Signal Hill City Council
October 11, 2022

Organizational Assessment of the
Police Department

SIGNAL HILL, CALIFORNIA
September 27, 2022
Attachment A
Table of Contents
Introduction and Executive Summary 1
Staffing Assessment
Introduction to the Staffing Assessment 6
Office of the Chief 6
Operations Division – Patrol Bureau 7
Operations Division – Detective Bureau 29
Administrative Division 53
Management Assessment
Introduction to the Management Assessment 62
Organizational Structure 63
Management and Leadership 70
Personnel Management 73
Training 74
Complaint Handling 76
Labor Relations 78
Considerations in Hiring the Next Chief 81
Attachment A – Descriptive Profile 83
Attachment B – Employee Survey Results 91
Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 1

1. Introduction and Executive Summary
The Matrix Consulting Group was retained by the City of Signal Hill to conduct a Police Department Organizational Assessment, and this final report provides the analysis and findings of that effort. Matrix Consulting Group, founded 20 years ago, has extensive experience with similar assessments for over 400 police departments across the country (as well as in Canada).

Many of these studies have been in California. Our firm has assisted police departments improve management, operations, and attaining 21st Century Policing goals.

1. Background and Scope of the Study
This study was commissioned early this year to provide an independent and objective assessment of the Police Department’s staffing and management needs. The scope of the study was comprehensive, with a focus on each function within the Signal Hill Police Department. The objectives of the study are as follows:
• Current operations and services for all functions within the Police Department, including analysis of workloads, service levels, staffing, scheduling, and deployment.
• Comparison of current services and service levels to identify areas of improvement needed to achieve efficiencies.
• Current staffing needs for all functions to handle law enforcement workloads in the city based on a factual assessment of all operations. • Management systems, examining training, personnel, policies, and general management in the Department.

In summary, this study is designed to ensure that the Signal Hill Police Department has appropriate and justifiable staffing levels and management systems.

2. Methodology Used to Conduct the Study
The project team utilized a number of approaches in order to fully understand the service environment and issues relevant to the study, including the following:
• Zoom and in person interviews with the leadership, other managers, and unit supervisors and many staff in the Police Department. We also met with the Signal Hill Police Officers’ Association.
• Data Collection across every service area in order to enable extensive and objective analysis.
• Iterative Process in which the project team first understood the current organization and service delivery system and then assessed current staffing Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 2
needs. Throughout the process we kept Police Department management and the City Manager’s office apprised of progress and findings.

The final report represents the culmination of this process, presenting the results of our analysis, including specific recommendations for the department on staffing, management, and other relevant issues.

3. Summary of Major Conclusions and Recommendations
This study came at a difficult time for the Police Department – it was a time for change in its structure and management personnel; it was commissioned as a result of an extended period lacking in internal cohesion. Under an interim chief and about to recruit a permanent one, the Department is holistically evaluating its approach to service and its organizational culture. This study was part of this comprehensive effort.

Through much of this year, the Matrix Consulting Group project team has met with staff to evaluate its work and management systems. This report is the culmination of these efforts. This final report provides analysis of work and management issues and makes many recommendations for change. Principal among these recommendations are the following:

Staffing Assessment
Operations Division – Patrol and Traffic
Staffing levels in patrol are adequate given workloads, the need for back up, and shift coverage.

Maintain current authorized staffing in Traffic of 2 full time officers and 1 auxiliary sergeant. Better define traffic unit priorities and ensure officers are focused on these.

Operations Division – Detective Bureau
The number of cases assigned to detectives is greater than would be expected. Many of the low level cases assigned to detectives should be handled by patrol officers. This would include active cases involving misdemeanor property crimes and non-felony assaults.

More effective case screening could reduce the number of assigned cases.

The currently vacant detective position should be filled as soon staffing allows for a total of 1 sergeant, 1 senior detective and 3 detectives assigned to investigations.

Transfer supervision the property room to the Support Services Manager.

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Train records cadet in property and evidence procedures for back up support for property room functions.

Conduct more audits of the property room both annually and on a spot audit basis.

Administration
Ensure that the Support Services Manager is the lead for department recruitment efforts and has the authority to lead, assign and address issues with sworn recruitment team.

Assign Training coordination to the Administrative Sergeant in the Administration Division.

Records
Complete officer training for the new RMS system to eliminate additional tasks performed by Records staff.

Assign compilation of Detective Case Packets for court to the Administrative Assistant assigned to the Investigations Bureau.

Dispatch and Jail
End the practice of the Dispatcher/Jailer conducting prisoner transports.

Evaluate the feasibility of contracting services for both the jail facility and dispatch center.

Initial contact should be made with the City of Long Beach for their interest in contracting both of these services.

Field Training
Minimize occurrences when Senior Police Officers train new police officers in field training while also performing the functions of the watch commander/first line supervisor.

Update Field Training Officer Program and learning methodologies in order to meet best practices.

Establish a field training program for newly promoted Sergeants.

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Management Assessment
Construct a department vision statement. This process should include the participation of community members and department employees.

Assign the Support Services Manager management responsibilities of the jail facility and dispatch center. Ensure the Support Services Manager has the authority to address administrative tasks and/or issues with sworn members directly.

Ensure consistent messaging exists between all department supervisors in relation to traffic officer and homeless liaison officer functions and daily tasks.

Sergeants and Senior Police Officers should receive training in jail and communications management.

Ensure that Senior Police Officers receive first line supervisor training in order to prepare them to perform watch commander and first line supervision functions.

Change the Senior Police Officer position from an assignment to a formalized rank with an accompanying promotional process.

Ensure that collateral administrative duties (e.g., fleet management, CPTED, volunteer services, intern program, explore program, citizen academy, and cadets) are as evenly divided as possible among all sworn and non-sworn supervisory staff.

Create a formal career development and leadership policy and plan within the Department.

Ensure that all employees tasked with conducting employee evaluations receive training.

This training should educate evaluators on proper methods and ensure evaluations are delivered fairly and consistently, in line with department values.

Create a departmental training committee comprised of a cross-section of employees.

Conduct a training needs assessment.

Maintain current annual training to a minimum of 40 hours per year inclusive of state mandated training.

The department should place an emphasis on identified shared goals in order to find common ground on which to build collaboration and trust moving forward. A labor / management committee should be created to achieve these goals. A focus of the labor / management committee should be to create a collaborative environment for work.

Management and labor should schedule regular meetings at least once a month in order to seek input from one another.

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Management and labor should agree that all future disagreements will be addressed in a private, professional setting in order to set a good example for the department, demonstrate professionalism to the community, and ensure the working relationship is not damaged.

In the City’s outreach and recruitment efforts for its permanent chief, the qualities identified by employees should be incorporated into the ‘ideal next police chief’ prospectus.

The labor / management committee needs to be involved with interviews of short-listed candidates for the Police Chief recruitment.

Greater detail for these recommendations can be found in the body of the report which follows.

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Staffing Assessment
In the following sections are provided the project team’s analysis of workloads and staffing in each departmental function.

1. Office of the Chief
The office of the Chief consists of the Chief (interim), one Captain, and one Management Assistant. The Chief provides overall direction, guidance, and leadership for the Police Department. The Chief has responsibility for every area of the organization and ensures that the Department meets its mission in accordance with the established values and has overall responsibility for budget management.
• The Signal Hill Chief of Police position is currently vacant and is being filled on a temporary basis by a retired chief from another agency. The Interim Chief provides overall executive leadership for the department as well as direct oversight of the captains responsible for the day to day operations. An active recruitment is underway for a new permanent chief.
• The captain oversees the operations of the two divisions, assumes command of department in chief’s absence, and assists chief as needed. The captain also oversees emergency preparedness, information technology, and building maintenance.
• The Management Assistant performs various administrative duties, handles purchase requests, schedules training for department employees, and community outreach.

For an agency the size and complexity of the Signal Hill Police Department, the top management organizational structure, which also includes a Lieutenant and a civilian Support Services Manager is sufficient to meet the needs for the agency. The recent civilianization of the mid management position over administration was a progressive move.

The management chapter of this report outlines key areas of change in department level and operations management that need to be addressed by the permanent chief in the next few years.

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2. Operations Division – Patrol Bureau
The Operations Division is led by a Lieutenant and is comprised of the Patrol Bureau and the Detective Bureau. Also contained within the Operations Division is the Traffic Unit/Parking Control, Property/Evidence, and the Task Force. Staff is comprised of a combination of sworn and non-sworn personnel.

1. Patrol Workload Analysis
The following sections provide analysis of patrol workload and other issues relating to the effectiveness of field services.
(1) CAD Analysis Methodology
Our project team has calculated the community-generated workload of the department by analyzing incident records in the computer aided dispatch (CAD) database, covering the entirety of calendar year 2021.

For incidents to be identified as community-generated calls for service and included in our analysis of patrol, each of the following conditions needed to be met:
• The incident must have been unique.
• The incident must have been first created in calendar year 2021. • The incident must have involved at least one officer assigned to patrol, as identified by the individual unit codes of each response to the call. • The incident type of the event must have sufficiently corresponded to a community-generated event. Call types that could be identified with a high level of certainty as being either self-initiated (e.g., traffic stops) or other kinds of activity generated by the department (e.g., directed patrol) are not counted as communitygenerated calls for service. • There must have been no major irregularities or issues with the data recorded for the incident that would prevent sufficient analysis, such as having no unit code or lack of any time stamps.

After filtering through the data using the methodology outlined above, the remaining incidents represent the community-generated calls for service handled by SHPD patrol units.

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(2) Calls for Service by Hour and Weekday
The following table displays the total number of calls for service handled by patrol units by each hour and day of the week:

Calls for Service by Hour and Weekday
Hour Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Total
12a 43 29 28 25 31 33 42 231
1am 37 25 30 22 31 32 40 217
2am 49 19 21 26 17 29 37 198
3am 18 18 18 17 18 23 30 142
4am 17 18 17 29 14 21 19 135
5am 17 24 13 7 18 16 11 106
6am 9 29 16 18 31 21 19 143
7am 19 35 43 38 43 30 27 235
8am 24 24 41 50 39 44 37 259
9am 32 40 46 41 50 46 29 284
10am 27 39 46 56 54 42 33 297
11am 28 33 49 49 47 61 30 297
12pm 46 41 62 41 49 64 42 345
1pm 38 41 49 60 64 47 45 344
2pm 35 47 55 53 43 52 33 318
3pm 40 49 60 78 36 61 37 361
4pm 43 60 46 49 74 51 45 368
5pm 68 61 70 61 40 72 42 414
6pm 68 77 73 80 52 71 55 476
7pm 58 59 59 60 67 53 61 417
8pm 54 59 57 57 48 68 59 402
9pm 55 55 52 42 63 67 53 387
10pm 59 60 50 62 65 84 77 457
11pm 46 35 33 46 44 41 63 308
Total 930 977 1,034 1,067 1,038 1,129 966 7,141
Call for Service Activity by Hour
Calls for service follow a traditional pattern in Signal Hill in the experience of project staff, as there is an increase of calls for service in the early evening hours, as a majority of 12a 4a 8a 12p 4p 8p
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citizens will be returning home from work and throughout the community socializing. The lowest count of calls for service are in the early morning hours, as to be expected while a majority of citizens will be in their homes sleeping. The hour block with the lowest calls for service is from 0500 – 0600 with the highest count of calls for service is from 1800 – 1900 hours.
(3) Calls for Service by Month
The following table displays calls for service totals by month, showing seasonal variation as a percentage difference from the seasonal (quarterly) average. These seasonal variations in calls for service are calculated by taking the total calls for service for the season of interest divided by the average calls for service of all seasons. This quotient is then subtracted from 1 and multiplied by negative 100. This equation gives you the directional difference in calls for service by quarter1.

The resulting table of seasonal variation is provided below:

Calls for Service by Month
Month # of CFS Seasonal +/-
Jan 597
Feb 555 -3.1%
Mar 578
Apr 608
May 560 +1.1%
Jun 637
Jul 618
Aug 557 -3.9%
Sep 540
Oct 638
Nov 630 +5.9%
Dec 623
Total 7,141
1 The equation is provided below, where Q is the quarter of interest’s calls for service total and A is the average quarterly calls for service total:
!1 − $
𝑄
𝐴'( ∗ (−100)
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As primarily a residential community, seasonality in call activity in Signal Hill does not vary greatly.
(4) Most Common Types of Calls for Service
The following table provides the ten most common incident categories of calls for service handled by patrol units over the last year, as well as the average call handling time (HT)2 for each:

Most Common Call for Service Categories
Incident Type # CFS HT 12a 4a 8a 12p 4p 8p
SUSP. TRANS. 524 24.0
AUD. BURG ALARM 503 12.3
SUSP. PERSON 454 21.3
MISC DIST. 375 23.5
ASSIST CITIZEN 372 32.4
PETTY THEFT 343 35.9
PETTY THEFT REP. 210 46.8
CHECK WELL BEING 202 27.0
PARK. VIOLATION 200 21.1
SUSP. VEHICLE 156 22.3
All Other Types 3,802 38.5
Total 7,141 32.3
The increased calls for service between the hours of 4:00 pm and 8:00 pm that have been shown in previous sections seem to be indicative of an increase in calls for petty theft (and petty theft reporting), suspicious persons, citizen assists, well-being checks, and parking violations. This is to be expected, as these hours are when community members 2 Handling time is defined as the total time in which a patrol unit was assigned to an incident. It is calculated as the difference between the recorded time stamps the unit being dispatched and cleared from the incident.

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are expected to be returning to their place of residence after traditional American working hours.

2. Analysis of Patrol Resource Needs
Analysis of the community-generated workload handled by patrol units is at the core of analyzing field staffing needs. Developing an understanding of where, when, and what types of calls are received provides a detailed account of the service needs of the community, and by measuring the time used in responding and handling these calls, the staffing requirements for meeting the community’s service needs can then be determined.

To provide a high level of service, it is not enough for patrol units to function as call responders. Instead, officers must have sufficient time outside of community-driven workload to proactively address public safety issues, conduct problem-oriented policing, and perform other self-directed engagement activities within the service environment. As a result, patrol staffing needs are calculated not only from a standpoint of the capacity of current resources to handle workloads, but also their ability to provide a certain level of service beyond responding to calls.

