Parks Must Retain Compressed Work Schedule

This may be a great personal time for Chief Bernard Parks, but will it prove to be as rewarding for the men and women of the Los Angeles Police Department and ultimately the citizens of Los Angeles? Our department is in dire need of strong, effective leadership. Previous administrations have shown a lack of direction and an unwillingness to make decisions on behalf of officers.

Officers feel the upper echelon is out of touch with us. Is it because they have not been in the field for decades? Because their world is in an office at Parker Center? I believe it is because they are too busy jockeying for their next position while building their political futures. The real question is, have they been promoted to make a better department, or have they been enticed by money, power and a chance to rule over others building their own egos?

Members of the upper echelon are not really police officers anymore. They try on the uniform for show occasionally, but they never see the realities an officer must face. These individuals merely manage the infrastructure of a large organization. It is the officers on the streets who put their lives at risk to secure a better quality of life for people in this city. We respond to the riots, earthquakes, floods, fires and unusual occurrences such as the North Hollywood shootout. We risk health and sanity dealing with the criminal element. We are the ones everyone counts on to get the job done.

The future of the Los Angeles Police Department, for the next five to 10 years, is on the shoulders of department managers and, specifically, Parks. Parks can manage by opposition or he can manage by participation. He can choose to be a strong leader possessing vision, determination and support for the troops, or he can be a totalitarian set on imposing his will, causing divisiveness and reducing morale to an all-time low.

Parks has the power to keep the 3/12 compressed work schedule (CWS), or he can destroy it. This schedule, under which officers work three 12-hour shifts a week, has been a great success throughout the city for the past 2 1/2 years, especially at the Van Nuys Division, where officers are genuinely concerned for its viability. The CWS would save a projected $24 million annually for the city, reduce sick time, improve morale and complement community-based policing.

If Parks chooses to accept this successful program as part of the new reforms of the LAPD (specifically Christopher Commission requirements), he can expect praise as an effective leader fulfilling management principles set forth in the LAPD manual. If he destroys the 3/12, he will have made a gross error of judgment, a conscious turn away from the road of progress into a cul-de-sac of fierce opposition. The result will be early retirements and lateral moves to other departments. For those who must remain, there will be an overwhelming display of “no confidence” for the chief.