Police vote against chief
BY BRIAN DUGGAN AND NICK COLTRAIN
TUESDAY, FEB. 26, 2008 @ 3:23 AM
Ten out of 16 officers and four sergeants in the University of Nevada, Reno Police Department said they have no confidence in police chief Adam Garcia, according to an undated three-page memo.The officers and sergeants who signed the document about two weeks ago say that the department “is not prepared for a major incident like Columbine or Virginia Tech” because of low staffing levels, poor equipment and little training.
The officers also accuse Garcia of neglecting their safety and being out of touch with the department’s needs.
Ron Zurek, Garcia’s immediate boss at the university, and Jannet Vreeland, the interim provost, met with the police sergeants Monday about their complaints. Vreeland said they are “gathering information.”
They said it would be premature to comment further.
UNR President Milton Glick said the same, though he was disappointed that the complaint went public.
“I am very disappointed that the officers would have gone to the press with this, without going to Ron Zurek or me, especially in a time like this,” Glick said.
Garcia and Ron Cuzze, president of the Nevada State Law Enforcement Officers’ Association, gave different twists on the same story. UNR police officers are not permitted to comment to the media.
Garcia calls the three-page complaint a “laundry list” of grievances meant to discredit the department.
“This document is obviously so ambiguous (that) it says very little,” Garcia said. “The way it was presented and produced, it was obviously presented for a reason; it wasn’t meant to change things. It was meant to embarrass the department and the university.”
Garcia questioned the motives behind releasing the memo to the media last week before he saw it. He called the act “character assassination.”
Cuzze said the officers, not the union released the information to the media. He said it was the only way for them to get leverage in working with the university administrators. In the memo, officers said the vote of no confidence made its first rounds in August. But Garcia held a meeting and promised to fix the problems, they said.
“The last one (vote of no confidence) didn’t work and the only way they (the officers) can get their voice heard is with the media,” Cuzze said.
He said Garcia has tried to retaliate and discredit the officers in press reports. Garcia told the Associated Press that he might change the work schedule to five 8-hour days instead of the four 10-hour days worked now.
Cuzze said that is Garcia sending veiled threats to his officers.
“Police departments are run by intimidation and Garcia is one of the best intimidators and that’s ********,” Cuzze said. “They (the officers) are tired of his intimidation and they’re fighting back and they won’t quit until he (Garcia) is gone.”
When asked for a response to Cuzze’s comment, Garcia said, “I don’t know what he means by (intimidation). Does he mean expecting people to do their job?”
Garcia also raised questions of officers who are concerned about patrolling alone at night.
“I think it’s ironic, what’s going on in our community that we have officers saying they don’t want to do this (patrol alone),” Garcia said. “Shame on them.”
Garcia said “none of these officers are being worked to death” and UNRPD doesn’t need to hire more officers.
But officers want to do their jobs safely so they can keep the public safer, Cuzze said.
“That’s what the officers are really saying: stop telling these people (the public) lies, stop giving these people a false sense of security, give us the proper training and give us the proper equipment and let us do our job,” Cuzze said.