With this focus in mind, the following sections examine process used by the project team to determine the patrol resource needs of the Signal Hill Police Department based on current workloads, staff availability, and service level objectives. (1) Overview of the Resource Needs Analysis
An objective and accurate assessment of patrol staffing requires analysis of the following three factors:
i. The number of community-generated workload hours handled by patrol. ii. The total number of hours that patrol is on-duty and able to handle those workloads, based on current staffing numbers and net availability factors (e.g., leave, administrative time, etc.).
iii. The remaining amount of time that patrol has to be proactive, which can also be referred to as “uncommitted” time.

This study defines the result of this process as, patrol proactivity, or the percentage of patrol officers’ time in which they are available and on-duty that is not spent responding to community-generated calls for service. This calculation can also be expressed visually as an equation:

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Total Net Available Hours – Total CFS Workload Hours
Total Net Available Hours
= % Proactivity
The result of this equation is the overall level of proactivity in patrol, which in turn provides a model for the ability of patrol units to be proactive given current resources and community-generated workloads. There are some qualifications to this, which include the following:
• Optimal proactivity levels are a generalized target, and a single percentage should be applied to every agency. The actual needs of an individual department vary based on a number of factors, including:
– Other resources the department has to proactively engage with the community and address issues, such as a dedicated proactive unit. – Community expectations and ability to support a certain level of service. – Whether fluctuations in the workload levels throughout the day require additional or fewer resources to be staffed to provide adequate coverage. • Sufficient proactivity at an overall level does not guarantee, based on workload patterns, and deployment schedules, that resources are sufficient throughout all times of the day and week.

Overall, based upon the experience of project staff at MCG, a department the size of Signal Hill PD should target an overall proactivity rate around 40%. This should serve as an adequate proportion of addressing calls for service while balancing a presence in the community as a public service entity.
(2) Patrol Unit Staffing and Net Availability
The Signal Hill Police Department follows a 12.5-hour shift configuration that assigns personnel to 4 patrol teams (2 teams per day and night shifts) on a fixed basis with staggered workdays. The following table outlines this schedule, showing the number of positions that are assigned to each shift team (including those on long-term and injury leave, but excluding vacancies):

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Patrol Shift Configuration (Current Staffing Levels)3
Week 1
Shift Team Hours Start End S M T W Th F Sa
Days Team 1 12.5 0530 1800 X X X X
Team 2 12.5 0530 1800 X X X X
Nights Team 1 12.5 1730 0600 X X X X
Team 2 12.5 1730 0600 X X X X
While the table provides the scheduled staffing levels, it does not reflect the patrol personnel that are actually on-duty and available at any given time. Out of the 2,184 hours per year that each officer is scheduled to work in a year (excluding overtime), a large percentage is not actually spent on-duty and available in the field.

As a result, it is critical to understand the amount of time that officers are on leave – including vacation, sick, injury, military, or any other type of leave – as well as any hours dedicated to on-duty court or training time, and all time spent on administrative tasks such as attending shift briefings. The impact of each of these factors is determined through a combination of calculations made from SHPD data and estimates based on the experience of the project team, which are then subtracted from the base number of annual work hours per position. The result represents the total net available hours of patrol officers, or the time in which they are on-duty and available to complete workloads and other activities in the field.

The table below outlines the calculation process in detail, outlining how each contributing factor is calculated:

Factors Used to Calculate Patrol Net Availability
Work Hours Per Year
The total number of scheduled work hours for patrol officers, without factoring in leave, training, or anything else that takes officers away from normal on-duty work. This factor forms the base number from which other availability factors are subtracted from.

Base number: 2,184 scheduled work hours per year
3 Figures displayed in the table also include those in injury and long-term leave, but exclude permanent vacancies in which the position slot is actually open.

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Total Leave Hours (subtracted from total work hours per year) Includes all types of leave, as well as injuries and military leave – anything that would cause officers that are normally scheduled to work on a specific day to instead not be on duty. As a result, this category excludes on-duty training, administrative time, and on-duty court time.

Calculated from SHPD data: 242 hours of leave per year
On-Duty Court Time (subtracted from total work hours per year) The total number of hours that each officer spends per year attending court while on duty, including transit time. Court attendance while on overtime is not included in the figure.

Without any data recording on-duty court time specifically for patrol officers, the number of hours is estimated based on the experience of the project team.

Estimated: 20 hours of on-duty court time per year
On-Duty Training Time (subtracted from total work hours per year) The total number of hours spent per year in training that are completed while on-duty and not on overtime.

Without any data recording on-duty training time hours specifically for patrol officers, the number of hours is estimated based on the experience of the project team.

Estimated: 60 hours of on-duty training time per year
Administrative Time (subtracted from total work hours per year) The total number of hours per year spent completing administrative tasks while on-duty, including briefing, meal breaks, and various other activities.

The number is calculated as an estimate by multiplying 90 minutes of time per shift times the number of shifts actually worked by officers in a year after factoring out the shifts that are not worked as a result of leave being taken.

Estimated: 233 hours of administrative time per year
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Total Net Available Hours
After subtracting the previous factors from the total work hours per year, the remaining hours comprise the total net available hours for officers – the time in which they are available to work after accounting for all leave, on-duty training, court, and administrative time. Net availability can also be expressed as a percentage of the base number of work hours per year.

Calculated by subtracting the previously listed factors from the base number:
1,629 net available hours per officer
The following table summarizes this calculation process, displaying how each net availability factor contributes to the overall net availability of patrol officers:

Calculation of Patrol Unit Net Availability
Base Annual Work Hours 2,184
Total Leave Hours − 242
On-Duty Training Hours − 60
On-Duty Court Time Hours − 20
Administrative Hours − 233
Net Available Hours Per Officer = 1,629
Number of Officer Positions × 16
Total Net Available Hours = 26,063
Overall, the 16 officer positions combine for a total of 26,063 net available hours per year, representing the time in which they are on duty and able to respond to communitygenerated incidents and be proactive. (3) Overview of Call for Service Workload Factors
The previous chapter of the report examined various trends in patrol workload, including variations by time of day and of week, common incident types, as well as a number of other methods. This section advances this analysis, detailing the full extent of the resource demands that these incidents create for responding patrol personnel.

Each call for service represents a certain amount of workload, much of which is not captured within the handling time of the primary unit. Some of these factors can be calculated directly from data provided by the department, while others must be estimated due to limitations in their measurability.

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The following table outlines the factors that must be considered in order to capture the full scope of community-generated workload, and provides an explanation of the process used to calculate each factor:

Factors Used to Calculate Total Patrol Workload
Number of Community-Generated Calls for Service
Data obtained from an export of CAD data covering a period of an entire year that has been analyzed and filtered in order to determine the number and characteristics of all communitygenerated activity handled by patrol officers.

The calculation process used to develop this number has been summarized in previous sections.

Calculated from SHPD data: 7,141 community-generated calls for service Primary Unit Handling Time
The time used by the primary unit to handle a community-generated call for service, including time spent traveling to the scene of the incident and the duration of on-scene time. For each incident, this number is calculated as the difference between ‘call cleared’ time stamp and the ‘unit dispatched’ time stamp.

In the experience of the project team, the average handling time is typically between 30 and 42 minutes in agencies where time spent writing reports and transporting/booking prisoners is not included within the recorded CAD data time stamps.

The resulting SHPD average handling time of 32.3 minutes falls within the expected range in the experience of MCG project staff.

Calculated from SHPD data: 32.3 minutes of handling time per call for service Number of Backup Unit Responses
The total number of backup unit responses to community-generated calls for service. This number often varies based on the severity of the call, as well as the geographical density of the area being served.

This number can also be expressed as the rate of backup unit responses to calls for service and is inclusive of any additional backup units beyond the first.

Calculated from SHPD data: 0.54 backup units per call for service Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 17
Backup Unit Handling Time (multiplied by the rate)
The handling time for backup units responding to calls for service is calculated using the same process that was used for primary calls, representing the time from the unit being dispatched to the unit clearing the call.

Backup unit handling time was calculated using SHPD data from 2021, as timestamps for all utilized units per call were present in the database provided to project staff. In the experience of the project staff, the backup unit handling time is sometimes higher than that of the primary unit, as those calls garnering backup units tend to be more severe. In this case, the average backup unit handline time was less than that of the primary unit handling time at 23.4 minutes of handling time per backup unit.

Calculated from SHPD data: 23.4 minutes of handling time per backup unit Number of Reports Written
The total number of reports and other assignments relating to calls for service that have been completed by patrol units, estimated at one report written for every three calls for service. This includes any supporting work completed by backup units.

In this case, the number has been estimated based on the experience of the project team.

Estimated: 0.33 reports written per call for service
Report Writing Time (multiplied by the report writing rate) The average amount of time it takes to complete a report or other assignment in relation to a call for service. Without any data detailing this specifically, report writing time must be estimated based on the experience of the project team. It is assumed that 45.0 minutes are spent per written report, including the time spent by backup units.

Estimated: 45 minutes per report
Total Workload Per Call for Service
The total time involved in handling a community-generated call for service, including the factors calculated for primary and backup unit handling time, reporting writing time, and jail transport/booking time.

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The product of multiplying this value by the calls for service total at each hour and day of the week is the number of hours of community-generated workload handled by patrol units – equating to approximately 7,134 total hours in 2021.

Calculated from previously listed factors: 59.9 total minutes of workload per call for service Each of the factors summarized in this section contribute to the overall picture of patrol workload – the total number of hours required for patrol units to handle communitygenerated calls for service, including primary and backup unit handling times, and report writing time. These factors are summarized in the following table:

Summary of CFS Workload Factors
Total Calls for Service 7,141 54% Avg. Primary Unit Handling Time 32.3 min.

Backup Units Per CFS 0.54 21% Avg. Backup Unit Handling Time 23.4 min.

Reports Written Per CFS 0.33 25% Time Per Report 45.0 min.

Avg. Workload Per Call 59.9 min.

Total Workload 7,134 hrs.

The Total Calls for Service workload percentage is calculated by taking the Average Primary Unit Handling Time (32.3 min.) and dividing by the Average Workload Per Call (59.9 min.). This calculation is not qualified by a rate as the following two calculations are, as this calculation utilizes the total CFS count for Signal Hill patrol officers in 2021.

This calculation results in 53.9, indicating that Primary Unit CFS Handling accounts for 54% of SHPD patrol officer’s workload.

The Backup Units Per CFS workload percentage is calculated by taking the Average Backup Unit Handling Time (23.4 min.) divided by the Average Workload Per Call (59.9 min.), multiplied by the Backup Units Per CFS (0.54). The resulting value of 21.1 indicates that 21% of SHPD patrol officer’s workload is dedicated to responding as a backup unit.

Finally, the Reports Written Per CFS workload percentage is calculated by taking the Time Per Report (45.0 min.) divided by the Average Workload Per Call (59.9 min.) and multiplying by the Reports Written Per CFS (0.33). This calculation results in a value of

24.7, indicating that 25% of SHPD patrol officer’s workload is dedicated to report writing responsibilities.

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Overall, each call represents an average workload of 59.9 minutes, including all time spent by the primary unit handling the call, the time spent by any backup units attached to the call, as well as any reports or other assignments completed in relation to the incident. These percentages then total 100% in an attempt to portray a workload percentage for each of these three main patrol functions. (4) Calculation of Overall Patrol Proactivity
Using the results of the analysis of both patrol workloads and staff availability, it is now possible to determine the remaining time in which patrol units can function proactively.

The result can then function as a barometer from which to gauge the capacity of current resources to handle call workload demands, given objectives for meeting a certain service level.

The following table shows the calculation process used by the project team to determine overall proactivity levels, representing the percentage of time that patrol officers have available outside of handling community-generated workloads:

Calculation of Overall Patrol Proactivity
Total Patrol Net Available Hours 26,063
Total Patrol Workload Hours – 7,134
Resulting # of Uncommitted Hours = 18,929
Divided by Total Net Available Hours ÷ 26,063
Overall Proactive Time Level = 72.6%
The following chart shows this analysis at a more detailed level, providing proactivity levels in four-hour blocks throughout the week:

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Proactivity by Hour and Weekday
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Overall
2am–6am 79% 93% 80% 86% 86% 87% 84% 87%
6am–10am 94% 70% 70% 71% 66% 75% 78% 77%
10am–2pm 90% 69% 64% 61% 56% 65% 69% 70%
2pm–6pm 86% 67% 63% 60% 68% 54% 72% 70%
6pm–10pm 74% 52% 49% 50% 61% 50% 60% 59%
10pm–2am 73% 79% 73% 74% 68% 69% 58% 72%
Overall 84% 76% 67% 68% 68% 67% 71% 73%
At 73% proactivity, there is an extraordinary amount of time for SHPD patrol officers to proactively engage with the community. As shown in the chart above, this trend of increased levels of proactivity available for patrol officers is present throughout the day, and across all 7 days of the week. While this level is higher than targeted levels of 40% this has to do with the size and mostly residential nature of the community.

3. Patrol Staffing Required for Service Level Objectives To determine staffing needs, it is also important to consider the number of vacancies that currently exist, as well as the rate of turnover. An agency will never be fully staffed, as there will always be vacancies occurring as a result of retirement, termination, and other factors. When these events occur, it takes a significant amount of time to recruit a new position, complete the hiring process, run an academy, and complete the FTO program before the individual becomes an on-duty officer. Given this consideration, agencies must always hire above the number needed to provide a targeted level of service.

The amount of ‘buffer’ that an agency requires should be based on the historical rate of attrition within patrol. Attrition can take many forms – if it is assumed that the majority of vacancies are carried in patrol staffing, a vacancy at the officer level in any other area of the organization would consequently remove one officer from regular patrol duties.

Likewise, promotions would have the same effect, in that they create an open position slot in patrol. Not included, however, are positions that become vacant while the individual is still in the academy or FTO program, and they are not counted in our analysis as being part of ‘actual’ patrol staffing.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 21
Given these considerations, an additional 12% authorized (budgeted) positions should be added on top of the actual number currently filled (actual) positions in order to account for turnover while maintaining the ability to meet the targeted proactivity level.

The resulting figure can then be rounded to the nearest whole number, assuming that positions cannot be added fractionally. It is worth noting that the number of officers needed without turnover is fractional, as it is an intermediate step in the calculation process.

