| It's great to live in a city with outstanding police and fire protection with avenues to voice concerns and raise questions if we have them. Did you know that you have the right to request a hearing with the police and fire commission if you feel that you have been treated unfairly by a police or fire fighter? If your claim is found to be true, the police or fire fighter in question may face disciplinary action such as suspension, demotion, or discharge./Since becoming a police and fire commissioner in January 2007, I am surprised that we haven't had one citizen-hearing request since I've been on the Board. Maybe the service is excellent and there are no complaints. Maybe the public is not aware of the complaint process. Perhaps we're becoming apathetic, if so, this is a symptom of a much larger problem. The Wisconsin State Legislature is currently reviewing a budget bill that has severe ramifications for all police and fire commissions throughout the State. The goal of the budget item is to create an arbitration process for police and fire fighters. This action would drastically change a system that has been in place for over 100 years. Now, I'm all for change but I don't believe this is a change for the better. The budget item that the State Legislature is currently reviewing would authorize an employee arbitration process for the police and fire fighters in the State of Wisconsin. Under such a system, a police or fire fighter may test his or her discipline under a just cause standard. In the typical collective bargaining agreement, the arbitrator is mutually selected by the union and the employer. The arbitrator, (or person judging the case) must be a neutral person and the employer bears the burden of justifying a discharge. So, the question we all should be asking is, where is the citizen in all of this? If an employee arbitration process is put in place for police and fire fighters, a citizen's complaint may have no place to be heard at all. If a person feels that he or she has been treated unfairly, they may want to go to a group of their peers, such as the commission, and explain their side of the story. At the end of the day, with the proposed process, the citizen complainant might not have a voice at all. In my opinion, the Labor Unions are doing an outstanding job representing their clients -- the police and fire fighters. They are working to create an alternative dispute resolution process for police and fire fighters. We can't blame them for coming up with that idea. But what about the citizen complainant? I'm sure union representatives may argue that their clients should be treated just like any other civil servant with the ability to have their concerns addressed in an arbitration process. I disagree with that point. Police and fire fighters are not like any other civil servants. They serve the public in some very personal and powerful ways, for example, police officers carry guns. The general public needs to have the ability to place the appropriate check on their actions when necessary. If a citizen wants to request a hearing because he or she feels that they are being treated inappropriately, then they should have every right to do so without fear of retaliation. The citizen should have the opportunity to share concerns with a non-elected volunteer review panel that is comprised of fellow citizens like themselves, such as the volunteer board of police and fire commissioners. Of course the people most affected by this issue would be the one's that have the most contact with police and fire fighters. People in poverty and minorities would be the most negatively affected by this type of policy change. Let me provide an example from a true story. An African American woman was arrested, taken down to the station, booked, searched etc. Only for the police department to find out that they had the wrong person. It was a case of mistaken identity -- oops, the police made a mistake. OK, mistakes happen right? One of the major concerns that this woman had was the way the mistake was handled. Now, the police probably don't have any obligation to do anything special when this type of situation occurs. As a citizen, this woman, probably a mother, a daughter, and a sister to someone should have the right to have a hearing on this matter and get a chance to express her feelings about the situation. She pays her taxes just like everybody else and if she gets arrested by mistake she should at least get an "I'm sorry ma'm, we got the wrong person." I have my own personal example, as an African American male, of a negative police encounter. When I was an undergraduate student, I was driving down the street and got pulled over by a police officer. The police officer strolled up to my driver side window and asked, "Do you know why I'm pulling you over?" I said, "No officer, I don't." The officer said that my registration sticker appeared to be fraudulent. I was shocked, but I sat there quietly. I reasoned that I had Illinois plates. I was driving in Wisconsin so maybe this was confusing to the officer. The officer ordered me to provide my driver's license and registration. I reached for the glove compartment. Suddenly, the officer began yelling at the top of her voice, to get out of the car. I got out of the car. Then she ordered me to remove the registration sticker from my license plate (yes, the sticker that we are not supposed to be able to remove). I proceeded to comply with the officer's request. I didn't become belligerent. I never raised my voice. Once I had picked the sticker apart, the officer ordered me to hurry up and go home before somebody else pulled me over and took me to jail. Did I just go home and not tell anybody? No, I went home and called my family and told my friends. I made every effort to find the right police station so that I could appropriately complain. Eventually, I found the right police department and the right police chief to raise my complaint. They checked my registration number to see if I was telling the truth, and it turned out that my sticker was never fraudulent in the first place. The Police Chief contacted the Illinois Department of Transportation and ordered a new registration sticker for me, at their expense. I certainly didn't appreciate the way I was treated but I felt a sense of justice by being able to bring my complaint to the appropriate individuals who could review my case and find the truth. The police and fire commission have been criticized for taking too long to reach final determinations in many cases. I agree that our process is lengthy, but as a citizen, I'd rather have a process where the general public can raise a concern and we actually have a hearing to address the concern than an arbitration system where citizen complaints may not be addressed at all. We all have a part to play in our government system. Some people would call it a civic duty. I feel compelled to do my civic duty and bring some attention to this matter so that it can be appropriately discussed and considered. Right now, the request to authorize an arbitration process for police and fire fighters is in the Wisconsin Senate Budget Bill. The State budget is no place for a pending policy decision of this magnitude. This issue needs to be pulled out of consideration from the budget process and treated as a separate legislative policy item if not thrown out all together. Wesley Sparkman is a commissioner of the Madison Board of Police and Fire Commission. |
| WE the people By Wesley Sparkman |