick in mind.
“It
depends on whether Mayor Strickland has an heir apparent or not. If he does, I would not apply,” said Kirkpatrick, who encountered such a scenario in Chicago.
“I’ve
been watching for the job to actually open.
The job’s technically not open yet,” said Kirkpatrick, referring to the
fact that the Memphis chief’s job had not yet been posted on the IACP’s
website. The job officially posted late Friday May 6.
A link to the job posting and other sources are at the end of this story.
A link to the job posting and other sources are at the end of this story.
Kirkpatrick’s
views seem to align with Memphis-specific criteria the city is looking for the
IACP to find, according to Strickland's PR director Ursula Madden.
Community Needs
“We
need somebody who has some solution-oriented methods to come in here and deal
with violent crime but also is community-oriented and can make policing be part
of the community as opposed to in opposition to it,” Madden said. “Somebody who has a deep understanding of our
community.”
Madden
said the city’s contract with the police search organization is about $40,000
for the consulting work.
“We’ve
asked the IACP to handle this. They are
the experts,” Madden said. “They do a
lot of research. They interview city employees
and members of the police department and the police association and the police
director to get their input on what the community needs.”
Kirkpatrick
grew up near Audubon Park and was graduated from Hutchinson School in 1977. She earned a master’s degree in counseling at
Memphis State University (now University of Memphis) while she was on the Memphis police
force. She left in 1985 to attend
Seattle University Law School, from which she got her J.D. in 1989.
Kirkpatrick’s
last executive position at a law enforcement agency was 2012-2014 as the chief
deputy sheriff for King County, Washington (Seattle). She had retired as Spokane’s chief of police
after serving 2006-2012. Kirkpatrick
also has been police chief of Federal Way, Washington, a suburb of Seattle, and
Ellensburg, Washington.
“Every
move was upwardly mobile,” Kirkpatrick said.
“I’ve had a lot of major cities look at me, but I don’t apply to many of
them that recruit me. But, to be a
finalist in the second largest police department in the country is a big deal.
“I
met with Rahm Emanuel and talked with him three times. I full well understood his decision.”
The
second “outsider” recommended by the Chicago Police Board was Dr. Cedric
Alexander, a public safety administrator in DeKalb County, Georgia. Alexander last year served on President
Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. The task force report lists trust and
accountability as the top requirement for effective policing, and it says
police culture must embrace a role as guardians rather than warriors.
Coattail Effect
This
may sound way too logical, but wouldn’t it be worth Memphis’ time and dime to
look closely at two national candidates that Chicago identified after
spending half a million dollars to figure it out? Of course, now that Memphis’ national search is finally underway, Kirkpatrick and Alexander could apply and be vetted by the
International Association of Chiefs of Police.
“We’ve
had a change in administration. We had a
police director when we started in January, and he took another position,”
Madden said in defense of the fact the job had not been posted as of May 5, two months later than Strickland had told the press.
“It goes through a human resources process. There is an interim director in place now who has taken the helm. I think we are doing the process in accordance with how it would run through our human resources department
“It goes through a human resources process. There is an interim director in place now who has taken the helm. I think we are doing the process in accordance with how it would run through our human resources department
“If
this was a corporation and it lost a leader, you would go through the same
thing, and sometimes those processes take a long time. So, when
are we going to have a police director; is it going to be tomorrow? No. Another six months?
I’m not sure.”
The
media keeps reminding Strickland that he ran on a campaign promise to reduce
crime, and there were 78 homicides in Memphis through Wednesday, May 4, this
year. Truth is, campaign rhetoric and
more police on the street don’t touch the underlying causes of crime – income
inequality and lack of opportunities. Police
can investigate and solve crimes, but prevention is more in the province of the
community and public policy.
As
for retaining a permanent chief of police – whether he or she comes from within
or without MPD – Strickland no doubt would say what he has said about the implementation of body-worn cameras: better to get it right than get
it fast. At the same time, stakeholders
would like to have the job settled and move ahead with the next chief.
Pay Day
Strickland
has said that about $250,000 seems to be the salary level of comparable cities
and that Memphis may need to increase its pay rate to obtain the next
chief.
Former
director of police services Toney Armstrong had a salary of $126,001.46. Strickland increased that to $150,000 when he
took over as mayor in January.
Some
other cities’ compensation for their chiefs of police are:
Chicago,
$260,044.
Nashville,
$192,944.72.
Atlanta,
$240,698.
St.
Louis, $127,000.
IACP
assistant director of programs Ken Kohlhepp says that his organization
customizes their search process to the special requests and needs of the
municipality-client, and they meet with city officials to get a feel for
things.
“We
have a dialog with the agency, and we tailor the scope of services to what they
need,” Kohlhepp said. “We come on site and talk to a variety of stakeholders and tailor our work around what we find out
and our research on the agency.
“Once
the job closes, there are final interviews on site. Once a candidate is selected, they go through
a comprehensive background process.”
Links:
http://careercenter.discoverpolicing.org/c/search_results.cfm?t730=&t731=61585&t732=&t735=&max=100&site_id=6207&search=Find+Jobs
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/government/city/strickland-search-for-new-police-director-to-begin-in-3-weeks-2bd1df8a-4e6d-3316-e053-0100007f6efb-368849361.html
http://careercenter.discoverpolicing.org/c/search_results.cfm?t730=&t731=61585&t732=&t735=&max=100&site_id=6207&search=Find+Jobs
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/government/city/strickland-search-for-new-police-director-to-begin-in-3-weeks-2bd1df8a-4e6d-3316-e053-0100007f6efb-368849361.html
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