Roanoke Police Chief announces his retirement; police association responds

The chief of the Roanoke Police Department, Tim Jones, has announced he will retire next year.

Jones provided City Manager Bob Cowell with notification on Tuesday, August 20, 2019, that he will step down effective February 1, 2020.

The City Manager said he thanks Chief Jones for his more than 39 years of service to the citizens of Roanoke, with the last three as their Chief of Police.

There will be a national search for a new Chief of Police. The process will involve an Executive Search Firm and will, as in similar searches in the past, include extensive community engagement.

Meanwhile, Christopher M. Levering, President of the Roanoke City Police Association, issued the following statement via e-mail to the media:

"The Roanoke City Police Association would like to comment on the recent statements made by Police Chief Tim Jones and City Manager Bob Cowell in regards to staffing in the Roanoke Police Department.

The City Manager asserts that the number of vacancies at the department is only 15, which is far short of the 53 that Chief Jones described. Mr. Cowell's numbers are not incorrect; however, he interprets the numbers differently than we do. His total number of vacancies includes officers who have resigned or retired. It does not include officers who are not affective to the department's objectives of crime control and prevention. For our purposes, officers who are currently on field training status or are recruits in the academy cannot be counted towards the total number of deployable police officers. The field-training period for police officers is at least three months, and the process from academy start to independent patrol takes a minimum of nine months (six or more months of academy training followed by at least three months of field training). Additionally, the officers on field training are not permitted to work independently of their Field Training Officers. Both of these groups are technically employees of the department; however, as they have not yet reached the Department of Criminal Justice (DCJS) standards to be released to independent patrol, they cannot be counted towards staffing numbers. Furthermore, officers who are injured or otherwise unable to perform in a law enforcement capacity (classified as light-duty officers) are unable to be counted towards the usable manpower.

Addressing these numbers based on the most recent department roster (dated 07/29/2019):

  • There are 10 recruits in the current academy. These recruits have approximately five months remaining before reaching their three-month field-training period.
  • There are currently 11 officers going through their field training process.
  • There are currently 5 officers on "light duty" (described by City Manager Cowell as "temporarily out of service for routine reasons (workers comp injuries, maternity leave, etc.)")
  • There are currently 2 officers on military duty leave.
  • And the 15 vacancies at the police department (according to the statement made by the City Manager on 08/08/2019).

Working at this capacity and dealing with the restrictions of the recruits and officers in field training, our agency is currently 43 officers below staffing levels. Additionally, of these 43 positions, 39 are considered to be a part of the "patrol division," responsible for the initial response to 911 calls, accidents, and other emergencies (what the public sees as traditional "police work"). This means that while the department as a whole is approximately 16% below capacity (43 unfilled positions out of 268 allocated), the patrol division --- the division handling the bulk of the call load --- is operating at 32.5% below capacity (39 unfilled patrol positions out of 120 allocated).

As a result, the Roanoke Police Department is forced to pull officers from other (already short-staffed) divisions throughout the agency to compensate for this shortage. This means fewer specialized officers to focus on violent crime areas, fewer detectives to investigate cases, and fewer forensic specialists to process crime scenes. Our department prices itself in its community outreach, but the staffing issues have also taken a toll on how many events our already drained officers can attend.

While we understand where the City Manager's numbers are coming from, we do not feel like it accurately depicts the deficit the Roanoke Police Department faces. City Manager Cowell and the City Council seem as though they do not value or support the Police Department's and Police Association's efforts to achieve appropriately compensated staffing levels sufficient to properly serve and ensure the safety of the citizens of the City of Roanoke.

In a recent pay study commissioned by the Roanoke City Police Association, Franck Analytics cited issues of retention and inequality of pay as contributing factors to these staffing concerns. The results of the study indicate we can expect, if current trends continue, the Roanoke Police Department to lose an additional 15 officers by the end of the year. These losses are far beyond the already existing deficit of 43 officers.

These problems, along with several potential solutions, have been presented to the City Manager and City Council on multiple occasions and have continuously been disregarded. At this point, the City Manager and City Council have been either unwilling, ineffectual, or simply negligent in addressing these concerns. Once again, we call on the City Manager and City Council to address the retention and pay issues within our agency so we are better staffed and able to provide a safe community for the City of Roanoke"

Photo: ABC-13 WSET


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