Because of a perceived widespread interest in the topic, the city is making available to the public copies of a detailed study on problems within the Police Department.
But after almost two weeks, few people have taken the city up on its offer to read the 169-page document.
“We did have two or three people ask about it the morning after it came out, but that was before the city provided us with a copy,” said Sue Pfotenhauer, a reference librarian at the St. Charles Public Library.
“The staff here has read it,” Pfotenhauer said. “It hasn’t seen a lot of action from the public.”
A similar lack of interest was noted by employees at City Hall, where copies of the study are available for 10 cents a page, single-sided, or 15 cents a page, double-sided, an option that lowers the cost to $12.35 from $16.90.
“One woman bought it the very first day and said, `This is going to make interesting reading,’ ” said Jan Pope, an administrative secretary in the city’s Finance Department.
Pope said she had sold two other copies before the Memorial Day weekend.
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The report, prepared by Police Executive Research Forum of Washington, evaluates the 47-officer department in 23 areas and offers 180 recommendations for improvement.
Much of the report and recommendations deal with such mundane matters as in-service training, budgets, suggested organizational structure and even fixing a public address switch in one of the investigation interview rooms.
Other portions of the study, particularly the executive summary and sections on management, offer details of personal and political struggles among members of police command staff and elected city officials.
Without identifying anyone by name, the study blames much of the perceived morale problems in the department-which prompted the City Council last year to authorize the study-on the strained relationship between Chief James Roche and support services commander Lt. Darryl Rogers, and on the fact that a council member, Ald. Sue Klinkhamer, is married to a sergeant.
The study also criticizes the department for over-emphasizing traffic enforcement and crackdowns on underage drinking, a throwback to an outdated “points” system that rewarded individual officers on the basis of generating the most statistics.
Roche said he encourages the public to take advantage of the city’s offer and does not think having the department’s sensitive underbelly exposed will affect his personnel.
“No one is above criticism, especially police,” Roche said. “Maybe we’re breaking ground for a new level of openness.”