Ballard Has Plan To Clean Up Police Department

Public Safety Director Scott Newman announced a plan to get tough on bad cops in the wake of more than a half dozen police officers being arrested since the first of the year for a variety of crimes. "Nothing can substitute for honest men and women who understand thattheir career as police is a sacred trust they hold for the public," Newman said. "Still, it is incumbent on us to make sure that every safeguard is put inplace to channel those men and women in the right direction, and to helpus find out quickly when they have gone the wrong direction." "We are ashamed of the actions of the few, but we are proud of the actions of the many, and we won't hesitate to use these measures that we announce today and others to make sure the bad apples are plucked out and tossed aside." Here are the steps Newman outlined at yesterday's press conference:

• More intensive supervision of officers in the field.
• Tighter accounting and inventory controls of search warrants and seizures of drugs and money.
• Bringing back the previous practice of polygraph tests for officers assigned to narcotics enforcement, vice, intelligence and property room.
• Creating the position of recruiter in order to ensure the departmentattracts the best, high quality candidates, including establishing apresence on college campuses.
• Establishing a staffed Office of Career Development with the task of guiding officers toward more directed career goals, cultivating management and leadership skills, and providing more consistent evaluations and training.
• Requiring performance evaluations on a regular basis.