National COPS Evaluation of St. Paul: 2000
Sustaining Team Policing through the 1980s
Accounts from management staff in SPPD who recall the 1980s differ over the degree to which team policing remained a vital and expanding strategy throughout the decade. Some suggest that in spite of the positive responses to team policing, enthusiastic popular support that had been present earlier in Saint Paul, diminished. (A similar lack of interest in joint efforts involving the community is cited in the waning of block clubs, which had been very strong in Saint Paul neighborhoods during the 1970s.) There did not seem to be any perception of failure by SPPD: whether these changes were due to the "different political leadership in the country," the general focus in on individual rights rather than community values, or changing economic conditions, "team policing became somewhat passe, more of a program of legal parking than active participation." Others point to a lack of focus by the late 1980s, when the Department lost the "cutting edge" mentality that it had held—in technology, policing methods, and other areas—that had been very strong since the 1970s. Still others, including George Latimer, disagree, and recall that team policing did not lessen in intensity, as occurred in other cities around the country, but remained vibrant right through the transformation into community policing. Regardless of which interpretation may be nearer the truth, SPPD faced a number of challenges during the 1980s.
In 1982 Saint Paul faced severe financial cuts: with the indexing of income tax at the state level, and the recession of 1981, the City had to find 5-6 million dollars out of an operating budget of 65 million at the time. When the mayor gave City departments the option of how to deal with the cut, Chief McCutcheon made the decision to cut back team policing to two sectors. Some interpreted his stance as playing hardball, holding a popular program (team policing) hostage to a particular level of funding for the Department. Another interpretation is that personnel changes caused the Department to lose the ranking officers (especially captains and lieutenants) necessary to operate and manage all the teams—about forty to fifty police officer positions were lost, and there were thirty lay-offs at SPPD (because of seniority, primarily from the midnight shift), as well as several demotions—so that McCutcheon had no choice. (At that time, the Department went to a low of 490 sworn personnel: the decision was made to downsize the whole Department, rather than cutting only line officer personnel.) In addition to personnel issues, although most of the team offices had been donated or else were situated in City buildings (such as A3, in an old fire station, and B4, in an old school), maintenance costs were a concern. Therefore six Teams were consolidated into two sectors—East and West. The A2 headquarters became East Sector Headquarters, and the B5 Headquarters became the West Sector Headquarters; the other four offices were abandoned.
When federal dollars went away, the Downtown Patrol Beat (in the skyway) also disappeared, prompting BOMA to argue that even though there was not a serious safety problem then, a small number of incidents could easily be magnified in the downtown setting. Continuing to press Chief McCutcheon, they eventually got their skyway patrol back. In 1984, the City's financial crisis eased up, and the Department reorganized into four teams that would continue to operate for the next ten years. Around the same time another specialized unit, the Street Crimes Unit, was created (as a follow-up to the earlier Tactical Unit): about ten to twelve officers were assigned to the unit, which focused on hot spots around the City. The Unit did not last long—some suggest that it became more of a warrant unit, pulled without focus in too many directions—but in many ways, it was the precursor to the FORCE Unit that would be formed in the 1990s (see below). Overall, during the remainder of the 1980s, the size of the Department never returned to earlier levels: from 547 sworn officers in 1980-81, the number dipped precipitously in 1982-83; in 1986 it moved up to 514; and stood at 520 in 1990.
Management and the Culture of SPPD under Team Policing
The Saint Paul Police Department was a relatively stable organization throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Chiefs changed infrequently (for example, Latimer notes that during the time SPPD was headed by three chiefs—McAuliffe, Rowan, and McCutcheon—Minneapolis had nine). Police officers who joined SPPD did so in large numbers for life—they were relatively well-paid and well-treated within the organization. The Department's reputation was one of integrity, and officers from other departments frequently sought entry, as they still do.
Although patrol operations were decentralized during the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, recollections from officers at all levels inside SPPD indicate that even under Chief McCutcheon, communication and decision making moved from the top down.24 Nevertheless, some "old timers" in the Department believe the transition to team policing was the "biggest change to appear" in nearly thirty years. As one officer recalls from his experience on a team, the lieutenant who commanded it was in charge of a neighborhood "was basically forced to deal with his community. He was responsible to the chief of police through his involvement in those teams. He…identified through the community what the problems were… . We all participated in team meetings…then it was up to us to make it work on the street level. We didn't have a whole lot of information when we first started as to exactly what they wanted us to do." Some complained about the lack of centralized management. The evaluation of team policing reported, however, that a positive attitude toward supervisors grew even more favorable with team policing, and that officers were much more satisfied with their jobs on patrol. Anecdotal accounts suggest that positive responses from neighborhoods also contributed to officers' satisfaction.
All in all, team policing appears to have caused patrol officers to pay much greater attention to problem solving and to identify more closely with their "turf." The leaders of team policing in the Department—sergeants and lieutenants in the teams, some of whom moved up into command positions—also bought into the approach. (Again, Larry McDonald, Commander of Southwest Team in the late 1980s: "When you get older and you've been around for a while, you're not as afraid to challenge people, to do what you want to do.") Yet it was not until community policing began to supplant team policing that top management came around to really adopting this view as well.
24 Former Chief McCutcheon was unavailable for interviews when data were collected for this case study due to an illness in the family.