These calculations are shown in the following table:

Calculation of Patrol Unit Staffing Needs
Total Workload Hours 7,134
Proactivity Target 40%
Staffed Hours Needed4 = 11,889 ((
Net Available Hours Per
Officer ÷ 1,629
Turnover Factor + 12%
Patrol Officer FTEs Needed = 9
Shown above, SHPD should target a patrol staffing of 9 officers to provide an adequate service level to their community, while having the capability of responding to calls for service. These nine officers will be able to provide a more than adequate level of service to the Signal Hill community, as outlined by the following table:
4 Staffed Hours Needed is calculated by the following formula:

𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑑 𝐻𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠 𝑁𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑒𝑑 = 𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑 𝐻𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠 ∗ 4 1
1 − 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑇𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑡=
This formula captures the hours needed to handle the total patrol workload accounted for in CAD data (7,134 hours) and calls on it to the represent the staffed hours (not proactive hours) of patrol shifts not targeted to be dedicated to proactive time (in this case, 60%).

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 22
Calculation of Overall Patrol Proactivity
Total Patrol Net Available Hours 14,719
Total Patrol Workload Hours – 7,134
Resulting # of Uncommitted Hours = 7,585
Divided by Total Net Available
Hours
÷ 14,719
Overall Proactive Time Level = 51.5%
The overall proactive time level shown in the table above in inflated due to the increased percentage of turnover among patrol ranks at SHPD (12%). The following table also provides an outline of how these 9 patrol units, under the proper utilization, can still handle the patrol workload of SHPD patrol units while provide adequate service level initiatives throughout a large majority of patrol shifts:

Proactivity by Hour and Weekday
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Overall
2am–6am 72% 81% 73% 82% 90% 81% 79% 81%
6am–10am 76% 43% 43% 72% 34% 53% 57% 56%
10am–2pm 60% 41% 31% 62% 16% 34% 40% 43%
2pm–6pm 38% 30% 20% 58% 32% 1% 39% 35%
6pm–10pm 32% 39% 35% 68% 50% 37% 49% 47%
10pm–2am 54% 67% 66% 79% 66% 60% 46% 65%
Overall 55% 52% 47% 70% 61% 47% 53% 52%
While total proactive time may fall below the targeted 40% level established in this model, there is never a lack of staffing (indicated by a negative percentage) at any time – indicating that 9 patrol officers is sufficient to handle service level objectives in Signal Hill.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 23

4. Self-Initiated Activity
The analysis to this point has focused exclusively on the reactive portion of patrol workload, consisting of community-generated calls for service and related work. In the remaining available time, which is referred to in this report as proactive time, officers are able to proactively address public safety issues through targeted enforcement, saturation patrol, community engagement, problem-oriented policing projects, and other activity.

Equally critical to the question of how much proactive time is available is how and whether it is used in this manner.

There are some limitations on how the use of proactive time is measured. Not all proactive policing efforts are tracked in CAD data, such as some informal area checks, miscellaneous field contacts, and other types of activity. However, many categories of officer-initiated activity are nonetheless recorded, such as traffic stops.

Nonetheless, CAD data does provide for a significant portion of officer-initiated activity to be analyzed to examined for how utilized uncommitted time is for proactive policing. (1) Self-Initiated Activity by Hour and Weekday
Self-initiated activity displays different hourly trends compared to community-generated calls for service, as illustrated in the following table:

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 24
Self-Initiated Activity by Hour and Weekday
Hour Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Total
12am 104 112 65 78 46 153 155 713
1am 97 109 94 94 75 162 134 765
2am 92 105 132 113 105 179 115 841
3am 73 82 97 92 65 87 84 580
4am 57 49 92 68 64 65 53 448
5am 19 7 14 3 5 9 11 68
6am 12 11 13 10 12 11 4 73
7am 3 11 37 22 25 25 9 132
8am 12 22 60 54 43 46 22 259
9am 15 21 44 50 62 44 25 261
10am 15 23 56 49 54 54 17 268
11am 18 9 44 42 50 40 13 216
12pm 13 14 33 56 45 27 18 206
1pm 15 20 42 57 45 40 19 238
2pm 20 25 39 44 39 39 21 227
3pm 17 20 33 37 27 25 20 179
4pm 8 10 36 19 31 15 16 135
5pm 8 6 5 6 11 16 13 65
6pm 110 106 113 82 185 200 138 934
7pm 152 103 112 102 176 191 146 982
8pm 100 102 112 79 150 171 112 826
9pm 113 63 87 70 157 113 105 708
10pm 86 76 80 68 161 131 113 715
11pm 92 55 58 44 129 167 112 657
Total 1,251 1,161 1,498 1,339 1,762 2,010 1,475 10,496
At over 10,000 activities, officer-initiated workloads exceed the number of community generated calls for service by almost 50%. This is a much higher level of use of proactive time than the consulting team has typically seen in other, even other small, agencies.

Self-initiated activity trends differ markedly from call for service trends in that incidents are largely concentrated on the night shift teams, most notably on Sunday, Thursday, and Friday evenings (and into the subsequent mornings).

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 25
(2) Self-Initiated Activity by Category
Unlike community-generated calls for service, self-initiated activity is typically more concentrated over a few call types:

Most Common Categories of Self-Initiated Activity
Incident Type # CFS HT 12a 4a 8a 12p 4p 8p
TRAFFIC STOP 4,024 11.0
DISTR. CAR CHECK 3,097 5.2
NO DESCR. 826 11.1
PARKING VIOL. 559 7.3
SUSP. TRANS. 400 17.0
INVESTIGATION 277 13.4
SUBJECT STOP 226 14.7
FOLLOW UP 169 20.5
BUSINESS CHECK 118 13.0
SUSP. VEHICLE 118 12.2
All Other Types 682 28.0
Total 10,496 10.8
Self-initiated activity categories are largely separated across day- and night-time shifts.

Day shift personnel initiate suspicious transient persons, investigations, and business checks, while night shift personnel initiate traffic stops, district car checks, parking violations, subject stops, and follow ups.

5. Findings and Recommendations
The points, below, provide the findings and recommendations of the project team as that relates to patrol.
• SHPD patrol units responded to a total of 7,141 calls for service in calendar year 2021, less than 1 incident per hour citywide.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 26
• As a result, patrol proactivity levels in 2021 were 73% of total time available. No hour of the day or week is deficient in proactive capabilities. • Field activity initiated by patrol officers, however, total over 10,000 incidents indicating that proactive time is highly utilized by patrol officers. • Staffing levels in patrol are adequate given workloads, the needs for back up, and shift coverage.
• Moreover, in a very small department like Signal Hill, patrol officers are supplemented by the presence and utilization of patrol sergeants as well as traffic units.

6. Traffic Unit
The traffic unit is located within the operations division. Unit responsibilities include commercial and traffic enforcement, administering grants received from the Office of Traffic Safety, DUI checkpoints, and special projects.
(1) Staffing and Roles
Currently, one sergeant is assigned to the traffic unit as an auxiliary assignment. The sergeant’s primary role is a patrol sergeant/watch commander. The sergeant assigns hit and run accident investigations, as well as other traffic related investigative follow-up to the two traffic officers. The sergeant reviews and approves all department collision investigation reports and reviews contested parking citations. Due to the current scheduling configuration, the sergeant only interacts with one traffic officer on a regular basis.

Two officers are assigned to the traffic unit on a full-time basis. Duties include investigating traffic collisions, investigative follow-up, and responding to traffic or parking complaints. While on shift, officers report to the on-duty patrol sergeant/watch commander. Each officer is assigned to a specific patrol team and works the same schedule as the patrol officers. Both officers work 5:30am – 6pm; one officer is assigned Sunday through Wednesday and the other officer is assigned Thursday through Sunday.

While not on shift, officers are in an on-call status in order to respond to fatal and serious injury collisions.
(2) Workload and Ability to Meet Unit Objectives
In order to determine traffic unit workload, all calls for service initiated through Signal Hill’s Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system were analyzed; and a clear distinction between both traffic related work and non-traffic related work was established. In 2021, Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 27
the traffic unit completed a total of 1,690 calls for service (not including self-initiated activity). This total includes both traffic related and non-traffic related calls for service.

The below chart depicts the total number of traffic only related calls for service completed by the traffic unit, and average handling time in 2021:
2021 Traffic Related Calls For Service Completed
Incident Type Total Avg. Handling Time
Parking Violation Complaint 135 25.49
Non Injury Traffic Collision 90 31.02
Traffic Hazzard 54 17.92
Injury Traffic Collision 53 53.43
Non Injury Hit and Run Report 53 45.92
Non injury Hit and Run 24 55.76
Reckless Driving 10 25.48
Municipal Code Violation 9 38.86
Injury Hit and Run Report 4 42.12
Injury Hit and Run 3 85.18
Injury Traffic Collision-city Property 3 71.52
Non Injury Traffic Collision-city Property 3 25.3
Lines Down 2 5.53
Drunk Driving/DUI 2 15.45
Injury Traffic Collision Report 1 172.06
Throwing Objects at a Moving Vehicle 1 7.92
Motorcycle Disturbance 1 1.6
Non Injury Traffic Collision Report 1 36.67
Total 449
In 2021, 27% of the calls for service handled by traffic unit officers were traffic related. 73% of calls for service handled were other than traffic related. Traffic unit officers spent a large majority of time completing calls for service not related to the traffic function.

In order to establish a complete understanding of an officer’s workload, self-initiated activity must also be considered. The chart below depicts the traffic unit’s total number of traffic stops completed in 2021:

Incident Type # CFS HT 12a 4a 8a 12p 4p 8p
TRAFFIC STOP 702 10.1
Total 702 10.1
A total of 702 traffic stops were completed in 2021. The average handling time for each stop was 10.1 minutes each. The base number of workdays in an officer’s year is 208 (not including leave time, training, or anything else which will take an officer away from Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 28
normal on-duty work). Using the above base workday total, the traffic unit completed an average total of 1.6 traffic stops each workday.

The chart below depicts the total number of self-initiated activity completed by the traffic unit in 2021 (not including traffic stops):

Traffic Unit – Other Incidents
Incident Type # CFS HT 12a 4a 8a 12p 4p 8p
DISTRICT CAR CHECK 202 16.7

PARKING VIOL
COMPLAINT 98 15.2
FOLLOW UP 84 26.3
INVESTIGATION 30 12.4
TRAFFIC HAZARD 27 13.2
STATION DETAIL 21 48.2
ASSIST CITIZEN 14 10.7
UNKNOWN 13 49.9
SUSPICIOUS TRANSIENTS 12 20.9

PUBLIC SERVICE
REQUEST 11 0.6
All Other Types 82 30.9
Total 594 20.9
A total of 594 self-initiated calls for service were completed in 2021. The average handling time of each incident was 20.9 minutes.

As previously discussed in the patrol proactivity section, patrol officers have an extremely high amount of time to proactively engage with the community. Patrol officers also have an adequate number of personnel in order to complete the current calls for service workload and maintain this adequate amount of time to proactively engage with the community.

However, only 27% of the traffic unit’s workload in 2021 was traffic related. On average, traffic officers conducted 1.6 traffic stops each day in 2021. Traffic unit offices are also assigned vehicle collision investigative follow-up. This analysis does not account for this Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 29
investigative follow-up time due to not being tracked by the department. The traffic unit should have more focus on traffic related functions and proactive community engagement.

This proactive engagement should be aligned with a comprehensive traffic safety plan aimed at reducing vehicle collisions, traffic related community complaints, and parking violations. A comprehensive traffic safety plan should incorporate both community and government entities in the planning and construction process. A traffic safety plan should include both enforcement and non-enforcement strategies.

The department should also ensure that the traffic unit sergeant and officers’ schedules are concurrent in order to achieve service continuity.
(3) Findings and Recommendations
Findings arising from this assessment and staffing and operational recommendations include the following:
• Maintain current authorized staffing of 2 full time officers and 1 auxiliary sergeant. • In 2021, only 27% of calls for service completed by the traffic unit were traffic related. Officers conducted 1.6 traffic stops each day. Clearly define traffic unit priorities and ensure officers are focused on these priorities. • Determine locations with high numbers of vehicle collisions, traffic complaints, and parking complaints in order to develop a long-term strategic reduction strategy.
• Align traffic sergeant and officer schedules in order to ensure service continuity. • Develop a comprehensive community traffic safety plan. • Develop a tracking mechanism in order to track traffic collision investigative work and investigative time to complete by officers.

4. Operations Division – Detective Bureau
The Detective Bureau consists of 1 Sergeant, 1 Senior Detective, 2 Detectives (1 open detective position) and 1 Administrative Assistant. The Investigations Bureau is led by a sergeant who is supported by the Administrative Assistant. The Sergeant has functional responsibilities for the property/evidence room. One Detective is assigned property crimes, one Detective is assigned Fraud Crimes, and one Detective is assigned Crimes Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 30
against Persons. The Property Crimes Detective also has sex offender notification duties.

The senior detective is assigned cases and supervises detectives in Sergeant’s absence.

The Administrative Assistant performs routine clerical work and has basic property/evidence room duties.

1. Investigations Workload Analysis
In reviewing investigative units, it is important to understand the amount of reported crime as this directly impacts potential caseloads. Most agencies report their crime statistics to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for purposes of tracking crime nationally. There are two types of crimes reported to the FBI Part 1 and Part 2. Part 1 are the most serious types of violent and property crime. Part 1 crimes include: Homicide, Rape, Robbery, Aggravated Assault, Burglary, Larceny-Theft, Motor Vehicle Theft and Arson. Part 2 crimes include: Simple Assault, Forgery, Fraud, Vandalism Weapons Possession, Prostitution, D.U.I., etc.

The following table shows the UCR reported Part 1 crime for the last 5 years. 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Violent Crime 68 63 86 94 94
Criminal Homicide 0 1 0 0 0
Rape 9 5 10 0 5
Robbery 28 34 37 27 24
Aggravated Assault 31 23 39 67 65
Property Crime 858 751 694 681 742
Burglary 103 93 107 110 103
Larceny-Theft 640 521 471 491 502
Motor Vehicle Theft 113 135 112 77 133
Arson 2 2 4 3 4
Violent Crime +38%
Property Crime -14%
As can be seen by the preceding chart, reported violent crime is up 38% over the last 5 years while property crime is down 14% during the same period. The following chart displays the same information graphically:

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 31
As the chart demonstrates reported violent has increased while property crime has decreased over the last five years.

