News-Record.com

GREENSBORO — The first step to completing a complex project is to make a to-do list. At Monday’s City Council meeting, City Manager Mitchell Johnson did just that, presenting the council with a 120-page list of all the recommendations from a consultant’s recent evaluation of the police department.

But making the list isn’t enough, Johnson said.

“You’ve got to manage the to-do list. Don’t just stick it in your pocket and forget about it,” he said.

Johnson’s list included elements that allow him, the council and the police department to keep track of the progress made.

“My goal with all of this is to show where we are, what we have accomplished and what we have left to do,” Johnson said. "We had to get everything organized because it would become kind of a mess if we didn’t have a structure.”

The report, delivered by consultant Carroll Buracker to the city on July 7, ran more than 600 pages and included more than 200 recommendations.

One of those initial recommendations was having Johnson create a process to deal with it. That’s done.

The police department has also begun to act on the recommendations, including:

• Suspending promotions.
• Planning for a committee to examine patrol schedules, which Buracker recommended changing.
• Expanding the professional standards division to speed up internal investigations.

“For the vast majority of them, it’s a decision for the police chief to determine how he uses the resources under his control,” Johnson said.

Police Chief Tim Bellamy has been holding weekly planning sessions with departmental commanders to nail down their top priorities.

Those boil down, mainly, to what the department can afford.

Buracker identified 19 recommendations for completion in the September to December time frame.

Six of those deal with the department’s promotions process.

It’s an issue Bellamy has already taken action to change. He suspended promotions the day after the report was delivered to overhaul the process.

Others involve restructuring teams in the department, notably reducing the size of the gang enforcement unit from 14 to eight and forming a 20-member tactical team to deal with robberies, burglaries and other crimes as they become a priority.

Contact Sonja Elmquist at 373-7090 or sonja.elmquist@news-record.com