National COPS Evaluation of St. Paul: 2000
1992: Becoming Chief in Saint Paul
After Chief McCutcheon announced that he would not be a candidate for another term, early in 1992 Mayor James Scheibel announced that a citizens' commission would be formed to consider applicants for the position of Chief of Police. Fifteen citizens (out of 70 who applied) were selected by the City Council to serve on the commission, which then considered 28 candidates. Seven of these were Saint Paul officers; three were from outside the Department. After receiving written statements from and interviewing ten finalists, the citizens' commission sent Mayor Scheibel a list of the top five, which included, along with Finney, then SPPD Deputy Chief John Sturner, Superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) Mark Shields, SPPD Captain Ed Steenberg, and David Dobrotka, Deputy Chief of the Minneapolis Police Department. Finney was the mayor's choice, and in July, Scheibel appointed him Chief.
Why Finney? Among the top candidates, Finney was viewed as a close fit with Scheibel's liberal Democratic political leanings and had strong advocates on the City Council. He also had a great deal of popular support from various constituencies in the City. As Commander of Central Patrol District, which included the downtown commercial area of the City, he had developed a good working relationship with leading business persons in the City. Bill Buth (who served on the citizens' commission that narrowed the list of applicants for Chief), president of the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA), explains:
There was a call, he never passed it off as . . . 'it's the business fat cats.' He responded. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred it was in person; otherwise it was on the telephone. He listened intently to what we were talking about.... [S]ometimes business is not recognized as being a neighborhood.... He said 'You called. You've got a concern. I'm here to respond because I have that team with officers in the downtown area.' He had the people skills.
Another consideration for members of the citizens' commission at the time Finney was selected was "Where are we going with this police department? You've got an in-migration of cultures. How are we going to deal with that?" Earlier on Finney had emerged as a peacemaker in the eyes of many, able to communicate with people throughout the community during the period following the Rodney King incident, when tensions were high in the City. At the same time, a debate was taking place in the City over whether community-oriented policing should be more fully implemented. With Finney's appointment, there was no question: SPPD's move into community policing was assured.
Taking the Helm at SPPD
Finney's immediate goals upon becoming Chief were several: first, he wanted to increase and improve communication between SPPD and the public, making use of the media. In one sense this was easy for Finney personally—he had an attractive public persona, and by the time he became Chief, was already popular in the community. But Finney was also comfortable with the media, and he believed that they—and the public—had a right to know what was going on with SPPD. When he became Chief, therefore, Finney tried to make good use of the Department's Public Information Coordinator, Paul Adelman, who was responsible for providing the public and news media with information on police activities and the primary contact point for journalists seeking information. Finney also sought to improve communication inside SPPD. One of his first moves was to address the insularity of Investigations by breaking it into separate units, and placing property crime investigators (including robbery) out in the Districts. Although this action produced a fair amount of resistance at first, it eventually gained support within SPPD, and "broke down some of the walls that existed."
Soon after taking office, Finney submitted a memo to the City Finance Chair setting out an immediate reorganization plan for the Department in light of the 1993 Budget. These first proposals indicated the general direction that Finney would move in the next few years—flattening the organization, decentralizing and moving more operations out into the community, and bringing patrol and special unit functions closer together. As a first step, Chief Finney decided to move from four divisions (Detectives, Patrol, Administration, and Support Services) to three: Administration, Operations, and Support Service. The Deputy Chief of Administration would assume responsibility for many of the executive duties of the Chief's Office; he would also command the Special Investigations Unit (including Vice), FORCE, Police Community and Volunteer Services, Personnel/Timekeeping, and the Watch Commanders Office. Reporting directly to the Chief were the heads of the Research and Development Unit (a civilian professional who would oversee grant writing and evaluation, fiscal affairs, and the Crime Analysis Unit, thus helping to "focus on the development and evaluation of new police programs geared toward community policing"27), Internal Affairs, and Inspection. Finney also announced that he was working with the Mayor's Task Force on Police Priorities to develop some form of Civilian Review Board.
The new Operations Division would combine previously separate Patrol and Detective Divisions. In Patrol, Chief Finney brought the Downtown Foot Patrol, then a separate organization in which the sergeant reported directly to a Deputy Chief of Patrol, directly into the chain of command of Central District. Up to this time, headquarters, including the Communications Center, also had operated completely separately, even though it was located within Central District. Finney demoted Deputy Chief John Sturner but made him commander of a unified Central Patrol District that included headquarters and the Communications Center, as well as the Downtown Patrol. Turning to Investigations, Finney proposed consolidating several units into two: Crimes Against Persons (CAPERS), and Crimes Against Property (CAPROP). To create a closer working relationship with patrol officers and neighborhoods, many investigators would be assigned directly to Patrol Team Commanders.
Finally in the Support Services Division, civilianization of the Emergency Communications Center (with a lieutenant and nine sergeants supervising civilian telecommunicators and dispatchers) was to be completed by the end of 1992. This action was being taken in accord with a City Council directive to civilianize police operations wherever possible. Finney also proposed to combine several units within the Division to free up additional officers.
27 Memo to Finance Chair Rettman from Police Chief Finney, October 6, 1992.