2. Caseload Data
To conduct an analysis of investigative workloads the 2020 caseload data was used because it tended to be higher than 2019 caseloads.

SHPD provided the project team with a spreadsheet from their RMS database that is used for tracking investigative caseloads for 2020. The following table summarizes the 2020 investigative caseload.
2020 Investigative Caseload
Case Type #
Domestic Violence 21
Fraud 71
General Crimes 584
Person Crimes 93
Property Crime 517
Sex Assault / Abuse 109
Total 1,395

3. Detective Case Management
The reported 1,395 caseload is much larger than would be expected from a city the size of Signal Hill. In our experience in conducting over 400 law enforcement studies this is 68 63 86 94 94
858
751
694 681
742
0 200
400
600
800
1000
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Reported Part 1 Crimes
Violent Crime Property crime
Linear (Violent Crime) Linear (Property crime)
Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 32
the largest caseload total per population. Reported caseloads in Signal Hill are extraordinarily high relative to other agencies especially considering reported Part 1 crimes which as noted in a proceeding section include 94 reported violent crimes and 742 property crimes.

Cases should be assigned using solvability factors which reduce the caseloads assigned to detectives based on solvability and other factors. Many crimes reported to police are not solvable due to lack of evidence or lack victim or witness cooperation. Based on numerous other studies Signal Hill should have expected case assignment rate of approximately 70% for Part 1 violent crimes and 30% for Part 1 property crimes. The expected caseloads for Part 1 crimes is approximately 288 as shown in the following table
2020 Part 1 Cases # Reported
Expected
percent
Assigned Total
Violent Crime 94 70 65.8
Property Crimes 742 30 222.6
Total/Average 836 N/A 288.4
As the table indicates Signal Hill investigations should be assigning approximately 288 Part 1 cases. Though detectives investigate more than Part 1 crimes, this would likely significantly reduce the assigned caseload. When reviewing the 2020 detective caseloads it was noted that the majority of cases assigned to detectives are lower level crimes that could be investigated by patrol especially given their 73% proactivity level. During the course of interviews it was noted that is customary for officers to complete the report on call for service, but not necessarily to conduct much follow up, even on simple cases.

This creates a substantial caseload for detectives with cases that do not require detective resources. To conduct the caseload analysis we used the expected caseloads.

4. Calculation of Detective Net Availability
Before determining availability and staffing needs, it is important to first review the number of net available hours detectives are available to conduct investigations. To conduct this analysis, it is critical to understand the amount of time that detectives are on leave – including vacation, sick, injury, military or any other type of leave – as well as hours dedicated to on-duty court or training time, and time spent on administrative tasks.

The impact of each of these factors is determined through a combination of calculations made from SHPD data and estimates based on the experience of the project team, which are then subtracted from the base number of annual work hours per position. The result represents the total net available hours of detectives and other positions, or the time in Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 33
which they are on-duty and available to complete workloads and other activities in the field.

Net availability for detectives is different from patrol, in part because of court and administrative responsibilities. Workloads such as case plans, search warrant execution, and so forth that do not fit directly into case investigative hours are included within an estimated administrative time figure. The table below outlines this process in detail, outlining how each contributing factor is calculated:

Factors Used to Calculate Detective Net Availability
Work Hours Per Year
The total number of scheduled work hours for detectives, without factoring in leave, training or anything else that takes detectives away from normal on-duty work. This factor forms the base number from which other availability factors are subtracted from.

Base number: 2,080 scheduled work hours per year
Total Leave Hours (subtracted from total work hours per year) Includes all types of leave, including injuries and military leave, FMLA – anything that would cause detectives that are normally scheduled to work on a specific day to instead not be on duty. As a result, this category excludes on-duty training, administrative time, and on-duty court time.

From SHPD Data: 242 hours of leave per year
On-Duty Training Time (subtracted from total work hours per year) The average total number of hours spent per year in training that are completed while on-duty and not on overtime.

From SHPD Data: 60 hours of on-duty training time per year Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 34
On-Duty Court Time (subtracted from total work hours per year) The total number of hours that each detective spends per year attending court while on duty, including transit time. Court attendance while on overtime is not included in the figure.

Without any data recording on-duty court time specifically for detectives, the number of hours is estimated based on the experience of the project team.

Estimated: 120 hours of on-duty court time per year
Administrative Time (subtracted from net available hours after leave, court and training hours deducted)
The total number of hours per year spent completing administrative tasks while onduty, including staff meetings, returning phone calls, emails, search warrant preparation and planning and various other activities including some operations that may not be directly captured in the case hours calculations.

The number is calculated as an estimated 20% of net work hours after other deductions.

Estimated: 331 hours of administrative time per year
Total Net Available Hours
After subtracting the previous factors from the total work hours per year, the remaining hours comprise the total net available hours for detectives – the time in which they are available to work after accounting for all leave, on-duty training, court and administrative time. Net availability can also be expressed as a percentage of the base number of work hours per year.

Calculated by subtracting the previously listed factors from the base number:
1,327 net available hours per detective
The following table summarizes this calculation process, displaying how each net availability factor contributes to the overall net availability of detectives:

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 35
Calculation of Detective Net Availability
Base Annual Work Hours 2,080
Total Leave Hours – 242
On-Duty Training Hours – 60
On-Duty Court Time Hours – 120
Administrative Hours – 331
Net Available Hours Per Detective = 1,327
Overall, the detective has approximately 1,327 net available hours per year, representing the total time in which they are able to conduct investigations. These hours will be used in the following sections to analyze detective caseloads.

5. Caseload Hours
Not all investigative cases require the same number of investigative hours, for example a homicide investigation requires more investigative time (and resources) than a burglary.

To factor for this, Matrix Consulting Group developed several case type investigative caseload work hours. These were developed through dozens of studies and interviews with detectives working cases. The following case type caseload workload hours were used to calculate staff resource needs:
(4.1) Homicide
Homicide cases are among the most complex and time consuming investigations that are conducted. These cases receive a high level of scrutiny and therefore almost all investigative techniques are used. Additionally, because of their complexity they are typically handled by a group of detectives and additional resources are often used. The following table shows a breakdown of approximate caseload hours for a homicide case or officer involved shooting:

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 36
Task Processes Involved Approximate
Time
% of Time
Completed
DNA Evidence to Crime Lab 4 hours 100%
Crime Scene
Material
Evidence to Property Control 4 hours 100%
Cell Phones Cell Phone Downloads, with some
taking longer than others.
30 hours 100%
Video Review of video recovered from
scene and BWC
40 hours 100%
Social
Media/Electronic
Records/Physical
location
Warrants/Subpoenas/Review of
Evidence Obtained.
60 hours 100%
Location Data Warrants/Subpoenas/Review of
Evidence Obtained.
40 hours 100%
Surveillance Surveillance, including locating
suspect and report writing.
10 hours 100%
Postmortem
Exam
Autopsy performed by ME
(Detectives observe and consult)
6 hours 100%
Victim/Witness
Interview(s)
Interview(s), including report writing. 40 hours 100%
Suspect
Interview(s)
Interview(s), including report writing. 12 hours 50%
Jail Call
Monitoring
Listen to calls, write reports. 20 Hours 100%
Consult with DA Conduct follow up, write additional
reports.
10 hours 100%
Total 281 hours- If all
tasks completed
On Average 275 hours
This list is not all inclusive and does not contain all elements and not every homicide will have the same amount of evidence or interviews conducted. Included in these hours is the assumption that detectives will be using RMS searches, social media searches, checking association files, receiving informant information and other investigative techniques (trackers, cell tower data, etc.), if available.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 37
It also assumed that detectives work as a team and not all investigative hours will be worked by a single detective (These are hours for lead detective only). Many cases will not require the number of hours listed, but some cases may require significantly more.

Using the case time estimates and the percentage of the time that each subtask is completed, this translates to approximately 275.0 hours allotted per solvable case.

Additionally, on average most departments assign a team of other detectives to assist during the early stages of a homicide investigation which represents approximately 40 hours per investigator assigned.
(4.2) Person Crimes
Person crimes cases are treated more seriously by the judicial system and tend to have more witnesses and evidence requiring more time in interviews and recovering and processing evidence than property crimes.

Approximate case hours were developed through numerous interviews with detectives, and are summarized in the following table:

Task Processes Involved
Approximate
Time
% of Time
Completed
DNA Evidence to crime lab, includes
submission and report.
3 hours 10%
Crime Scene
Material
Evidence to property control,
inspection, and report writing.
4 hours 30%
Cell Phones Cell phone downloads, with some
taking longer than others.
10 hours 50%
Video Review of video recovered from
scene and BWC, report writing.
10 hours 50%
Social Media/
Elec. Records
Warrants/subpoenas, including
submission and report.
10 hours 20%
Location Data Warrants/subpoenas, including
submission and report.
20 hours 20%
Surveillance Surveillance, including locating
suspect and report writing.
10 hours 10%
Victim/Witness
Interview(s)
Interview(s), including report writing. 2 hours 100%
Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 38
Task Processes Involved
Approximate
Time
% of Time
Completed
Suspect
Interview(s)
Interview(s), including report writing. 2 hours 50%
Jail Call
Monitoring
Listen to calls, report writing. 10 hours 10%
Consult with DA Conduct follow up, write additional
reports.
1 hours 20%
Total If all tasks completed: 82.0 hours
On average: 22.6 hours
This list is not all inclusive and does not contain all elements of an investigation and not every case will have same amount of evidence or interviews conducted. Included in these hours is the assumption that detectives will be using RMS searches, checking association files, receiving informant information, and other investigative techniques (trackers, cell tower data, etc.), if available. Many cases will not require the number of hours listed, but some cases may require significantly more.

Based on the percentage for how often each subtask is completed, each solvable case equates to an average of approximately 22.6 hours.
(4.3) Sexual Assault
Sexual assault and crimes against children are even more complex cases that are treated more seriously by the judicial system; they tend to have less witnesses, thus requiring more time in interviews and recovery and processing of evidence than other person crimes. The following chart describes approximate investigative times for sex crimes:

Processes Involved
Approximate
Time
% of Time
Completed
DNA Evidence to crime lab, includes
submission and report.
2 hours 50%
Crime Scene
Material
Evidence to property control,
inspection, and report writing.
2 hours 50%
Cell Phones Cell phone downloads, with some
taking longer than others.
4 hours 40%
Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 39
Processes Involved
Approximate
Time
% of Time
Completed
Video Review of video recovered from
scene and BWC, report writing.
4 hours 50%
Social Media/
Elec. Records
Warrants/subpoenas, including
submission and report.
10 hours 20%
Location Data Warrants/subpoenas, including
submission and report.
20 hours 40%
Surveillance Surveillance, including locating
suspect and report writing.
10 hours 20%
Sex Assault Kit Sex Assault Exam including report
writing.
6 Hours 90%
Victim/Witness
Interviews
Interview(s), including report writing. 2 hours 100%
Suspect Interview(s), including report writing. 2 hours 50% Jail Call
Monitoring
Listen to calls, report writing. 2 hours 40%
Consult with DA Review case, perform follow up,
includes report writing.
1 hours 20%
Total If all tasks completed: 65.0 hours
On average: 26.6 hours
This list is not all inclusive and does not contain all elements of all investigations. Not every case will have same amount of evidence or interviews conducted. Included in these hours is the assumption that detectives will be using RMS searches, checking association files, receiving informant information and other investigative techniques (trackers, cell tower data, etc.), if available. Many cases will not require the number of hours listed, but some cases may require significantly more.

Using the above work hour estimates and the percentage of the time that each subtask is completed, this translates to approximately 26.6 hours per solvable case.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 40
(4.4) Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC)
Internet Crimes Against Children are complex investigative cases which rely heavily on digital forensic evidence that requires unique processes. These cases are treated more seriously by the judicial system; they tend to have less witnesses, thus requiring more time in interviews and recovery and processing of evidence than other crimes. The following chart describes approximate investigative times for internet crimes against children:

Processes Involved
Approximate
Time
% of Time
Completed
Cell Phones Cell phone downloads, with some
taking longer than others.
4 hours 30%
Video Review of video recovered from
scene and BWC, report writing.
4 hours 30%
Social Media/
Elec. Records
Warrants/subpoenas, including
submission and report.
6 hours 20%
Location Data Warrants/subpoenas, including
submission and report.
20 hours 30%
Surveillance Surveillance, including locating
suspect and report writing.
10 hours 20%
Document/Digital
Evidence Review
Review/recover images, files, and
write reports.
30 Hours 100%
Victim/Witness
Interviews
Interview(s), including report writing. 2 hours 50%
Suspect Suspect interview(s), including report
writing.
2 hours 50%
Jail Call
Monitoring
Listen to calls, report writing. 4 hours 10%
Consult with DA Review case, perform follow up,
includes report writing.
4 hours 10%
Total If all tasks completed: 86.0 hours
On average: 44.4 hours
This list is not all inclusive and does not contain all elements and not every internet crime case will have same amount of evidence or interviews conducted. Included in these hours Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 41
is the assumption that detectives will be using RMS searches, checking association files, receiving informant information and other investigative techniques (trackers, cell tower data, etc.), if available. Many cases will not require the number of hours listed, but some cases may require significantly more.

Using the above work hour estimates and the percentage of the time that each subtask is completed, this translates to approximately 44.4 hours per solvable case. (4.5) Burglary/Property Crime
Burglary/Property Crimes are typically less complex investigative cases than person crimes and generally require less investigative time or resources. These cases are treated less seriously by the judicial system, and they tend to have less witnesses. The following chart describes approximate investigative times for Burglary/Property Crimes:

Processes Involved
Approximate
Time
% of Time
Completed
DNA Evidence to crime lab, includes
submission and report.
2 hours 20%
Crime Scene
Material
Evidence to property control,
inspection, and report writing.
2 hours 20%
Cell Phones Cell phone downloads, with some
taking longer than others.
4 hours 50%
Video Review of video recovered from
scene and BWC, report writing.
2 hours 50%
Social Media/
Elec. Records
Warrants/subpoenas, including
submission and report.
6 hours 30%
Location Data Warrants/subpoenas, including
submission and report.
20 hours 40%
Surveillance Surveillance, including locating
suspect and report writing.
10 hours 20%
Victim/Witness
Interviews
Interview(s), including report writing. 1 hours 50%
Suspect
Interview
Interview(s), including report writing. 1 hours 50%
Jail Call
Monitoring
Listen to calls, report writing. 2 hours 10%
Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 42
Processes Involved
Approximate
Time
% of Time
Completed
Consult with DA Review case, perform follow up,
includes report writing.
1 hours 10%
Total If all tasks completed: 51.0 hours
On average: 16.9 hours
This list is not all inclusive and does not contain all elements of all investigations. Not every case will have same amount of evidence or interviews conducted. Included in these hours is the assumption that detectives will be using RMS searches, checking association files, receiving informant information and other investigative techniques (trackers, cell tower data, etc.), if available. Many cases will not require the number of hours listed, but some cases may require significantly more.

