Faced with an end-of-the year spike in certain crimes — particularly bike thefts — a top UCSD Police Department officer suggested in a memo that the department start paying officers for individual arrests.
UCSD police officers rest in the John Muir College quad. Under a proposed policy, officers would have received $10 gift certificates for every arrest made.
Calling the plan “UCSD Police New Year’s Resolutions,” Sgt. Tom Morris wrote in a Dec. 27 e-mail that beginning the following month, each officer would receive a $10 gift certificate to the business of their choice each time they took “action leading to the arrest of a suspect for auto theft, auto burglary or bicycle theft.”
The top squad at the end of January was also promised a catered party, as was the entire department if the total arrests reached the goal of 20 for the month.
Both Morris and Police Chief Orville King, however, now say the policy was never put into place.
“Number one, that was never implemented, and it’s not something I would ever endorse, support or condone,” King said in an interview late last week. “There’s absolutely, without any reservation, no incentives, no rewards, nothing of that nature.”
Both said the memo was part of an internal brainstorming session, and was never meant for public consumption.
“Occasionally, what I do is that I give the guys an opportunity to float ideas internally to me,” King said. “And that’s what it was.”
Morris stated in an e-mail that the plan came “forward as part of brainstorming to deal with crime issues, and was rejected almost immediately and was definitely not implemented.”
“What you are referring to was part of a draft document that was put out for discussion internally and included some suggestions to highlight and address the top crime issues we were having at the end of last year,” Morris stated. “The idea of incentives was immediately discarded. What were implemented were some prevention and enforcement strategies that were directed specifically at the crime problems, such as educating the community about the problems and how to prevent them.”
However, the language and tone of the communique suggests that its target audience was somewhat larger than both Morris and King have described, and that the plan was largely final.
For example, the e-mail was addressed: “Dear members of the UCSD Police Department.” It also concluded by offering department members “best wishes for a Happy and Successful New Year” and called on them to “work together to achieve the UCSD Police Department New Year’s Resolutions for 2006.”
In describing the gift certificates, Morris made a reference to Residential Security Officer Freddy Pesqueira.
“Freddy’s excellent arrest of 12/26 has earned him the first $10.00 gift certificate,” Morris wrote in an aside in the memo, though he pointed out that the arrest would not count toward the squad or department party.
In an e-mail last week, Morris said the gift certificate was never awarded, and Pesqueira did not return calls or e-mails seeking a comment.
“The reference to Freddy was because the timing of his arrest was so close to the beginning of the year, but nevertheless, even though the arrest was made the day before the proposal, it was still in the idea stage and was never put into place, so even Freddy did not receive a certificate,” Morris stated.
At least one member of the department, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the situation, worried that the incentive program violated accepted police ethics and would have caused officers to make unnecessary and unjustified arrests — since the pay would have been based on apprehending a suspect, not actually achieving a conviction.
Shortly after he sent out the memo, Morris, a 16-year veteran of the department, was promoted to detective sergeant and is being considered for the job of lieutenant, according to the source. It is unclear whether the memo had any bearing on the promotion.
Other concerns focused on the limited types of property crimes that would have been eligible for the special compensation, with other serious crimes not included in the proposal.
In the memo, for example, Morris suggested that officers focus less on things like traffic violations.
“Patrol squads need to focus their energies on catching these thieves,” he stated. “Coffee breaks, foot patrol, traffic enforcement and 10-87s need to be redirected toward catching these crooks.”
In other parts of the memo, Morris expressed a sense of unfulfilled potential.
“As it was so eloquently put to me yesterday, ‘Every single officer on the UCSD Police Department is smarter than any crook that comes on this campus,’” he wrote. “However, the employees of this department lack direction. Each of us does our own thing. We have been doing a good job for the UCSD community because we have great employees. … 2006 is the time for us to find out what we can really do.”
In the months since the memo was written, King said the department has introduced new programs, including special enforcement details, to focus on specific types of crimes.
“We support the spirit of the law: That’s what we do, and that’s what our enforcement philosophy is, and that’s our policy,” King said. “What we do is expect all of our officers to be vigilant. If we had a resolution for 2006, which we don’t, it would be to have a safer campus.”
