It appears that Chief Edward Hargis was riding in the new Portsmouth Police Boat yesterday when he got tossed out of the boat. I don’t know if any injury ensued (except  as a minimum to some ones pride and then hide), I hope not. Given that the boat was new I have my doubts that anyone was properly trained in it’s operation. It will be interesting to see what Public Relations spin the Portsmouth Police Department puts on the incident.

I can only speculate how this happened but here are my theories;

1) It was intentional - Not likely but with Portsmouth one never knows..

2) The Helmsman/Captain (driver) was not properly trained and had limited boat handling skills (as I am a former US Navy Sailor this would be my guess).

3) The weather - well that typically goes back to number 2 above. If you are the Helmsman/Captain of a vessel you are responsible for taking the weather into consideration before placing you vessel in the water or if it’s already in the water putting it in a hazardous situation.

US Coast Guard statistics indicate that “Operator errors account for 70% of boating accidents”. So my question is this, was the Captain of the boat a trained and qualified boat operator???

Below is the Executive Summary from the US Coast Guard Recreational Boating Statistics 2008 that indicates most of the causes of boating accident.  Take a look at Number 5, that’s my bet .. Another embarrassment involving the Management of the Portsmouth Police Department.

US Coast Guard Executive Summary from Boating Statistics 2008

Someone I had contact with recently within the Portsmouth Police Department told me that I shouldn’t be bitter. I explained to them that I am not and then we had a discussion about the serious lack of morals and ethics within the management of the Portsmouth Police Department. Both of us having similar view points that doing the right thing is important and a trait lacking within our management. A large portion of the Portsmouth Police Department executive staff has refused to acknowledge mistakes that they have made. Instead of saying, “your right, our mistake how can we fix it” they take the point of view that they must defend the decision to a point of embarrassment of themselves, the Police Department and City of Portsmouth as a whole. I have never dealt with such incompetent management in my 30+ years of employment.

Below is a link to an Internal Affairs Complaint I made in 2006 on several issues. While the issues were not of monumental importance it involved basically what I identified as liability issues that could expose the City of Portsmouth and it’s employee’s to lawsuit or other legal action. This included mistakes made by 911 Dispatchers,  suspected misuse of government funds, harassment by supervisory personal and a threat made against me personally via a third party because I made Freedom of Information Act request for 911 Center financial documents which is my right as a citizen of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

City of Portsmouth Policy states that you can be terminated for threatening another employee. You would think that the Chief of Police might be concerned and look into matters. Apparently not, at least not from any evidence I have seen. As far as I can tell the complaint was never investigated. The principle witness involving the threat was never contacted by Internal Affairs to be interviewed. In a meeting I had with Former Interim Chief Corvello last year he told me he could not find a record of the complaint nor any investigation. The incident occurred after Chief Corvello’s first departure.

Because I am not bitter in the least but on a quest for justice and to demonstrate just how lacking several members of the Portsmouth Police Executive Staff is I’m going to share the pivotal moment when I came to realize that not everyone believes in doing the right thing in the Portsmouth Police Department Management. I believe, as do many others at my level in the department that we should do the right thing even if it means standing up and saying that I messed up, made a mistake or to respond to an accusation, “Yep, I did that”. Law Enforcement Personnel must be above reproach and set the example to society to be effective. Police Officers at all levels must be above reproach and be able to self-police themselves. My peers at the Portsmouth Police Department for the most part do that, the same can not be said of a number of our leaders.

In the very near future I am going to be revealing evidence and documentation that supports the claims I made above and will demonstrate the issues described. For the moment take a look at the beginning of my quest for justice and the pivotal point in my career with the Portsmouth Police Department. I realized I was naive, that their are Police Officers and sadly those in management that are not interested in doing the right thing but only protecting themselves and there turf.

Click here to read the Internal Affairs Complaint made 01/17/2006 that started my quest for justice.

Mistakes are made, some worse then others but we are human and that is human nature. It is frustrating to see incidents made to go away because they are of a political nature and the transgressors then have no incentive to discontinue unacceptable behavior.

I have a question for all;

Who does an agency answer to that is charged with protecting and investigating complaints against child and elder abuse when it is alleged that they are the abuser, or the cause/continuation of the neglect?

I thought it was the Police, but apparently that is not the case.

