HPD puts 33 patrolmen on desk duty as punishment

06:54 PM CDT on Monday, October 25, 2004

By Carolyn Campbell / 11 News

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There are fewer police on Houston streets as of Monday.

KHOU-TV

Dozens of officers reported to desk duty Monday for being so-called "low performers".

Dozens of officers reported to desk duty Monday for being so-called "low performers".

But their union says it's public safety that's being punished. There are reportedly high level talks within HPD to consider other alternatives.

There was a fender-bender where no one was hurt, so a police officer wasn't absolutely necessary. But the citizens involved in the minor accident did call for one. They waited over 30 minutes for an officer to show up.

There's no way to tell if the response time on this accident had anything to do with HPD's decision to yank 33 patrol officers off the streets and put them on desk duty -- because the department says they're low-performers.

"The shortage of officers causes those response times to get longer and longer," says Officer T. Nixon.

Officer Nixon believes the whole thing is about getting officers to write more tickets.

"This is really tantamount to an informal quota being imposed on officers to get them to write tickets. Many of us see it as an alternate form of taxation on citizens," he says.

But the department insists that moving the officers is to improve productivity and has nothing to do with ticket writing.

"It gives a confusing message to officers when they incorporate the number of tickets written into your overall productivity, to determine if you're a good officer or bad officer," says Officer Nixon.

One officer said the patrolmen punishment is hurting public safety. He believes HPD is bullying officers to write more tickets.

For the record, HPD says it's looking at a lot more than officer's ticket writing record. Monday, the president of one of the police unions met with HPD executives.

He said they were open to his suggestions, which include the department addressing the officers' supervisors, and how well they are trained to manage and motivate the officers.