Chandler officers, command begin mending fences

Mar. 8—One major item on the 'to do list' for new Chandler Police Chief Bryan Chapman will be to repair the relationship between the department's commanders and their sworn officers.

Chapman, the current assistant police chief in Phoenix, was named to the position on March 6 and is scheduled to take command on April 8.

"There have definitely been tough times between [Chandler Law Enforcement Association} and command, but I think that through those tough times and things that happened, CLEA has positioned itself in an area where we have a voice, and I think that's important," said CLEA President Sam Wagner. CLEA represents police in labor issues.

Those tough times include the two leaderships not meeting for six months, a legal claim of retaliation, an allegation of an FBI investigation into corruption, and two separate surveys that outlined rank-and-file officers' concerns about leadership in the Chandler Police Department.

Still, Wagner hopes they have turned the corner with the arrival of a new chief, and that better days are ahead for everyone.

One hopeful sign: CLEA leadership and the command staff resumed their monthly meetings in February. They had been canceled since last July.

"Chandler is a great place, it's a great agency, but there's definitely things that need" to improve, Wagner said.

This newspaper examined hundreds of pages of documents obtained through public records requests and attempted to interview all the principals to understand how the relationship turned sour.

Former Chief Sean Duggan declined to be interviewed and instead provided a couple of statements to address specific issues. City Manager Joshua Wright also declined and provided a statement.

"The Chandler Police Department is one of the top law enforcement agencies in the nation," Wright said in his statement. "As a result of outstanding leadership at all levels of the department, Chandler is experiencing a steady decline in serious crime to historically low levels.

"In turn, more than 90 percent of Chandler residents say they feel safe, and employees say they are proud to work for the Chandler Police Department."

Staffing concerns emerge

The problems began with staffing becoming a major issue for officers during the pandemic.

"That's kind of where it started," said Mike Collins, who was the CLEA president during this time. "We started trying to bring these things forward, 'Hey, our people are exhausted.' 'Hey, they need more time off, they're upset.'"

This also was the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, when protestors called for defunding the police.

"Our members got beat up, they're exhausted, they're busting their butts to try and protect the community and getting hammered along the way," Collins said.

Collins said he met with the leadership of Chandler Lieutenants and Sergeants Association (CLASA) and they devised a plan to increase staffing.

But getting it out to the public was something they didn't know how to do. During a meeting with Jane Poston (who was not a member of the City Council at the time) and her husband, Jason Heinkel, they developed a plan.

"I'd had some of those conversations with Jane and Jason, from J2 Media, and they were like, 'That's crazy. You need more people here.' We sat with them and we didn't have a website, and our logos were all over the place," Collins said

Collins said he went to his board to ask about hiring a media company to help them sell their staffing plan because he didn't know how to do media relations or how to create content for websites. He also didn't know which politicians would be open to discussing their struggles.

Poston said they made a presentation to the CLEA board in June 2020 and began working on their behalf two months later.

She said that work continued through December 2022 — after she was elected but before she took the oath of office.

Poston said that once her election was certified, she asked others in her office to handle the CLEA account.

State of the City speech

Collins said things really began to go downhill after Mayor Kevin Hartke's State of the City speech on Feb. 17, 2022, when he boasted about the city's low crime rate.

"Crime rates this low occurred in the '80s when Chandler only had 80,000 residents," Hartke said.

"That doesn't pass the smell test," Collins told a newspaper reporter after the speech. He went on to say, "Our department hasn't kept up with the growth of this city.

"We've been asked to do more with less for almost 13 years now. We've kind of reached the breaking point."

Collins' publicized remarks were not well received.

He was scheduled to be the CLEA representative for an officer at an internal affairs investigation on Feb. 23, 2022, when he began getting phone calls and text messages that he needed to go to Duggan's office immediately.

In his complaint to human resources of retaliation, Collins says he was confronted by Duggan and an assistant chief over his comments in the newspaper.

"The overall tone of Chief Duggan during this meeting was threatening and intimidating in nature, and it was obvious to me that he was attempting to intimidate me and influence my comments during my upcoming interview," Collins wrote in his HR complaint.

Panel discussion

Both Collins and Duggan were scheduled to appear in panel discussions as part of a "Conversations on Criminal Justice" workshop at Chandler Gilbert Community College put on by AZ Valley Consulting.

Collins' complaint says Duggan suggested to Chandler Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Terri Kimble that Collins should not be part of the event.