Using the above work hour estimates and the percentage of the time that each subtask is completed, this translates to approximately 16.9 hours per solvable case. (4.6) Financial Crimes
Financial crimes are exceedingly difficult cases to pursue and typically take longer to investigate as much of the evidence must be subpoenaed or obtained with a search warrant. In addition, much of the evidence belongs to financial institutions and detectives must wait for them to comply with legal requests for information before they can proceed; this can take weeks to months depending on the type and amount of data requested.

They also tend to have much lower solvability rates (approximately 50% less solvable than person crimes). These types of cases typically do not require a detective to respond to a scene and are often handled as follow up a day or more after the occurrence. The following chart details processes and times associated with investigating financial crimes:

Processes Involved
Approximate
Time
% of Time
Completed
Document/
Digital Evidence
Review
Review/recover financial data, files,
and write reports.
12 hours 100%
Video Review of video recovered from
scene and BWC, report writing.
4 hours 10%
Social Media/ Warrants/subpoenas, including 8 hours 10% Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 43
Processes Involved
Approximate
Time
% of Time
Completed
Elec. Records submission and report.

Cell Phone/
computer
evidence
Warrants/subpoenas, including
submission and report.
8 hours 50%
Location Data Warrants/subpoenas, including
submission and report.
20 hours 50%
Victim/Witness
Interview(s)
Interview(s), including report writing. 2 hours 100%
Suspect
Interview(s)
Interview(s), including report writing. 2 hours 20%
Total If all tasks completed: 56.0 hours
On average: 29.6 hours
This list is not all inclusive and does not contain all elements of all investigations. Not every case will have same amount of evidence or interviews conducted. Included in these hours is the assumption that detectives will be using RMS searches, checking association files, receiving informant information and other investigative techniques (trackers, cell tower data, etc.), if available. Many cases will not require the number of hours listed, but some cases may require significantly more.

Using the above work hour estimates and the percentage of the time that each subtask is completed, this translates to approximately 29.6 hours per solvable case. (4.7) Domestic Assault
Domestic Assault cases are generally less investigative intense as the victim and suspect are known; however, they do require some investigation for successful prosecution. The following chart describes approximate investigative times for these cases:

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 44
Processes Involved
Approximate
Time
% of Time
Completed
DNA Evidence to crime lab, includes
submission and report.
2 hours 20%
Crime Scene
Material
Evidence to property control,
inspection, and report writing.
2 hours 10%
Cell Phones Cell phone downloads, with some
taking longer than others.
4 hours 50%
Video Review of video recovered from
scene and BWC, report writing.
2 hours 100%
Social Media/
Elec. Records
Warrants/subpoenas, including
submission and report.
4 hours 20%
Surveillance Surveillance, including locating
suspect and report writing.
2 hours 20%
Victim/Witness
Interviews
Interview(s), including report writing. 2 hours 100%
Suspect
Interview
Interview(s), including report writing. 2 hours 50%
Jail Call
Monitoring
Listen to calls, report writing. 2 hours 10%
Consult with DA Review case, perform follow up,
includes report writing.
1 hours 10%
Total If all tasks completed: 21.0 hours
On average: 8.7 hours
This list is not all inclusive and does not contain all elements of all investigations. Not every case will have same amount of evidence or interviews conducted. Included in these hours is the assumption that detectives will be using RMS searches, checking association files, receiving informant information and other investigative techniques (trackers, cell tower data, etc.), if available. Many cases will not require the number of hours listed, but some cases may require significantly more.

Using the above work hour estimates and the percentage of the time that each subtask is completed, this translates to approximately 8.7 hours per solvable case.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 45
(4.8) Missing/Runaway
Missing/Runaway cases typical involve interviewing reporting party, last person to have seen them, checking last known locations, close friends and relatives and entering information into teletype. Depending on leads and investigation required by law or agency policy, these cases range from 2 to 4 hours with an average of about 3 hours. (4.9) General Crimes/Officer Assist
General crimes/officer assists can vary greatly depending on the type of crime or assistance needed. These cases are typically lower level crimes where some follow up is needed or an officer needs assistance with a case they are working. This can include assisting with a cell phone download, social media or open sources search, warrant preparation or other investigative techniques. Depending on the type of crime and investigative need these cases take between 2 and 4 hours with an average of 3 hours.

6. Caseload Workload Hours
To determine the caseload the project team used the expected caseload based on prior studies. Using the caseload hours by case type the total caseloads per work unit were then calculated. The following table details the associated work hours:
2020 Caseload #
Percent
Expected
Total
Expected
Investigative
Hours Per Total Hours
Aggravated Assault 65 70% 45.5 22.6 1028.3
Arson 4 70% 2.8 22.6 63.28
Burglary 103 30% 30.9 16.9 522.21
Domestic Violence 21 100% 21 8.7 182.7
Larceny-Theft 502 30% 150.6 16.9 2545.14
Motor Vehicle Theft 133 30% 39.9 16.9 674.31
Rape (Sex Assault / Abuse) 5 70% 3.5 26.6 93.1
Robbery 24 70% 16.8 22.6 379.68
Total 1,395 N/A 5488.72
As the table above indicates, the caseload assigned represents approximately 5,488.

7. Summary of Workload Hours for Detectives
As mentioned above there are a total of 3 authorized detective positions assigned to work cases and a sergeant does assist on some cases. Using the previous calculation of net available caseload hours and total 2020 caseload, the number of detectives needed to investigate the caseload can be determined:

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 46
Calculation of Detective Staffing Needs
Total Caseload Hours 5,488
Divided by total net available
hours for 1 detective (1,327) ÷ 1,327
Number of Detectives Needed = 4.13
As the chart indicates the number of detectives recommended to work the assigned caseload hours assigned is 4.13 and there are a total of 3 detectives currently assigned.

The reported assigned caseload work hours exceed the net hours available to work cases with three assigned detectives. An additional detective is needed to work the expected caseload for a total of 1 sergeant and 4 detectives.

8. Clearance Rates
Clearance rates can be helpful in determining investigative effectiveness, but they are only one measurement, and many other factors may have an impact on clearance rates.

Even with some of the limitations of case clearance performance measurements they can indicate how the department compares to other departments throughout the country.

The following table shows the reported Part 1 crime case clearance rates of Signal Hills to their peers (Cities under 25,000 population).
2020 Part 1 Crime
Reported Clearance
Rates # Reported
#
Cleared
Percent
Cleared
U.S Small
City
Average
Violent Crime 94 45 47.8 53.8
Property Crimes 742 86 11.5 23.9
Total/Average 836 N/A
As the table indicates Signal Hill is near the small city national average for clearing Part 1 violent crime, but they are well below the average for clearing property crimes.

9. Findings and Recommendations
Findings and recommendations from the analysis include the following:
• The number of cases assigned to detectives is greater than would be expected.

Many of the low level cases assigned to detectives should be handled by patrol officers. This would include active cases involving misdemeanor property crimes and non-felony assaults.
• More effective case screening could reduce the number of assigned cases.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 47
• The currently vacant detective position should be filled as soon staffing allows for a total of 1 sergeant and 4 detectives assigned to investigations.

10. Property Room
The property room function is part of the detective bureau. The Signal Hill Property Room is responsible for the intake, storage, release and disposal of property and evidence collected by the Signal Hill Police Department.
(1) Property Room Operations
Property Room responsibilities are assigned to the Administrative Assistant assigned to the Detective Bureau. The Administrative Assistant provides administrative support for the Detective Bureau and manages Property Room functions for the department. The Property Room is open day shift hours for officers and to the public by appointment only.

Officers create the initial property bar code in the report writing process. Officers place property and/or evidence into lockers in the Detective Bureau area. The Administrative Assistant empties the lockers and enters the property into the RMS system. If item(s) are not packaged correctly, the item(s) are sent back to the officer. After RMS entry is completed, the Administrative Assistant moves the property into a warehouse area in the police department parking lot. The warehouse contains a freezer and separate room for guns and drugs. No monies are kept on sight. Officers count money and place it in a sealed envelope. The monied envelopes are taken to City Finance by Records Clerks.

City Finance personnel reconcile monies received. The Administrative Assistant, Senior Detective and Sergeant have access to the property room warehouse.

SHPD could not readily provide a count of items stored in the Property Room or the items received and/or disposed of. The Administrative Assistant tracks received items on a spread sheet. The CYRUN software system does allow a report to be produced with a breakdown of item dispositions, however, SHPD had to request the software vendor create that report for this study.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 48
Booked Property 2020 2021 Total
Both Stolen and Recovered 470 582 1,052
Burned 3 0 3
Counterfeited/Forged 1 1 2
Court Presentation 1 4 5
Destroyed/Damaged 142 204 346
Evidence 4,544 4,436 8,980
Found 89 191 280
Held for Safe Keeping 122 207 329
Info Only 11 21 32
Lost 80 21 101
No Status 183 75 258
Recovered 84 76 160
Released 753 345 1,098
Stolen 1,914 1,644 3,558
Storage 3 24 27
Unknown 2 0 2
Total 8,402 7,831 16,233
Regarding purging items, officers and/or the Administrative Assistant attempt to identify owners of property. After 90 days, if the owner is not located the property is destroyed.

Drugs are transported to Long Beach for a drug burn and guns are taken to Los Angeles County SO for destruction. Detectives transport those items.

SHPD policies include a section for Property and Evidence. The policy covers property handling/collection, packaging/storage, control/security, disposition, and inspections/audits.

SHPD provided the following Property Room audit reports. Audit reports indicate there were no issues identified during audit processes with the exception of the March 2017 report. In 2017, the department conducted a complete audit of evidence in the Tiburon and CYRUN software systems. Two items could not be accounted for and supplemental reports were generated documented the two lost items.

Signal Hill Police Department Evidence Audits
• December 14, 2007
• November 13, 2009
• November 10, 2010
• June 2, 2011
• P.O.S.T Management Study December 20, 2012
Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 49
• September 27, 2013
• November 21, 2014
• August 6, 2015
• March 2, 2016
• June 23, 2016
• February 23, 2017
• March 8, 2017
• November 14, 2017
• May 23, 2019
• October 9, 2020
The inspection section of the policy for property and evidence states:

1. (a) On a monthly basis, the supervisor of the evidence custodian shall make an inspection of the evidence storage facilities and practices to ensure adherence to appropriate policies and procedures.

2. (b) Unannounced inspections of evidence storage areas shall be conducted annually as directed by the Chief of Police.

3. (c) An annual audit of evidence held by the Department shall be conducted by a Lieutenant (as appointed by the Chief of Police) not routinely or directly connected with evidence control.

4. (d) Whenever a change is made in personnel who have access to the evidence room, an inventory of all evidence/property shall be made by an individual not associated to the property room or function to ensure that records are correct, and all evidence property is accounted for.
(2) Diagnostic Assessment of Property and Evidence Policy The project team analyzed property and evidence practices and policies for the Signal Hill Police Department against best practices or emerging practices for law enforcement property and evidence management specific to California POST guidance for Evidence and Property Function. The assessment relies on both interviews and documents provided. There are three areas to the diagnostic assessment which are detailed below:
• Best Practice / Operational Target – This is the subject area under review and what is the best practice or operational target.
• Meets Target / Does not meet Target – An area that meets target has been reviewed and with analysis the project team identifies that the SHPD generally meets best or emerging practice.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 50
• Comments / Improvement Opportunity – This area identifies what SHPD is doing to meet the target or how it is not meeting the target.

Best Practice / Operational Target Meets Target
Does Not
Meet Target
Comments / Improvement
Opportunity
Organizational Structure
The Department has written directives
outlining the organizational structure
of the evidence/property function.

The directive clearly defines the chain
of command and personnel assigned
to include management position and
evidence property technician.
ü
The SHPD policy for Property
and Evidence does not include
organizational structure and
reporting chain of command.

Directives outline desired
qualifications, applicable
certifications, skills, and duties of
personnel assigned to the unit to
include assignment transfer policies
associated with the
evidence/property function?
ü
SHPD Property and Evidence
policy does not include
qualifications and duties for
personnel assigned to the
property and evidence
function.

Directives Identify initial and ongoing
training plan for all personnel
assigned to evidence/property
function to ensure they remain
current in best practice, statutes, and
regulations.
ü
Training is not identified in
policy, however, SHPD
provided documentation of on
training for FTE assigned to
the property and evidence
functions.

Staff can provide number of items
currently in inventory and how many
items have been submitted over the
past five years?
Staff can provide number of items
purged from inventory over the past
five years?
ü
SHPD staff were unable to
readily provide inventory
numbers, items received and
purged from property and
evidence software.

Facility Access/Hours of Operation
Directives outline facility access
procedures, staff call-out procedures,
and hours of operation.

Hours open to the public and regular
internal hours are established.
ü
Property and Evidence policy
does not address call out
procedures and established
hours open to the public.

Directives outline key control process
for tracking and restricting access to
the evidence/property facility.
ü Policy does not address
facility access.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 51
Best Practice / Operational Target Meets Target
Does Not
Meet Target
Comments / Improvement
Opportunity
Directives outline Emergency and
disaster planning to include personal
duress alarm, procedures for removal,
transportation, and relocation of
property with method of tracking each
item and identified appropriate
alternate evidence/property storage
area if evacuation is necessary.
ü
Policy does not address
emergency planning for
protection and removal of
property.

Evidence and Property Handling Procedures
Directives outline property and
evidence handling procedures to
include general handing procedures,
explosives, ammunition, hazardous
materials, firearms,
narcotics/controlled substances,
currency, electronic media,
biological/DNA and blood drying.
ü
SHPD Policy does address
Evidence and Property
handling procedures for
protection of the chain of
evidence.

