Poor decision makings

Wow!! I’m amazed at the response I received from seemingly multiple comrades that are members of your Department! It is apparent that your Chief is adverse to most of the basic principles of management. You never alienate your troops or cause the dissension with the ranks. Again I refer to the informal administration. It is necessary to have a chain of command and a disciplinary policy that must be enforced. I can’t help but conclude from the messages posted that the leadership within your agency has a problem that must be addressed from a someone outside the Department’s inner ranks that possess the ability and authority to correct the crisis you are experiencing.
You are correct in the statement that you should attempt to retain experienced and qualified personnel. There is no substitute for experience.
In the real world there are two criteria’s for a manager to ponder, EFFICIENCY or EFFECTIVENESS. If you decide pursue the course of efficiency a manager will be frugal and keep his budget to a minimum. If effectiveness is the short-range goal you must have the necessary tools and manpower to accomplish your goal. You can’t have the best of both worlds. Management must make a choice.
There seems to be a division of thought regarding the purchase of weapons that is necessary to maintain order in the event of an emergency. It does not appear that a purchase of the amount of weapons on the “wish list “ of the Chief in comparison with the population of your City and the staff of officers in your Department. I hope that I’m not violating any of your rules and regulations but if possible what is the inventory of specialized arms that you currently have in your armory?
I would question, why would an officer care what brand of water a person consumes? However you do work for Zephyrhills! I know for a fact that there is a state of the art water-manufacturing establishment within your community.
The comment made by a recruit that I presume will be graduating a police academy soon, made a comment regarding the leadership of an agency that he is about or has already applied. I would question his loyalty and respect that the applicant has for a department that he may be applying.
I don’t understand the encrypted messages but that is directed toward a particular individual. Please excuse me!
PLEASE RESPOND!!!! VER INTERESTING.

There continues to be erroneous information posted unprofessionally on a publicly-accessible website. Professionals can rant and rave amongst themselves and with others in their profession who understand the ins and out of the profession better than anyone from the outside. True professionals restrict this to co-workers and others who are in the same career like doctors and lawyers. Police officers have fought for years to be rightly recognized as professionals and often complain (quite correctly), that civilians just don’t understand the whys and wherefores of what we do. If this website was restricted to us and our fellow professionals, we could relax a little more because we understand where each other is coming from. But since it is accessible to the general public (whom we already claim doesn’t understand us), we out to be more circumspect about what we say/write and how we say/write it. In short, if we want to be considered as professionals, we need to act and write professionally. Our site is actually one of the milder sites, but regardless of what anyone thinks of me or anyone else personally or professionally, please keep in mind at all times how what you do, say and write reflects upon our profession in general and ZPD in particular to the average citizen observer.

-- Chief Russell Barnes

Taken from the “Quality Assurance Committee Meeting - 8/11/2006”.

NICE TRY AT WHITE WASH CHIEF but that dog won't hunt. If you want to be considered as a professional, start acting like one. You should put your officers first and 86 the ego trip you're on. You have done everything to promote yourself and your personal agenda. It's about time you realize that you are not only responsible for your actions but also that of the department. Over the last two years you've circumvented your own orders and sop.You've created liabilities that could possibly cost the department and the city by allowing marginal police officers to continue to function without regard for the violations they committed. DON'T PREACH TO US ABOUT UNPROFESSIONAL, YOU WEAR THE CROWN.

"A statue has never been set up in honor of a critic."

"The business of finding fault is very easy, and that of doing better is difficult."

"Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be, BE ONE!"

I am embarrassed by the lack of professionalism on this site, as well as the lack of respect. Not only for the Chief but for yourselves and our profession. It is extremely easy to sit behind the keyboard anonyms and throw insults and spread your negativity like a cancer. I challenge any of you to have the balls leave your REAL name and information, weather you be an Officer at the dept., someone’s pissed off spouse, an
outsider who really has no idea what is going on except what all these cowards tell you. Lets remember when you make the Chief look like shit you make the department look like shit and in turn YOU look like shit along with all your brother that are busting their ass !!!

Chief Barnes,

I am not a ZPD employee and have to connection to your agency. I have to tell you that posting here under your real name was commendable, but foolish.

You cannot win against anonymous posters and arguing only feeds the fire. As Chief I would suggest you leave the posters to their own devices, as your postings are just fodder for the malcontents and you are beginning to look foolish for responding.

I make no judgements as to intent or accountability, but the posts are beginning to be painful, and serve you no positive purpose. An inter office memo or dept. wide email would serve you better.

just an observer

"A statue has never been set up in honor of a critic."

"The business of finding fault is very easy, and that of doing better is difficult."

"Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be, BE ONE!"

At the PD late last night Chief? Why didn't you post your name on this particular entry?