Collins said in the complaint he was notified by the event's organizer that they were receiving pushback from the city, the mayor and Duggan. Several days later he was asked not to participate.

Both Collins and Duggan appeared on a panel at the event.

CLEA survey

Collins says that he had been telling leadership for months that he was just relaying what the officers in his association were saying. To back it up, CLEA's board decided to survey its membership.

Wagner, the current CLEA president, was put in charge of conducting the internal survey. He said they began discussing doing it in early 2022. The survey opened in July of that year, and was closed in October. Command leadership and the city did not allow them to use city email addresses, which made compiling the survey much harder.

They received more than 190 responses. The survey was shared with members of command staff, council and the city. However, it was not released to the public. This newspaper obtained it through a public records request to the city.

The results showed that most officers had favorable views of their jobs and immediate supervisors. However, there were concerns with command staff.

For example, only 2% of respondents strongly agreed with the statement employees who commit policy violations are handled appropriately by supervisors. There were 14% who strongly disagreed, and another 31% who disagreed with that statement.

In the statement that communication between command staff and employees is good, 72% either strongly disagreed or disagreed. No one strongly agreed with that statement.

More than half (about 54%) disagreed with the statement that promotion decisions are fair. Again, no one strongly agreed with that statement.

CLEA asked its membership if staffing levels were adequate. In all four categories considered (field operations patrol, criminal investigations, traffic day motors, traffic DUI team) the answer was no by 60% or more.

The survey included comments from the officers, both positive and negative. They were scrubbed by the board to ensure no officer could be identified by command staff.

"Biggest issue facing the department is morale and trust," one officer wrote. "Morale has been decreasing for many years and when it is addressed, I feel that the chain of command does not consider it a big enough 'problem' to try and fix, or even address, why morale has been failing."

"Burn out due to staffing and restrictions in taking time off," another wrote. "Over the years there has been a significant increase in leave restricted days and then on call days."

"Leadership decisions made by people who were promoted above their level of competency," another wrote.

Wagner said some good came out of the CLEA survey.

"After the release of the CLEA survey, we did see our command staff start to change ... coming out to briefings, doing different listening tours and stuff," Wagner said.

One of the biggest changes involved the uniforms. Officers did not like the previous ones, finding them very hot in the summer. New uniforms were ordered that were more comfortable.

"Our members really appreciated it," Wagner said.

Change of units

In June 2022, Collins, a detective in the Intel unit, was scheduled to take his turn on NOC (National Operations Center) assignment. The Arizona Department of Safety participates in this so that it can keep informed of any possible threats federal officials are aware of to Arizona or its communities.

Collins is one of the few detectives who holds a top-secret security clearance so he can participate.

Collins says Duggan denied his assignment to serve in that role. On June 28, Collins met with a lieutenant who told him that the Intel unit was "missing things."

The primary election in 2022 was on Aug. 2. Three candidates that CLEA endorsed all won elections, including Poston. On Aug. 4, Collins was removed from the Intel unit and returned to patrol, according to his HR complaint.

After being notified of his removal, Collins asked the commander why he was being removed.

"You're a smart guy Mike," was the response Collins quoted in his complaint.

In August 2022 another board member informed Collins that an assistant chief said "CLEA leadership is 'toxic' and I specifically was a 'poison' in the department."

The CLEA board had discussed not attending and participating in the voluntary labor/management retreat of 2022 because its members thought there was not a sincere interest in their input.

In December 2022 Collins filed a complaint with the HR department, saying that he was the victim of retaliation not because of his performance but because of his duties as CLEA president.

On Jan. 31, 2023, Napier Baillie law firm filed a legal claim against the city for the same reason, seeking $470,000 to settle. The city hired Pierce Coleman law firm to investigate the claim.

That investigation was not able to substantiate any of his charges.

"Considering all available information, I do not conclude that the events leading up to the reassignment of Officer Collins to the patrol unit were retaliatory. Rather, the more plausible interpretation of the events is that new leadership in the CIU started making a series of management changes and increasing expectations," their report says.

"The reassignment recommendation itself, however, is potentially concerning. It is undisputed that [name redacted] made the reassignment recommendation immediately after Officer Collins pushed back against [name redacted] told him of a schedule change for the Election Day detail, which he claimed was in violation of the MOU. ... One could view the timing of the reassignment recommendation as suspect and indicative of retaliatory intent."

