[CalPersFatCat]

1. Tell the council/committee that you plan to implement a "walk and talk" directive to patrol officers. Twice per shift, they will check out of service for 10 minutes at a location of their choosing. Ask that they choose a different business, park, business, school, business, street, business, apartment complex, (or a business lol) for each "walk and talk". Do not audit the walk and talk for location compliance, but do audit to make sure that the walk and talks are actually taking place. Mention audit results a few day's per week, encourage compliance without nagging and make sure to mention any successes (business owner's whom were overtly receptive).

Ask the officers to be forthright with the business owner/community member.

"Hi, I'm Officer Joe Friday, this is my partner, Officer Bill Gannon. We work this area almost every day and our department is asking that we get out of our police cars and meet the people who pay our salaries. Obviously the police can't be all things to all people, all of the time, but what can we do to help you today? This week? This month? We will do our best to stop by again next week to see how you are doing. Thanks for talking to us. Have a great night."

2. Sins of the mind will not be tolerated. Sins of the heart will be dealt with case by case.

3. My officers will drive hard but will drive with courtesy and always use turn signals. Response times matter. When you call the police, the police need to come. right now. This is our pledge to the community. So Please excuse the officer whose pace is a little too brisk for your liking, who parks on the sidewalk, or who blocks your driveway for a few minutes. He's trying to cut down on the time it takes for him to get from point a to point b. Please give the officer the benefit of the doubt. We ask that the officer's obey all driving laws and always set a good example. When they fail, please remember that they are human.

4. We cannot solve the "homeless problem." It is unconstitutional to use force to compel a homeless person to "leave" or to "move along." We can ask them to leave. We cannot make them leave. We can write them a citation but we cannot take them to jail. They will ignore the citation. The ignored citation will turn into a warrant. We cannot arrest them for the warrant because there is no room at the county jail. Please understand that. I will not put pressure on my officers to solve a problem for which I cannot give them the necessary tools to do the job.

5. I promise not to use my authority to stroke my ego or to create useless task forces, additional community policing teams, school resource officers or any other unfunded drain on patrol manpower so that I have something to point to and say, "See what I did about that? I'm awesome!!!'" I will not decimate the number of officers in patrol in order to staff pogue positions just to shut up some other city department or official with the city manager's ear, council member, special interest group or whomever is the acute political emergency of the day.

I count some two dozen or more police chiefs and former police chiefs in SoCal as acquaintances and/or as friends. I do not understand how any right minded person could be interested in law enforcement. God Bless and Protect your Families.

DL