Directives outline inspections and
audits for the department. ü
SHPD police does address
inspection and audit
requirements for the evidence
and property room.

Directives address automated
property management system to
include:
• Integration of electronic property
management system with CAD
and RMS.
• Established redundancies related
to information storage and back
up procedures.
• Ability to account for chain of
custody.
• Ability to track and identify
location of all items of evidence
within the custody of the
organization.
• Reporting capabilities for
statistics, workload studies and
inventories.
• Alert mechanisms for notification
of property purging/disposition.
ü
Policies do not address
electronic processes for
tracking and accounting of
property and evidence.
(3) Property and Evidence Summary
No back logs in work tasks were identified for the Property Room, however, there are oversight responsibilities and metrics that are not being completed. SHPD policy states Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 52
the department will conduct a monthly inspection of the unit, an unannounced yearly inspection of the unit by the chief or designee and an annual audit of evidence by the lieutenant (as appointed by the Chief of Police) not routinely or directly connected with evidence control. The department replaced a lieutenant position with a civilian manager, the Support Services Manager. Oversight of the property and evidence room and supervision of personnel assigned there should be transferred to the Support Services Manager in the Administrative Division. Yearly audits of property and evidence can be conducted by the Operations Lieutenant or other Chief appointed designee not directly connected with the evidence control.

The Signal Hill Police Department provided audit reports for all years from 2007 except for 2012, 2018, and 2021. SHPD staff could not readily provide property room item totals or number of items processed during the year. SHPD should conduct a complete inventory of all items stored and track items processed in and out of the property room in a manner that can be readily recalled for audit and inspection purposes. SHPD should conduct inspections and audits according to policy and retain documentation of outcomes.

There are gaps in SHPD policy and practices. There are property room practices that are not covered by policy. SHPD should create property room directives or protocols to address property room practices not covered by policy. California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training provides guidance for Property and Evidence Functions.

Recommendations:

Transfer supervision the property room to the Support Services Manager.

Train records cadet in property and evidence procedures for back up support for property room functions.

Conduct more audits of the property room both annually and on a spot audit basis.

Institute regular inspections with supporting documentation per policy guidelines.

Track number of items processed into and out of the property room to include tracking for chain of custody.

Develop property and evidence directives or written protocols for practices not covered in policy.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 53

5. Administration Division
The Administrative Division is comprised of two sections which are led by either the Support Services Manager or the Administrative Sergeant. The Administrative Sergeant supervises the field training program, the jail, fleet management, and the department’s volunteer program. Staff is comprised of a combination of sworn and non-sworn personnel.

1. Support Services Manager
The Support Services Manager manages the Records Bureau, and is responsible for department training and recruitment, the budget and vendor contracts. (1) Training
The Support Services Manager completes the administrative training tasks on behalf of the commissioned officers in the department. The state of California passed Senate Bill 2 which affects law enforcement training and investigation reporting requirements to the state. The Manager is tasked with reviewing new laws and ensuring the department implements all required elements into policy and training requirements. During Covid the department fell behind with mandated training. The Manager is tasked with getting officers scheduled for training and sending the documented training to POST. The Support Services Manager relays training compliance information to the Operations Lieutenant for distribution.
(2) Budget
The City of Signal Hill develops budget projections two years forward. The Support Services Manager is responsible for developing the department budget projections and keeping the department on track in the current budget cycle. Those responsibilities also include authorizing invoices and making sure vendors get paid. (3) Communications
The Interim Chief of Police assigned social media tasks to the Support Services Manager.

Due to city protocols several approvals are required prior to posting any information on Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 54
social media platforms. These protocols are time consuming and impact the ability for other work tasks to be completed.
(4) Recruitment
Social Media is also used for department recruitment efforts. There is a recruitment team tasked with visiting colleges and job fairs, but all other recruitment tasks are assigned to the Manager. The Support Services Manager works with city HR to post openings for applicants. Test dates, interviews, finger printing and polygraph appointments are also arranged by the Manager. Once candidates advance to the background phase the Manager works with a vendor to complete background investigations and provides the new hire orientation for the new employees.

Contract and Grant processes, awards, proclamations, and paperwork for council are all assigned to the Support Services Manager.

The Support Services Manager has many job responsibilities that include detailed subtasks. Many of those responsibilities are not related to management of systems and/or personnel. There are tasks that are not being completed (e.g., grant funding processes) due to other prioritized tasks. Social media posting requirements disrupt other assigned work tasks due to cumbersome approval processes.

Recommendations:

Ensure that the Support Services Manager as the lead for department recruitment efforts has the authority to lead, assign and address issues with sworn recruitment team.

Assign Training coordination to the Administrative Sergeant in the Administration Division.

2. Records Bureau
The Records Bureau is overseen by the Support Services Manager and staffed with 1 Records Supervisor, 2 full time and 1 half time Records Clerks, and 4 part time paid Cadets. The Bureau operates Monday through Friday 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and is open to the public for the same hours.

In addition to supervisory duties the Records Supervisor completes redactions for FOIA requests, audits computer checks performed by employees, and produces reports for officers and command staff from RMS. The Records Supervisor also processes payroll and purchases office supplies for dispatch and patrol. Overall payroll responsibility is assigned to the Operations Lieutenant; however, the Records Supervisor completes Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 55
weekly entries on behalf of the lieutenant. A senior Records Clerk helps train new Records Clerks.

Records Clerks process custody packets, assist the public at the front desk, process parking citations, FOIA requests and review and correct reports for entry into RMS. The department plans to transition to a new RMS system; however, the transition requires all officers be trained to make entries that are compliant with NIBRs. The officer training has not been completed.

In 2021 the Records Bureau processed 3,786 reports. During 2021 there were only 2 clerks assigned to that task. In 2020 the Records Bureau processed 4,250 reports and in 2019 4,250 reports. Each report entry takes 10 to 15 minutes. Records Clerks also prepare case packets for court on behalf of Detectives. The case reports for Detectives take approximately 10 to 15 minutes to make copies and assemble packets. That work takes time away from entering reports into the RMS system. There are back logs of report entries. The Detectives Bureau does have an Administrative Assistant, however, that position has been assigned full time Property and Evidence responsibilities.

Cadets are part time employees assigned to the Records Bureau. Their main responsibility is to ensure streets are clear for the city trucks to perform street cleaning duties. The streets are cleaned several times a week. After completing parking citations for street sweeping, they are assigned front counter responsibilities, filing duties and help with Record report entry back logs.

The Records Clerks file reports both in a paper hard file and electronically. Clerks must look in both places when retrieving report information for copy requests. Citation hard copies are scanned by Record’s Clerks even though the original citation was created electronically. This is a duplication of effort. Department systems are heavily paper dependent. The department is scheduled to automate the RMS system, however, that requires officers be trained to enter information correctly and sergeants review and address errors. Records Clerks’ workload significantly increases due to correcting errors not addressed by the sergeant and officers making correct initial entries.

Recommendations:

Complete Officer training for the new RMS system to eliminate additional tasks performed by Records staff.

Assign compilation of Detective Case Packets for court to the Administrative Assistant assigned to the Investigations Bureau.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 56

3. Administrative Sergeant
The Administrative Sergeant is a recently created position within the Signal Hill Police Department. The Administrative Sergeant performs various administrative duties, manages the field training program and the Homeless Liaison Unit, oversees jail operations and range training. The Administrative Sergeant also has management and supervisory oversight of the volunteer program, fleet management, the department’s intern program, explorer program, and citizen’s academy. (1) Jail Facility
The Signal Hill Police Department maintains a “Type 1” jail facility; used for the detention of persons for not more than 96 hours (excluding holidays) after booking. A combination Dispatcher/Jailer position is currently utilized. The Watch Commander oversees jail operations during a given shift and is the dispatch/jail facility’s on-shift personnel’s immediate supervisor.
(2) Dispatch Center
The Signal Hill Police Department maintains a 24-hour emergency communications center. The center is responsible for receiving and dispatching both emergency and nonemergency community calls for service. A combination Dispatcher/Jailer position is currently utilized. The Watch Commander oversees dispatch operations during a given shift and is the dispatch/jail facility’s on-shift personnel’s immediate supervisor (3) Dispatch and Jail Operations
As noted earlier, at least one Dispatcher/Jailer is on shift at all times. When other city and department administrative functions are closed, certain responsibilities are transferred to the Dispatcher/Jailer. These responsibilities include responding to citizens in the station lobby who request police assistance, provide records bureau functions to on-duty personnel and outside agencies after routine business hours, and provide calling parties with information when other city departments are closed. Primary Dispatcher/Jailer functions include the following:
• Provide information to field units for service calls and officer-initiated activity. • Answer 911 emergency calls and non-emergency calls for service. • Gather critical information and providing it to field units in a timely fashion. • Question callers to determine if a police response is warranted, and if so, at what level.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 57
• Answer routine calls for service via business lines.
• Perform warrant, driving status, and criminal history checks on persons detained. • Prisoner intake
• Search incoming prisoners and property
• Perform medical screening
• Ensure care and custody of prisoners
• Perform prisoner cell checks
• Transport prisoners to court
The project team has utilized emergency communications a workload / staffing methodologies in its work with dispatch centers around the country; these methodologies are also supported by the public safety dispatch professional association (APCO). Based on emergency communications workloads associated with handling requests for service from the public and supporting officers in the field on the radio, the number of FTE’s needed in each hour to accommodate this volume can be determined for each hour. This analytical process includes:

Taking the number of calls for service per hour and multiplying this by the average time needed to handle the phones and the radio for each call.

Since it is not desirable to have a dispatcher be on the phone or the radio constantly, the combined number of minutes is divided by a target utilization rate – 50% of total time.

This means that on average, staff would be occupied 30 minutes per hour with call-taking and dispatching, with the other 30 minutes free as marginal time to decompress, make outbound calls, and handle non-dispatch related work.

The following table shows these calculations illustrating the need for FTE’s for each hour of the week based on this analysis:

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 58
FTE / Hour Needed at 50% Occupancy
Hour Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
12a 0.4 0.4 0.2 0.3 0.2 0.5 0.5
1am 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.5 0.4
2am 0.4 0.3 0.4 0.3 0.3 0.5 0.4
3am 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.3 0.3
4am 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.2
5am 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1
6am 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1
7am 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.1
8am 0.1 0.1 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.2
9am 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.2
10am 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.2
11am 0.1 0.1 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.1
12pm 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.2
1pm 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.2
2pm 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.2
3pm 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.2
4pm 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.2 0.2
5pm 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2
6pm 0.4 0.5 0.5 0.4 0.6 0.6 0.5
7pm 0.5 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.6 0.6 0.5
8pm 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.3 0.5 0.6 0.4
9pm 0.4 0.3 0.4 0.3 0.5 0.4 0.4
10pm 0.4 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.5 0.5 0.5
11pm 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.5 0.4
As the table clearly shows, emergency communications workloads alone do not result in the need for even a single dispatcher.

In spite of this, best practice underscores the need for two staff on duty around the clock to handle these diverse workloads in a safe and effective manner. Assuming minimum staffing of 2 personnel on all shifts, this would require at least 10 filled positions. As noted earlier, Signal Hill is currently authorized eight Dispatcher/Jailer positions with only five filled in the past several years, a significant gap and one that would be difficult to fill given historical difficulties as well as the cost.

On the jail side, in 2021 the Signal Hill Police Department completed a total of 439 bookings. On average, 1.2 prisoners were booked into the jail facility each day, though most detainees stay less than the 96 hours maximum, the jail often has no one in custody. (4) Dispatch and Jail Issues
The current approach to both maintaining a jail and operating a dispatch center has risks for the City. These risks are described below:

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 59
• Currently, only five out of the eight Dispatcher/Jailer positions are filled. As is common in the industry, this position in Signal Hill has been short-staffed for several years. Often, there is only one Dispatcher/Jailer working on a given shift.

When this occurs, the lone Dispatcher/Jailer is responsible for the care and custody of prisoners while also maintaining radio communications with officers, and effectively managing emergency telephone operations with the community. • A Dispatcher/Jailer may also transport prisoners to court and/or other jail facilities alone several times each month. Employees receive self-defense training, but do not carry firearms.
• Prisoners inside the Signal Hill Jail facility arrive with varying degrees of medical, mental health, substance abuse, and family issues. While inside the jail, these prisoners may display a wide range of behaviors, including fear, anger, and anxiety, as well as violent, anti-social, and suicidal behaviors. • A jail facility needs a jailer to be immediately adjacent to inmate living areas in order to permit jailers to hear and respond promptly to emergency situations. The Signal Hill jail facility is equipped with video monitoring which is viewed within the dispatch center. An employee cannot continuously observe the video monitoring while performing dispatch functions or helping a community member. This issue is compounded when an employee is alone. If the need for emergency action inside the jail facility, the employee must call for assistance from other department employees. If no adequately trained employees are available inside the station, an officer must be summoned from the field to assist.

These are serious risks for both emergency communications as well as for jail operations.

Without adequate staffing critical time could be lost impacting the effectiveness and safety associated with both of these functions. Risks need also to be put in the context of workloads and the cost effectiveness of this approach to emergency communications and jail operations.
(5) Findings and Recommendations
As demonstrated in the work-based model, one dispatch position is more than sufficient each hour to complete dispatch and call taking duties based on workload alone. However, this is not an effective approach to staff an emergency communications center. This is true of a jail operation too.

Because of these inherent risks associated with operating critical functions like emergency communications and a jail in spite of the low levels of utilization as well as the costs to operations and to mitigate these risks, and the City should evaluate contracting out both of these functions. The City should explore contracting both of these functions, initially with the City of Long Beach. Evaluating the costs associated with this Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 60
was beyond the scope of this assessment and no contact has been made with that neighboring city.

Findings arising from this assessment and staffing and operational recommendations include the following:
• End the practice of the Dispatcher/Jailer conducting prisoner transports. • Evaluate the feasibility of contracting services for both the jail facility and dispatch center. Initially, contact the City of Long Beach for their interest in both of these contracts for service.

3. Field Training Program
The Signal Hill Police Department utilizes the San Jose model’s Field Training Officer Program (FTO). The program utilizes four separate training phases where the trainee rotates between field training officers, with the final phase being completed by the original field training officer.