Collins had planned to attend some election night events as CLEA president, but his schedule was changed a couple of days earlier so that he could not. The MOU is the memorandum of understanding agreement between the city and CLEA.

Matrix survey

The city decided to conduct its own survey, using an independent group that has experience in the work, to see if the concerns laid out in the CLEA survey were valid.

The city on July 14, 2023, hired Matrix Consulting Group to conduct the survey. Duggan submitted his resignation 11 days later.

Asked about the timing of his resignation, Duggan told this newspaper in an email:

"Over the past two-to-three years, I shared with many people including family, friends and colleagues my intention to retire on my 10th anniversary as police chief and my 38th year in policing in January 2024. My retirement announcement was no surprise to anyone who knew me.

"Additionally, I sent an email to the department on April 5, 2023 announcing the survey/assessment. It just happened to start on July 14th. So, obviously it was unrelated."

Matrix conducted its survey from Nov. 30 through Dec. 17. It had access to the city email's system so it was able to get a bigger response in less time.

It sent invitations to 517 employees and 380 responded, nearly double the response rate of the CLEA survey.

The survey validated some of the issues identified in the CLEA survey. It said, overall, Chandler police officers and support staff are proud of the work they do and enjoy their jobs but many felt some issues in the command staff needed to be addressed.

In the survey, 65% did not believe policies are applied consistently; 62% said there was not adequate communication between management and employees; 57% disagreed that policy is consistently enforced throughout the command structure; 56% disagreed that the disciplinary processes are fair; and 54% were dissatisfied with the decision-making process.

Asked about the survey, Duggan told this newspaper:

"One of the primary reasons Chandler remains a safe community and the police department is recognized nationally as a model agency is because of the department's commitment to self-evaluation.

"Continually adjusting policies and procedures, training, tactics, and equipment has been the benchmark of success over the years enabling the department to successfully meet the challenges of policing in the 21st century.

"This review was another opportunity to self-reflect and identify emerging practices in policing for continued growth and to help ensure a positive and healthy working environment for all employees.

"The results highlighted both current effective practices and opportunities for refinement and continued growth. Equally important, it affirmed the Chandler police department is a high performing agency ranking in the 90th percentile of benchmark police departments which is a testament to the talented and courageous men of women of the department dedicated to ensuring Chandler remains one of the safest cities in the United States."

One of the recommendations that the survey made was to restart the meetings between CLEA leadership and the command staff. Those stopped last July. Collins claims Duggan would not meet with him present.

"As you already know, Collins filed a notice of claim against the city in Jan. 2023 seeking $470,000," Duggan told this newspaper. "His allegations were investigated by an outside law firm at a cost of $23,000 to the city and determined to be completely unfounded. His claim was subsequently ignored and dismissed by the city.

"During the investigation, I did not meet with Collins in his capacity as union president. I did, however, meet routinely with all other union board members whenever they were willing to meet. Throughout this entire time, the sergeants' union met regularly without interruption with police command staff."

He included an email he sent out to staff informing them that rumors that he is refusing to meet with CLEA board members are untrue. The email was dated Dec. 15, 2023.

It included a memo dated July 10, 2023 that pointed out CLEA leadership canceled their meetings seven times in an 18-month span. Collins said that since they are active first responders, there are times when their regular jobs prevent them from meeting.

FBI investigation

On Nov. 8 of 2023, Duggan sent an email to City Manager Joshua Wright, informing him of an active FBI investigation into Collins and Poston.

"Information was uncovered indicating Collins and Poston may have committed violations of federal law and as such, an active public corruption criminal investigation is underway."

However, in the four months since that email was sent, Wright, Collins and Poston have all said that they have not been interviewed by the FBI and to their knowledge, there is no investigation underway.

The FBI does not confirm or deny reports of investigations it may, or may not, be conducting as a matter of policy.

Where things stand

Duggan retired in January. Collins stepped down as president and Wagner has taken over CLEA leadership.

"I would say things are improving," Wagner said. "We have been able to have good conversations with the command staff and we're just working to rebuild some of that trust together."

The monthly meetings resumed after a conversation between interim Police Chief Melissa Deanda and Wagner.

Wagner said the Matrix survey gives the new police chief, Bryan Chapman, a roadmap for improving relations between the command staff and officers. It includes a number of recommendations.

"I think that puts our new chief and this command staff in a really good spot to have actionable and measurable items that they can continue to work on moving forward," Wagner said.