The truth must be controlled and hidden at all costs to preserve the status quo and for those in public service to NOT be held accountable for their actions. What has our government come to that they can not accept responsibility for their actions? FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) has become riddled with exemptions to preserve the hidden secrets that those in power can not afford to reveal lest they find a revolt at there feet and the common people realize just how terrible a government can become, even one that is a republic.

Eventually the scales will tip from one side to the other and that will be a terrible day indeed. What does this all mean I can not tell you as it is a forbidden secret. Click here for a clue…FOIA_041109_email

It appears that someone somewhere decided to look for the cause of the degradation of the City of Portsmouth 800 Mhz Trunked Radio System and they might have found it. From what I have been able to learn the City has done some work on the antenna’s at the main radio site. It appears to have had significant improvements in the operation of the system especially in the Churchland area. I can attest to it first hand. I am actually impressed, their are still some issues but this is definitely a step in the right direction.

Hats off to whoever decided to do some troubleshooting before the city went forward with a multi-million dollar simulcast site in Churchland. I understand the city’s financial issues and as someone who has a contract on a house in Portsmouth and a future resident I don’t want the City of Portsmouth to needlessly waste money. Especially money they don’t have. I think improvements in the operation of the main site are a great step forward but the coverage from the backup site at the Jail also need to be addressed. If the main site goes down because of equipment failure or for maintenance the backup site will be put into service. I have significant concerns with the current radio architecture.

The City of Portsmouth really needs a “Radio System Engineer” to management and address these types of problems. Someone who is an expert in radio telecommunications and system architectures. Currently the radio system is managed by a computer professional. I don’t know if he has any radio telecommunications background or not. He is an IT (Information Technology) professional and I suspect he has no radio background. A computer professional (IT specialist) might be the best IT specialist on the planet but radio systems and computer systems have computers in common but if you have no background in radio telecommunications you are not going to be able to effectively manage a radio telecommunications system. Especially one as complex as a city wide Motorola 800Mhz Trunked Radio system. It took Virginia Beach a number of years to realize this fact and they now have a Radio Engineer dedicated to managing there 800Mhz Motorola Smartnet Simulcast Trunked Radio System.

A step in the right direction. Lets keep it up ..

Police and Fire Fighters in certain parts of the City of Portsmouth still can’t safety communicate using the multi-million dollar 800 Mhz Motorola Trunked Radio system. The problem stems from the location and height of the radio system equipment and antenna’s. It is not a failure to operate correctly it is a failure in the design and location of the radio towers. The problem has existed for years but until recently it went un-addressed by the City of Portsmouth. They have been addressing it inadequately and only after several police officers voiced their concerns to elected officials about their safety and that of the public.

Portsmouth Police Department Captain R. Butler sent out an email on July 7th 2008 that outlined new repeater installations at Churchland High School that will help with the radio coverage problems but shortly after he sent the email it appears that the problem still exists putting Police and Firefighters in jeopardy. You can read about the problems in this email an anonymous city employee sent detailing recent radio problems at a SWAT incident.

Several weeks ago or perhaps a month ago a Police Officer had to use his personal cellphone to call dispatch after shooting someone because he couldn’t get on the air due to the poor city radio coverage. This problem presents a significant liability problem for the City of Portsmouth. Before all else the City of Portsmouth should be concerned about the safety of it’s civil servants. How can they protect the citizens when they can’t even communicate with other officers or dispatch?

It’s great to see the city making an effort to address the problem but what they are doing is not going to solve the problem except in the area’s near the repeaters. It’s these kind of communications problems that contributed to the death of two Firefighters in Chesapeake in 1996. Police Officer and Firefighter safety should be paramount to the City Government. If they have a long term plan to correct these problems I haven’t heard about it but welcome anyone from the City to address the issues in an open forum. It’s going to be to late if a Public Safety official dies because they can’t call for help.

I hope someone is listening in the city government, I hate to see it happen this way when it’s totally preventable. This whole issue is about money. To fix the problem correctly is going to require a multi-million dollar outlay. Based on the pay levels of City of Portsmouth Public Safety people, especially the Police Department you can tell that the city governments priorities don’t fall to “Public Safety”. They are not adequately protecting or paying their own Public Safety Officers what they should be. But they can claim to own and stay at a Holiday Inn last night.