New police chief Dempsey already pushing for positive changes

Ongoing training

Already, he’s revamping the training system for the officers.

“It’s going to be on a continual basis. There’s not going to be any downtime,� he said. “We have a wonderful training facility. We have the means. We have the trainers. There’s no reason why we can’t do that.�

New trainings will include crisis intervention training —which teaches officers how to respond to mental illness — active shooter, de-escalation and emotional health training, which Dempsey is certified to teach.

“You don’t want to come to work angry or upset. That’s when bad things happen typically, so if you can learn to take care of yourself, you’re going to take care of others,� he said.

A new use-of-force simulator should also be delivered to the city in the next few months. Not only does it help officers make shoot/don't-shoot decisions, it also teaches them how to de-escalate situations, how to communicate with their fellow officers and make rational — even non-lethal — decisions, Dempsey told the city's Public Safety Committee.

Recruiting push

A year from now, Dempsey hopes to be at maximum roster capacity with highly trained officers who are happy and healthy.

The ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä Police Department has a budgeted force size of 173. Currently, the department is at 159 officers, with a few more recent hires yet to be sworn in. Dempsey is pushing to fill those last few spots quickly.

He plans to form a committee of seven to ten officers with a mixture of female, Black and younger officers to get ideas on recruiting. He also plans to hire a recruiting officer, place recruiting tables at events around the city and recruit with Deputy Chief Jason Webb.

Officer demographics

Currently, CPD has eight female officers and 10 Black officers — demographics Dempsey is prioritizing.

Regarding the low number of female officers, Dempsey said he could see why being a woman in police work could be challenging, both in the department and the public.

“Men in this profession … they’re not used to being supervised by women,� he said. “Not saying they don’t like them, just saying they’re not used to that because it's traditionally always been men.�

The public’s perception of women police officers may also present difficulties to women officers, he said.

Last fall, Dempsey named Lt. Autumn Davis to chief of detectives making her the highest-ranking female officer on the force.

He has also tried to work with Black community leaders to grow that demographic of officers.

“We have to figure out how we can break through that barrier and get them to come,� he said.

Officer morale

Deputy Chief Jason Webb is prioritizing officer morale. At a Public Safety Committee meeting Monday night, Webb said that officers are taking career development surveys. One change already implemented because of the survey is creating a Crime Scene Reserve Officer that can support the Crime Scene Investigation team when events happen back-to-back.

“Hopefully, that will broaden our bench a little bit, help take some stress off our crime scene unit,� Webb said. “It gives the guys in patrol a chance to further their career.�

Dempsey and Webb are also trying to bring every officer to their third-floor office at City Hall to ask them about ways the department can improve and the goals of the officers. Some officers don’t even know where the offices are — “for me that’s a problem,� Dempsey said.

“They're only there when they're in trouble. It's like going to the principal's office. They never want to do that,� he said. “Our idea is to bring every single officer that we have to our office to let them feel welcomed, let them feel valued.�

Community engagement

Dempsey is also focused on community engagement by putting officers in the community whether it’s after a violent crime, at a neighborhood watch meeting or just during their lunch break.

“The more visible we are, the better because that helps build trust,� he said.

The extra community engagement does mean an increase in overtime, but Dempsey said he thinks the benefits are worth it. He added that the department has instituted a new overtime policy to keep officers accountable.

“A lot of people don’t want to call. They don’t want to email. They want to actually see a police officer,� he said. “When they can go to a neighborhood watch meeting and actually face-to-face with an officer — if we can solve one problem that way, I’ll have as many officers as I can working those.�

Staff integrity

One issue inherited by Dempsey is the investigation into his predecessor Tyke Hunt. While he couldn’t provide details, he did say the investigation is “coming to a close.�

On his first day as interim chief and later as chief of police, Dempsey told every officer to come to his office with any grievances they might have.

“We want to root these problems out,� he told the officers.

He also told his command staff that if they expected officers to behave with integrity, the command staff needed to lead by example.

“I just hope that eventually the public will see that we’re here for them, and we’ll do the best we can.