While a formal analysis of Signal Hill’s field training was not completed, the project team did briefly discuss the FTO program with the FTO Coordinator (the FTO Coordinator duties have since switched to the new Administrative Sergeant), Field Training Officers, and current trainees at the time.

Employee interviews indicate that the program, as a whole, has not been updated for several years. Meetings to discuss current trainees in the program are also infrequent.

Senior Police Officers also function as Field Training Officers. At times, a Senior Police Officer will have a new officer in training while performing watch commander/sergeant duties. An FTO cannot effectively train a new officer while simultaneously performing these duties. This is not conducive to an effective learning environment. Although this may be an infrequent occurrence, the department should minimize the Senior Police Officer performing both watch commander/sergeant duties and FTO duties simultaneously.

A successful field training program should also include a newly promoted Sergeant Field Training Program. This program is used in order to systematically train Sergeants at the time of promotion. This program ensures first-line supervisors are properly trained and equipped with the resources necessary to be successful first-line supervisors.

Department interviews indicate the Signal Hill Police Department does not have such a program in place.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 61
Findings and Recommendations
Findings arising from this assessment and staffing and operational recommendations include the following:
• Although this may be an infrequent occurrence, the department should minimize the Senior Police Officer performing both watch commander/sergeant duties and FTO duties simultaneously.
• Update field training program in order to meet best practices. • Establish a field training program for newly promoted sergeants.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 62
Management Assessment

1. Introduction to the Management Assessment
The Matrix Consulting Group was retained by the City of Signal Hill to conduct an Organizational Assessment of its Police Department. Broadly, the goal of this Assessment is to evaluate the staffing needs for the Department and its management systems. This interim report provides the project team’s findings, conclusions and recommendations regarding the Department’s management systems. There are, however, some overlap between organizational and management issues and staffing ones. In these instances, the later report on staffing will provide further analysis.

This interim report identifies and evaluates a number of core management systems in the Police Department, including its:
• Personnel management
• Training and career development
• Complaint handling
• General internal management
• The Department’s organizational structure
The Department is also currently at an important juncture – it lost its past permanent police chief late last year and has been under an interim chief since then. Since the City is about to embark on a recruitment process for its new chief, this interim report provides advice on the desired characteristics for that individual for this department.

This interim report is based on the following project activities:
• Many individual interviews conducted with management, supervisory and line personnel. Most of the employees in the SHPD were interviewed as part of this study.
• Interviews were supplemented with an anonymous employee survey to which a majority of employees responded.
• A review of key documents such as policies, the training program and training records.

This interim report provides a summary of our findings in each of these topic areas together with recommendations. A more complete assessment of each of these will be found in the forthcoming project final report.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 63

2. Organizational Structure
An organizational structure is an approach to facilitate organizational management. As such, there are structures for a certain sized organization that achieve that goal better than others. An organizational structure should demonstrate the following major department functions:
• Apportion the workload among members and units according to a logical plan. • Ensure that lines of authority and responsibility are definite and direct as possible. • Specify a unity of command throughout, leaving no question about which orders should be followed.
• Assign responsibility and authority, and if responsibility is delegated, the delegator is held responsible.
• Coordinate efforts in order to work harmoniously to accomplish the department mission.

Achieving an organizational structure that is ‘right’ for an organization needs to consider a number of factors including the complexity of an organization, the need for accountability and accessibility of key managers, the experience and history of an organization, and cost.
(1) Current Organizational Structure
The chart, below, shows the current organizational structure of the Signal Hill Police Department:

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 64
There are advantages associated with Signal Hill’s current organizational structure, which include:
• It is a ‘lean’ organization without excessive overhead administrative managers. • It pushes down authority and responsibility for key management roles deep into the organization, at least to the levels of Sergeant.
• Collateral duty responsibilities are allocated to other managers and supervisors which also helps to prepare them for promotion.
• It has a civilian manager in a key management position.

These are important advantages for an organization, especially a smaller one. However, there are also issues associated with the current structure. These are evaluated in subsequent sections.
(2) Consistency in Supervision
There are certain staffed functions – traffic officers and the homeless liaison officer, for example – who have inconsistent supervision. While on shift, these officers report to the on-duty supervisor. Interviews indicated that these officers can receive inconsistent orders relating to priorities and assignments in these functions. As a result, this approach Chief of Police
Captain
Operations
Division
Patrol Bureau
Traffic Unit
Detective
Bureau
Property
Evidence
Administrative
Division
Support
Services
Records
Bureau
Administrative
Sergeant
Jail
Management
Assistant
Professional
Standards
Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 65
has sometimes left traffic and homeless related complaints not addressed.

Recommendation:

Ensure consistent messaging exists between all department supervisors in relation to traffic officer and homeless liaison officer functions and daily tasks. This can best be accomplished by managers and supervisors developing short and long range objectives for these functions which also provide for daily response to immediate complaints. (3) Gaps in Oversight
There are gaps in supervisory responsibility within the functions of dispatch and the jail.

The Signal Hill Police Department maintains a “Type 1” jail facility (for booking and temporary holding of arrestees). A combination Dispatcher/Jailer position is currently utilized for observation of persons in custody. The Watch Commander oversees jail operations during a given shift and is the dispatch/jail facility’s on-shift personnel’s immediate supervisor.

Given current staffing levels due to vacancies, often there is only one Dispatcher/Jailer working on a given shift. When this occurs, the lone Dispatcher/Jailer is responsible for the care and custody of prisoners while also maintaining radio communications with officers, and effectively managing emergency telephone operations within the community. A Dispatcher/Jailer may conduct radio communications with police officers during a prolonged emergency critical incident, maintain prolonged telephone communication with the victim or witness of a crime, and maintain the care and custody of prisoners inside who are in the jail facility. Given the dynamic nature of all three of these tasks, it is extremely difficult to complete all three functions at the same time effectively and safely.

Moreover, a Dispatcher/Jailer can transport arrestees to court and/or other jail facilities.

This occurs several times each month. Although personnel receive some self-defense training, they do not carry firearms. This is both a liability and an unsafe practice.

The Department has recently created an administrative sergeant position. This administrative sergeant is assigned both management and supervisory functions of the jail facility in addition to various administrative tasks. Due to the high liability nature of operating a jail facility, a mid-manager should have administrative oversight of this facility.

Given the span of control and responsibilities of the operations Lieutenant and the Captain, oversight of the jail and dispatch center should be given to the Support Services Manager. This change should be made for several reasons:

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 66
• The Support Services Manager, as one of the few management positions in the Department, has few actual management responsibilities. • The jail and dispatch center are civilianized functions. • The Department has limited administrative capacity and assigns many of these as collateral duties to many staff. The Administrative Sergeant should be tasked primarily with administrative responsibilities.

The Department should ensure the Services Support Manager receives the proper education and training associated with managing both a dispatch center and jail facility.

Recommendations:

Assign the Support Services Manager management responsibilities of the jail facility and dispatch center.
(4) Rank Structure and Management Roles
In many respects, managing a smaller department is no different than a larger one – the needs of operations management, personnel and financial management are identical.

The difference is that a smaller organization has fewer people to contribute to these management areas. As a result, in a small organization managers and supervisors have many roles and responsibilities besides managing the operations of their area of principal assignment.

The command and supervisory staff of the Signal Hill Police Department includes:
• Chief
• Captain
• Lieutenant (1)
• Support Services Manager
• Sergeants (6)
The four Sergeants who are assigned to the Patrol Bureau function as watch commanders and first line supervisors. Operationally, the four Sergeants may also provide oversight of the jail facilities and the dispatcher/jailer during a shift. During the absence of a Sergeant, a Senior Police Officer assumes the Sergeant’s roles.

The following issues result from this approach to command, supervision and rank structure:
• When an emergency critical incident occurs within the city, it is extremely difficult to effectively manage the incident, supervise the patrol officers involved in the Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 67
incident, and oversee the jail facility and communications simultaneously. • In the absence of a Sergeant, a Senior Police Officer assumes the role of the Sergeant. Senior Police Officers are not currently trained to be first line supervisors, watch commanders, nor management of communications and jail facilities.
• The Senior Police Officer position is currently an assignment, not a department rank with a formal promotional process. In the absence of management and supervisory personnel, this employee is the senior officer working in the city. This employee is responsible for the evaluation, control, and monitoring of all police employees at that time. Establishing a formal promotional process for this position will allow for a thorough and transparent assessment for this rank. • And, finally, as noted in an earlier section, an FTO cannot effectively train a new officer while simultaneously performing Sergeant duties.

Recommendations:

Sergeants and Senior Police Officers should receive training in jail and communications management.

Ensure that Senior Police Officers receive first line supervisor training in order to prepare them to perform watch commander and first line supervision functions.

Change the Senior Police Officer position from an assignment to a formalized rank with an accompanying promotional process.
(5) Spans of Control
A proper organizational structure should ensure unity of command and proper supervisory span of control. While this span of control may vary depending on several factors, a typical department’s span of control is three to five at the top level of the organization and is often broader at the lower levels. An effective organizational structure should ensure supervisors are not spread to thinly across the department.

The following chart identifies the current supervisory spans of control in the Signal Hill Police Department:

Position Subordinates
Captain 3
Lieutenant 5
Support Services Manager 1
Administrative Sergeant 0
Patrol Team #1 Sergeant 5
Patrol Team #2 Sergeant 6
Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 68
Position Subordinates
Patrol Team #3 Sergeant 6
Patrol Team #4 Sergeant 5
Detective Sergeant 4
Senior Police Officer 4-5
Recommendation:

There are no issues with the current spans of control in the Signal Hill Police Department. (6) Collateral Assignments
Signal Hill Police Department supervisory personnel have collateral responsibilities outside of their functional areas of responsibility. The table below describes the roles of management and supervisory personnel, including collateral responsibilities:

Manager /
Functional Area Position Key Roles and Responsibilities Police Chief • Provides the overall leadership, management, and administration. • Works with the City Manager to meet goals and objectives set by the Council.
• Reviews policies and procedures, goals, and objectives. • Directly supervises the captain.
• Interfaces with the community and community groups.
• Manages department’s professional standards.

Captain • Assists the Chief in the overall leadership, management, and administration.
• Oversees the operations of the administrative and operations divisions. • Directly supervises the Lieutenant, the Support Services Manager, and the Administrative Sergeant.
• Manages department emergency preparedness (EOC)
• Reviews use of force and associated complaints.
• Manages department’s information technology.
• Manages building maintenance.

Operations Division
Lieutenant
• Provides the overall leadership, management, and administration of the Operations Division.
• Directly supervises four Patrol Sergeants and one Detective Sergeant. • Follows up on community complaints.
• Primary contact for community outreach and neighborhood watch program.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 69
Manager /
Functional Area Position Key Roles and Responsibilities • Major administrative duties include department’s fleet management, CPTED, volunteer services, department intern program, explore program, citizen academy, payroll, and operations cadets.

Support Services
Manager
• Provides the management, and administration of the Records Bureau. • Directly supervises the Records Bureau Supervisor.
• Major administrative duties include employment contracts, vendor contracts, department budget, training and recruitment of both sworn and civilian positions, communication technology, and grants.

Administrative
Sergeant
• Management and administration of the jail.
• Management and administration of field training program. • Management and administration of department range.

Patrol Sergeants • Sergeants oversee patrol shifts, the jail, and directly supervise patrol teams.
• Directly supervise dispatcher/jailer on shift.
• Investigate community complaints during shift.
• Sergeants have collateral duties (besides their shifts/teams), including:
– Supervise Volunteer Services Unit.
– Supervise Homeless Liaison program.
– Supervise Traffic Unit.

Detective Sergeant • Directly supervises three detectives, assigns and reviews cases. • Manage and oversight of property/evidence room.

As can be seen from the table above, the functional roles of all managers and supervisors in the Signal Hill Police Department are varied and transcend their operational roles.

There are many clear advantages in such an organizational structure – it is more cost effective than the alternative of retaining more management or support staff; it also provides opportunities for managers and supervisors to enhance their professional experience. As a small department, it is also necessary.

Caution should be used not to overburden employees with collateral duties which take away from primary supervisory functions. For instance, the department currently only has authorized one Lieutenant position, who manages the Operations Division. In the current organizational structure, this Lieutenant immediately supervises the four Patrol Sergeants and the one Detective Sergeant. Although this span of control is sufficient, this Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 70
Lieutenant has several collateral administrative tasks which may take away from management duties. Sergeants are currently not assigned the same number of collateral duty assignments, which has resulted in inconsistent workloads.

The Support Services Manager position has duties assigned which include oversight and responsibilities of the department’s budget and the department’s training. At times, personnel matters concerning these two areas occur. While this manager can address these matters with non-sworn employees, this is not the case with sworn employees. This manager must forward issues with a sworn member’s pay and/or training to the operations lieutenant to address. This creates unnecessary delays and adds to the lieutenant’s workload. Nationally, in agencies of all sizes, it is becoming more common for non-sworn managers to address sworn members concerning tasks related to nonoperational functions.

Recommendations:

Ensure that collateral administrative duties (e.g., fleet management, CPTED, volunteer services, intern program, explore program, citizen academy, and cadets) are as evenly divided as possible among all sworn and non-sworn supervisory staff.

Ensure the Support Services Manager has the authority to address administrative tasks and/or issues with sworn members directly.
(7) Civilianization
Many organizations have civilianized many functions performed traditionally by sworn personnel. This has typically worked well for such line functions as crime analysis and forensics, crime-scene investigations, report taking, and even supplemental patrol duties.

The management and supervision of civilianized functions also lends itself to civilianization. Signal Hill, as a small agency, has few opportunities for civilianization.

However, the Signal Hill Police Department recently replaced a lieutenant position with a non-sworn manager position.

3. Management and Leadership
The department’s top management systems shape the organization, drive its culture, value its community support and interaction and directs and evaluates its performance. (1) Mission, Vision, and Goals
A police organization typically defines its purpose and intent through both a mission and vision statement. This mission and vision must be clearly understood by the community served. A Department’s core values are the formal expression of the agency’s fundamental beliefs on which its behavior and overall mission are based. A vision Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 71
statement describes where the organization wants to be in the future. A mission statement describes what the organization needs to do to achieve the vision.

