In 2008 the citizens of Brownwood, Texas, voted to change the Brownwood Police Department’s chief of police position from an elected position to an appointed position. The Brownwood Police Department was one of four remaining municipal police departments in Texas that elected their chief of police. In 2010 the outgoing chief resigned, he had been an elected chief and served for 11 years. The city manager, Bobby Roundtree, began accepting applications to hire and appoint a new chief of police. Over 40 applications were submitted from across the state and interviews were scheduled. Roundtree desired input from other sources, so he created an interview board that consisted of himself, two police officer association members, and two city officials.
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The police association remained patient with Roundtree but after another two years of trying to work through the challenges the situation had not improved. At this time the police department officers had a tremendous amount of distrust for administration’s “My way or the highway” mentality, and officers soon began to turn on each other. The officers felt as though administrative goals were in certain officer’s best interest but not for the organization as a whole. ***NOTES Officers began turning cynical in nature as they believed other officers were attempting to advance their own agendas. (***Notes) There continued to be a high turnover of officers and the department was short staffed as the department struggled to recruit new officers. Police officers from local area departments stated that they would not apply until there was a new administration in place. City officials requested another management study to be completed as proof that the officers of the department still felt the same way towards administration. Another management study was completed in 2013 showing the same results. Two more years passed as the department showed continued signs of low morale, and poor work performance. Roundtree retired during this time and a new city manager was hired. The police association met with the newly hired city manager, Emily Crawford and pled their case. The association explained the issues and concerns of the entire command staff. Besides the mistrust with the chief and assistant chief, the CID lieutenant was not credible as he perjured himself during an investigation and just returned from a two year administrative leave, and the patrol lieutenant had not worked for the last year due to injury. The association did not feel that she was receptive or that immediate action was going to take place. At this point the
The police association remained patient with Roundtree but after another two years of trying to work through the challenges the situation had not improved. At this time the police department officers had a tremendous amount of distrust for administration’s “My way or the highway” mentality, and officers soon began to turn on each other. The officers felt as though administrative goals were in certain officer’s best interest but not for the organization as a whole. ***NOTES Officers began turning cynical in nature as they believed other officers were attempting to advance their own agendas. (***Notes) There continued to be a high turnover of officers and the department was short staffed as the department struggled to recruit new officers. Police officers from local area departments stated that they would not apply until there was a new administration in place. City officials requested another management study to be completed as proof that the officers of the department still felt the same way towards administration. Another management study was completed in 2013 showing the same results. Two more years passed as the department showed continued signs of low morale, and poor work performance. Roundtree retired during this time and a new city manager was hired. The police association met with the newly hired city manager, Emily Crawford and pled their case. The association explained the issues and concerns of the entire command staff. Besides the mistrust with the chief and assistant chief, the CID lieutenant was not credible as he perjured himself during an investigation and just returned from a two year administrative leave, and the patrol lieutenant had not worked for the last year due to injury. The association did not feel that she was receptive or that immediate action was going to take place. At this point the