The Tucson Police Department wants its helicopters and aircraft back in flight by the end of the week, despite grounding them 12 days ago after an outside audit found their operation to be a high safety risk.
The auditors found in November that disagreements between the pilots and mechanics over βperceived maintenance safety issuesβ had escalated to a level of hostility and βtoxic operational culture.β
As a result, in one of his final acts before retiring, Tucson Police Chief Roberto VillaseΓ±or took the three helicopters and one fixed-wing aircraft temporarily out of service on Dec. 23. He emailed a memo on Christmas Eve to police, employees, a city attorney and City Manager Michael Ortega announcing the grounding.
VillaseΓ±or did not, however, let Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos know that his department would need to provide air support during any emergencies in the interim.
Assistant Police Chief Mark Timpf says the issues with the TPD air support unit are about policy language, not operational safety.
βNothing was being operated in an unsafe manner. We have an impeccable safety record. But because of the risk that the audit found, we elected to pause things,β Timpf said Thursday.
βWe have 30 days from the grounding to get the unit operational again, and weβre running ahead of schedule,β Timpf said. βIβm cautiously optimistic that itβll all be done by the end of (this) week.β
City Councilman Steve Kozachik has serious concerns about the audit, as well as VillaseΓ±orβs decision to ground all air support.
βThis is an extremely important unit to the safety of the public and the officers on the ground,β Kozachik said. βIf itβs just a deficiency in policy language, it shouldnβt take three weeks to update and it shouldnβt have resulted in the grounding of the unit.β
βI donβt buy that itβs just a matter of fixing policy language,β he added.
58 percent compliance
Earlier in 2015, complaints from air support employees about the unitβs operation and policies were brought to the police chiefβs attention, leading the department to ask for an external audit by the Airborne Law Enforcement Association, VillaseΓ±or wrote in the email.
βThe result of this audit determined that there were numerous policy and practice issues that needed to be addressed,β VillaseΓ±or wrote.
The audit, which was obtained Thursday by the Star after a public-records request, determined that TPDβs air support unit was at high risk, logging only 58 percent compliance with the Airborne Law Enforcement Associationβs safety standards.
The audit addressed five areas: administration, operational, safety, training and maintenance.
Consistent with the complaints made to VillaseΓ±or, the audit revealed serious problems with communication in the Tucson police unit.
βSworn unit members are often at odds with each other and have formed what was described to me during interviews as a βcliqueβ among themselves,β the auditor wrote. βMore recently, differences between some of the pilots and the maintenance staff over perceived maintenance safety issues have escalated to a level of hostility as reported by several unit members during interviews.β
The auditor concluded that the police department needed to take any necessary steps βto neutralize what is perceived by an outsider as a toxic operational culture within the unit that goes beyond simple personality conflicts between individuals.β
The report added that the current culture βseems to center around a few pilots within the unit who are attempting to draw a line in the sand based on βwhoβs rightβ rather than βwhatβs right.ββ
The auditor said that resolving the differences between the aircrews and mechanics could require police to use an independent mediator, to allow each group to air concerns and attempt to reach a middle ground.
βThe situation that currently exists between parties constitutes what could be considered a hostile work environment for both sides,β the report said.
The audit also found that the six pilots assigned to the unit each flew an average of 23 hours a month, which is a relatively low number of flying hours compared to other units of similar size.
βPerhaps aircrews could find more productive use of their duty time during day shift,β the auditor wrote, suggesting that management consider staffing a proactive day patrol, as opposed to emergency response-only.
Most of the other areas where TPDβs air support unit was faulted dealt with language in the policy manual that wasnβt consistent with the language used in the Airborne Law Enforcement Associationβs.
βThe majority of our compliance issues werenβt with practical issues; in fact, we met or exceeded most of those,β said Timpf.
A total of 27 national and international law enforcement agencies have been assessed over the past four years, with an average compliance of 80 percent, putting TPDβs unit β with its score of 58 percent β in the lower quadrant, the audit said. Nine of the agencies scored between 90 and 100 percent.
βJOB ONEβ FOR NEW CHIEF
In his email, VillaseΓ±or said that while the unit was grounded, the Pima County Sheriffβs Department would provide air coverage during high-risk situations.
However, Sheriff Nanos wasnβt made aware of the grounding, or that his department would be providing coverage, prior to the memoβs release.
Nanos didnβt receive the memo; he learned about the decision when a member of his department asked him if theyβd be covering TPDβs regular patrols, or only in emergencies.
A week after the memo went out, VillaseΓ±or called Nanos to apologize for not talking to him.
βHe thought I already knew when he sent it,β Nanos said. βHe never intended for us to do their patrols, just respond to emergencies.β
Kozachik expressed serious concerns that the Sheriffβs Department wasnβt informed of the grounding or its responsibility to provide aerial coverage.
βIf the policy issues donβt represent a safety risk, as the department says, grounding the unit certainly does,β Kozachik said. βThis has to be job number one for Chief Magnus.β
Christopher Magnus, former police chief in Richmond, California, took over as Tucsonβs new chief on Jan. 1, following VillaseΓ±orβs retirement after 35 years on the force.
