THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 18, 1996 TAG: 9607180320
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, TONY WHARTON AND LARRY W. BROWN, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 99 lines
Nearly a third of the city's ranking police officers will turn in their badges in January, likely creating a leadership void in a department that has made significant crime-fighting gains in recent years.
The number of police officers who agreed to retire under a new incentive offer surprised City Council members.
Of the 92 officers with ranks of sergeant or higher, 29 have said they will take advantage of an offer that provides a financial boost for leaving the department early.
Altogether, 67 police officers - about 10 percent of the department - have said they will leave.
Although the vacancies in the Norfolk patrol ranks can be filled relatively quickly with police-academy recruits, the veteran officers will be harder to replace.
Such attractive early-retirement offers are designed to save the city money by moving employees from the regular payrolls to pension funds. But Norfolk also has to weigh whether the loss of so much experience is worth the savings.
``Was it worth it?'' said Vice Mayor Herbert M. Collins. ``That's the question. That's my concern. You can't play games with public safety.''
Collins said he does not think the exodus reflects deep discontent in the department. He believes the offer was simply too good to refuse.
The city offered eligible employees an additional four years of credit toward their pensions or a one-time cash buyout of 40 percent of their salary. At the same time, the city capped the number of years and amount of pay that all employees could count toward retirement.
Those two factors probably pushed many officers to retire, Collins said.
Ranking officers, with plenty of years on their resumes, could easily continue their careers, finding jobs in other police departments or with private investigative agencies.
Although the initial offer said officers could retire Jan. 1, 1997, City Manager James B. Oliver Jr. has the right to extend that to April 1, and may have to. The next police academy class begins in August and won't finish until March.
City Councilman Randy Wright said he is concerned about the effect of the mass retirement on the department and the city.
``This is an awfully large contingent to go out, and it's top heavy,'' Wright said. ``So you're talking about leadership skill positions. It creates what looks like a pretty serious vacuum.''
Police Chief Melvin C. High said Wednesday, however, that he was not shocked by the exodus because the incentive is an offer many long-time officers could not refuse.
The department, in anticipation of the loss of officers, last spring increased the city's police academy class from 25 to 35. The academy is held every three months.
``The number of people leaving is not a big percentage of our police force,'' High said. ``While we'll miss these people, we still have a lot of experienced people remaining.''
As for the high-ranking officers, the department also has moved up the date of the next promotional exam, he said.
The exodus, he said, shouldn't make a dent in the city's extensive community policing efforts, known as PACE.
Community policing has been lauded as a major factor of Norfolk's decreasing crime rate. Though reports of major crime went up 3.6 percent in 1995, reversing a five-year decline, the upswing was marked mainly by property offenses. Violent crimes continued to fall.
In most police departments, the ranks of sergeant and higher are generally filled by the most experienced officers.
In Virginia Beach, a city with about the same number of officers as Norfolk, sergeants have an average of 18 years experience. Lieutenants have served an average of 22 years and captains nearly three decades.
The average service length for Norfolk ranks wasn't available.
Oliver may not have been prepared for the large number of officers who decided to take the retirement offer, Wright said. He said the council had asked Oliver several weeks ago to cut the number of vacancies already existing in the department.
Now that will be even more difficult, Wright said.
Assistant City Manager Sterling Cheatham said the city was prepared for the response, because he said Oliver knew this was an attractive offer. Cheatham said the city is beginning leadership training courses for those who will be promoted.
Cheatham said part of the purpose of the offer was to clear out some of the upper ranks and allow promotions, because otherwise some positions can become locked in for years.
No other South Hampton Roads city has faced such a large exodus from its police department, although Portsmouth also has seen mass retirements.
Two years ago in Portsmouth, an early-retirement program that promised the most experienced police officers as much as 75 percent of their salary netted 18 takers, or about 8 percent of the force. ILLUSTRATION: Color graphic\The Virginian-Pilot
Source: City of Norfolk
Retirements to Thin Norfolk Police Ranks
A breakdown of Norfolk's high-ranking police officers by position:
Retirements among the rest of the police force...
For complete copy, see microfilm
KEYWORDS: RETIREMENT NORFOLK POLICE DEPARTMENT RETIREMENT
INCENTIVE by CNB