You have lost all respect from your employees. I believe it's time for the "changing of guards". If it's true about your love for the city and its employees, be a real man and resign. Save what's left of your reputation.

P.S. Please refrain from the quotes, it's a dead give a way, chief.

Don’t you think there are other avenues that can be explored? A police officer takes an oath to serve and protect. If the effort that is being put forth in ridicule and objectionable comments were used in a constructive manner, I would wager that the City would be a much safer place to reside. You are all professionals and hold the trust and confidence of the residents of your community in your hands. It’s up to you, do you want to take pride in wearing the shield or hide behind it? Courage is a quality that must be honored and revered. Honor is a quality that must be defended at all costs. Respect is a quality that must be earned.
I am not the Chief of your Department. I do know however that unless you’ve been in a position of responsibility you have no right to be critical of any superior officers in your department, The world has a great deal of “armchair executives” just waiting for their employers to make a mistake. I’ll leave you with this statement that I’ve always attempted to live by. I’ve not always made the right decisions in my life but this has been my guide.


“It is not the critic that counts, not the one who points out how the strong person stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to those who are actually in the arena; whose faces are marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strive valiantly; who err and come short again and again; who know the great enthusiasm, the great devotion and spend themselves in a worthy cause, who at best know in the end the triumph of high achievement; who at the worst, if failing, at least fail while daring greatly; so that their place shall never be with those cold timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt

As a citizen I am concerned with the services I receive from my police department. We have always had the best department but the last couple years the quality of service has gone down drastically. When I see our officers unionize 100%, drug dealers and prostitutes openly peddling their wares, or when my car was robbed and nobody powdered it for fingerprints then I have to ask, "Why?".

I have met your officers and they are very courteous, knowledgable and professional people. So I question, what could be the reason for the change in the department? Obviously it falls on the police chief to lead the department where it needs to go and between you and the last one it seems as if our department has stumbled.

I read the postings here and question your arrogance toward the citizens. I don't need to understand police work to know if your employees are not happy it effects the type of service I receive.

After reading the postings from the 16th and 17th which contained the same information but with an overtly aggressive tone, I question how fair you would be with the employees that posted if you knew their identities or that of their spouses. When employees get to a point that they have to go on a public forum and post anonymously to get attention then I question your skills as the police chief.

If the last posting is correct, I challenge the City Manager or Council members to pull your computer usage log to see if you did in fact post on 8/17/06. If you did then I say "shame on you".

If you are such a concerned citizen, go to the City Counsel Meetings and voice your opinion! Our Officers are among the best in the State of Florida. The internal strife comes from factions that include freshman officers and disgruntled men that know what to do but work harder at avoiding their responsibilities than working. The Chief may be at fault to a degree but you must realize that it takes a team effort to comprise an effective department. We don’t powder vehicles, like we do babies. We do dust for fingerprints. Your vehicle wasn’t “robbed, it was burglarized. What, if anything was taken? How long did it take you to report the incident? Was you vehicle forcibly entered, or did you leave it unlocked? Do you really want nasty black print powder all around your vehicle? Where is it normally parked? If it is parked on a public street there is a good chance that numerous unrelated prints could be on your vehicle. How many people have been in your car in the last month or last time it was cleaned. Can we contact all to the subjects to eliminate their prints? Is one of your friends could be the offender? Statistically, it is usually someone you are acquainted with that commits the crime.
The PBA (UNION) is for the protection of our Officers’ rights and to insure fair labor practices, not only from the Chief but any political subdivision that may want to initiate any unfair labor practices.
I would put the majority of our Officers against any officers of any other department in this State.

YOU’VE GOT THE B---S TO COMPLAIN HAVE THE NERVE TO STAND BEFORE THE COUNSEL AND PUBLICALLY VOICE YOUR CONCERNS.

ONE GOOD COP AMONG MANY AT ZPD

I agree with the posting above. I would put most of my co-workers against any in the state. Some wouldn't stand a chance, but every agency has the 5-10%. Luckily ours is only 1-3%. As for the chief...Well listen up. We are tired as hell at busting our butts day in and day out to make this city better for the CITIZENS and our OFFICERS. NOT YOU. We are not doing things so you can call the media and everyone else and say "look at me look at what I did". If you want to be a politician then fine stay in your office and be a politician and stay the hell out our way. I stand beside the guys and gals I work with and support them through the end. As a politician at least stand up for your guys when they need it. Like maybe when we needed help with getting better raises. What plan did you make out the best on your raise? Oh thats right Alternative C which you pushed so hard for. It's obsvious there is no accountability in this department and everyone can do what ever they want without fear of reprisal. That IS NOT how a department is supposed to run. Start being a chief!! If you need some help figuring out what that is the pick up Webster's Dictionary.