An organization’s mission, vision, and values statements clarify for officers and community members what the agency wants to be, where it is going, and what it is trying to achieve. Well-crafted statements provide direction for agency members and lend transparency to the community. They build community trust and provide a framework for accountability. All department employees should be held accountable to the department’s mission, vision, and values.

The project team reviewed the Department’s stated commitment to excellence, mission statement, and values as described on the department’s website. These attributes include:

Committed to Excellence in Service – The Signal Hill Police Department is a full-service law enforcement agency serving the needs of the community.

Mission Statement - We the members of the Signal Hill Police Department are devoted to enhancing the quality of life in the City of Signal Hill by:
• Providing a proactive and professional level of police service • Strengthening our partnership with the community
• Treating all persons with fairness, respect, and dignity Department Values
• Integrity – We hold ourselves to a higher standard of conduct in everything we do, everything we say, and everything we represent. We recognize that we hold positions of trust in our community.
• Communication – We pledge to maintain open, two-way communication by sharing information with all members of the community in a supportive and constructive manner.
• Loyalty – We will provide faithful and willing service as a measure of our loyalty to our community, to our organization, and to each other.
• Family – We will promote family values as an important element for success in our community. Our goal is to achieve a safe and secure environment for our diverse population.
• Responsibility – We accept the full scope of our responsibilities. All actions will be in the best interest of the community and department.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 72
The department’s mission statement and values are clear and concise. A vision statement will assist the department in moving forward and creates a mental image of where it would like to be. This mental image is advantageous for community members and department employees. While constructing a vision statement, the department should seek community involvement. This will assist in promoting transparency and the department’s commitment to the above principles.

Recommendation:

Construct a department vision statement. This process should include the participation of community members and department employees.

Prominently display the mission statement, vision, and department values on the front page of the department’s website as well as within the facility itself. (2) Leadership Training and Career Development
Employee interviews and the employee survey reveal that there has been a lack of focus on developing ‘leadership’ in the Department’s career development planning. The following are employee perceptions of leadership in the management positions from the employee survey:
• Approximately 82% of employees believe there is not a high degree of accountability throughout the organization.
• Approximately 68% of employees do not feel like they can trust management in the department.
• Approximately 63% of employees do not believe the department is headed in the right direction.

The following are employee perceptions of supervision:
• Approximately 32% of employees are afraid to identify potential problems areas to their direct supervisor.
• Approximately 37% of employees do not trust decisions made by their direct supervisors are the best decisions for the future of the department.

The Department needs to avail itself of management and supervisory training. Certainly, Covid19 interrupted the ability to attend many training sessions. Now, with in person training increasing and with more training being conducted virtually, there is much that is now available.

Formal management and leadership training are available through a number of providers including California POST, International Association for Chiefs of Police (IACP), Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 73
Northwestern Center for Public Safety, and the FBI. There are many private providers as well as much that is online. Management and supervisory training should focus on topics such as general leadership, strategic planning, fiscal management, personnel and legal issues, critical incident management, ethics, risk management, media relations, and project presentations and reports. Once basic management training has been completed, employees should attend more holistic courses designed to move the organization forward in order to face future challenges in policing.

Leadership training before promotional appointment is highly desirable. At the very least this should occur soon after an appointment. Some form of leadership or career advancement training should occur within every position within the organization. A focus on leadership development with topics such as recognizing and applying leadership traits, presenting a positive role model, and giving others the opportunity to develop and providing feedback.

A career development policy needs to be created for the Department with specific targets for each level in the organization. Moreover, career development needs to be incorporated into annual performance reviews.

Recommendation:

Create a formal career development and leadership policy and plan within the Department.

4. Personnel Management
Personnel management is a critical element in modern policing. Personnel are the greatest asset to any department. Personnel management requires relationship building and accountability which must be consistent regardless of rank or position.

Decisions should be based on a standardized, objective, and structured set of criteria.

Measuring performance through evaluations for both on-the-job performance and promotions is typical in many police organizations.

A clear and consistent evaluation system will validate selection processes, satisfy liability and legal requirements, provide feedback, and provide a basis for retention/termination decisions. The evaluation should rate employees either as individuals, in comparison with other employees doing similar tasks, or by national standards; but employees must know how they are being evaluated.

The evaluation system utilized by the Signal Hill Police Department has been recently updated. Even so, employee interviews indicate that the evaluation process may not be delivered consistently and in line with department values.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 74
Evaluating employee performance is necessary but subjective in nature. This subjectivity may result in a perception that employee evaluations may not be delivered fairly and consistently, in line with department values. The department should take steps in order to improve upon the consistency of its employee evaluations. Ensure all employees are knowledgeable in the evaluation system and department expectations are clear. The department should also ensure all evaluators receive constant training in conducting employee evaluations. This training should be received collectively in order to solicit questions and feedback to gain department wide consensus on expectations. This training should also ensure improvement upon the delivery of fair and consistent evaluations, in line with department values occur.

Recommendation:

Ensure that all employees tasked with conducting employee evaluations receive constant training. This training should educate evaluators on proper methods and ensure evaluations are delivered fairly and consistently, in line with department values.

5. Training
Effective and consistent training is of strategic importance in modern law enforcement and the need for training is specifically targeted in 21st Century Policing concepts and the Commission report.

Due to Covid impacts on training, SHPD had been behind on scheduled training to meet California Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) which requires 24 hours of state mandated training in a 2 year cycle. The department has a plan to meet the training requirements before the deadline. Topics for this POST cycle include:
• Strategic Communication (De-escalation)
• Emergency Vehicle Operations
• Use of Force
• Firearms
• Arrested Control
This is very limited requirement and Signal Hill meets the standard. Signal Hill officers have averaged 47 hours of training per year in 2020 to 2021(excluding recent academy graduates who have significantly more). This exceeds current best practices which is 40 hours of training per year.

Employee interviews indicate department training is inconsistent and has gaps beyond meeting state requirements. Each employee is responsible for finding additional training, Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 75
submitting a request for the classes they wish to attend. This creates inconsistent outcomes as employees may attend classes on the same topic, but with different methods being presented. Moreover, desirable training may be missed.

Finally, there is no trend analysis or use of department data on policy violations or procedure failures to make training decisions to address repeated problems.

The department is currently updating their training planning to includes addressing these issues.
(1) Training Needs Assessment
To develop a training plan the department needs to conduct a needs assessment based on current issues within the department or emerging trends in law enforcement. This should include crisis intervention training, de-escalation training, defensive tactics, complaints or performance issues that affect more than one employee. A training needs assessment should be conducted with stakeholders at the officer, non-sworn and supervisory levels. A needs assessment should include the following:
• Review of Statutory Changes.
• Review of policy changes.
• A review of department needs for training on specific tasks. • A national survey of emerging trends.
• A local survey of trends.
• Data from the department on use of force, complaints, officer involved traffic collisions, process or procedure failures, lawsuits to determine if any issues could be mitigated through training.
• Legal updates.
• Career advancement training.
• Leadership training.

All of these topics should be considered along with is there a direct benefit to the community or department or does the additional training fill a need or create value for the department or community. A well thought-out needs assessment will include needs from each role/ function within the department and may be different for each unit. (2) Training Plan
There had been no formalized training plan prepared by the department prior to July 2022.

Formalized training planning should be conducted by the agency to ensure police trends or department needs are incorporated into a plan. A training plan should be developed Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 76
once a needs assessment has been completed. A formalized training plan will help to ensure all employees receive the training they need to be effective at their job. A training plan would also detail when training should be conducted so that all state training mandates are met and that all employees receive the needed training to be most effective.

Though a training a plan can be completed, it is often better to develop a training committee to develop the plan. This can help with employee “buy in” for the plan and can also help explain “the why” and “how” the plan was developed. A training committee should consist at a minimum of one person from each major area of the department since different units of areas may have specific needs.

Once the plan is developed a matrix should be completed so that time frames and attendance goals are met. SHPD currently uses a spreadsheet to do this and as a smaller department this is a cost effective way to stay organized.

Recommendation:

Conduct a needs assessment.

Develop a department training plan annually.

Establish a training committee.

Maintain current annual training of a minimum of 40 hours per year inclusive of state mandated training.

6. Complaint Handling
An analysis of the complaint handling process for the Signal Hill Police Department was conducted by the Matrix Consulting Group team. As part of the review the Matrix team looked at SHPD Policy 1020 – personnel complaints, interviewed command staff, reviewed investigation data for resolved cases and viewed the online complaint process for the department.

SHPD accepts complaints in any form to include written, by phone, in person, by email or through the online complaint form. The online form is readily accessible on the SHPD website. It is easy to understand and easy to complete. The form is presented in English, Spanish and Khmer. Forms are also placed in the lobby of the police department and other City facilities. Anonymous and third-party complaints are accepted and investigated to determine if sufficient information can be gathered to determine if a formal investigation should be conducted. Complaints can be generated internally or by the public.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 77
Online complaints are routed to the Operations Lieutenant, Captain, and Chief of Police.

Supervisors receiving a complaint inquiry will ensure a formal complaint form is completed except in cases where confidentiality may become an issue. In that instance, the supervisor will contact the appropriate command personnel. Supervisors receiving the initial inquiry will conduct a preliminary investigation to determine the severity and or merit of the complaint. Complaint inquiries about conduct or performance that, if true, would not violate SHPD policies or law are not considered a personnel complaint and may be handled by a supervisor. Those inquiries are documented and included with the department’s complaint log and given a disposition.

All formal complaints are investigated by an outside third-party investigator contracted with the City. By policy investigations are to be completed one year from discovery of the complaint, however, viewing the investigation log most complaints are investigated and resolved well within that time frame. Investigations that started or become criminal in nature can be investigated concurrently but is not the standard process. Other than the outside investigator there is no other civilian oversight in this process.

In the past, SHPD has not completed complaint investigations after the resignation or retirement of an employee. In the future the department will complete investigations for employees who leave the department with an open investigation. Other agencies seeking to view internal affairs and complaint files may view SHPD files with the appropriate signed waivers.

SHPD provided the last four years of complaint/investigation data. The department averages 4 internal complaints and 6 citizen complaints a year. Of those investigations, 20 were handled as informal investigations and 20 were handled in a formal manner assigned to the third-party investigator. The chart, below, outlines the investigation findings for the informal and formal cases.

Signal Hill Internal Investigation Findings 2018-2021
Formal Sustained 10
Informal Sustained 1

Formal Not Sustained 3
Informal Not Sustained 1
Formal Unfounded 0
Informal Unfounded 14
Formal Rescinded 3
Informal Rescinded 0
Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 78
Formal Exonerated 1
Informal Exonerated 3
Formal Withdrawn 1
Informal Other 1
Formal 2021 Case Yet to be completed 1
The number of case findings for each finding outcome are within an acceptable range for a department the size of Signal Hill P.D.

The City of Signal Hill is seeking more transparency for the police department and has acted on a recommendation from the City’s Diversity Coalition to make the complaint process more accessible to the public. The department will create a quarterly report of the complaint data for public consumption in addition to an annual report.

SHPD has an organized and transparent process for filing complaints. The website is easy to navigate, and the use of a 3rd party investigator provides independent analysis during the investigative process. Reporting to the public on a quarterly and yearly basis is a best practice for transparency with the community.

7. Labor Relations
Relations between the Signal Hill Police Department’s command staff and labor have been tense and contentiousness. A culture of mistrust, a perception of a lack of accountability, and “us versus them” atmosphere is apparent throughout the department.

Some of this historical mistrust has continued into the present. This is reflected in the project team’s interviews and in the employee survey conducted as part this study. The following employee survey perceptions also highlight this contentiousness:
• Approximately 82% of employees believe there is not a high degree of accountability throughout the organization.
• Approximately 68% of employees do not feel like they can trust management in the department.
• Approximately 58% of employees believe the department’s policies and procedures are not applied consistently across all staff.

Collaboration between labor and management is essential within police organizations in order to achieve the shared goals of protecting and serving the community, promoting the safety and well-being of officers, and strengthening police services. It is clear that there is a need to repair the damaged relationship between the Signal Hill Police Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 79
Department’s management and labor. A working relationship is essential in moving the department forward, especially as policing becomes more complex and complicated.

This is especially important in smaller departments where there is more interaction among staff.

The following framework has been developed in order to assist the Signal Hill Police Department repair the relationship between management and labor. (1) Common Ground
Through both, department interviews and the employee survey, the project team has identified several common goals which are shared by both labor and department management. These goals include protecting public safety, strengthening police and community relationships, improving officer safety and wellness, advancing professionalism across the department, and continue building an organization that reflects the diversity of Signal Hill in order to effectively carry out its mission.

These externally driven goals form the basis for finding common ground on internally driven goals.

Recommendation
The department should place an emphasis on these identified shared goals in order to find common ground on which to build collaboration and trust moving forward. A labor / management committee should be created to achieve these goals. (2) Open Communication
Open communication between both labor and management is critical in police organizations. While communication does currently exist between the department’s management and labor, it does not appear that meaningful professional connections have been established. Meaningful personal connections are necessary for building trust and collaboration moving forward.

Engaging in frequent conversations will allow department management and labor to establish these meaningful professional connections. This will also assist in preventing disagreements from escalating by providing avenues in order to share information and discuss concerns frequently, consequently avoiding misunderstandings. A standing, regularly scheduled meeting between management and labor representatives could be beneficial in keeping communication open regarding important work issues. Any collective bargaining issues, grievances, or other areas of employment subject to collective bargaining should not be at these meetings unless appropriate representation from management and labor are present.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 80
Recommendation
Management and labor should schedule regular meetings at least once a month in order to seek input from one another.
(3) Disagreement
There will be times when police labor and management disagree. When these situations arise, it is important to treat each other with respect and dignity; especially in public settings. This will set a good example for officers, demonstrate professionalism to the community, and ensure that the working relationship, and potential progress, is not permanently damaged. Differences should not be taken personally, and employees should refrain from spreading rumors or making personal attacks and resolving disagreements privately rather than in a public setting. Although these disagreements will undoubtedly occur,
An agreement between police labor and management should be attained which clearly identifies all disagreement will be addressed in a private, professional setting. The goal of this agreement is to set a good example for officers, demonstrate professionalism to the community, and ensure the working relationship is not damaged.

Recommendation
Management and labor should agree that all future disagreements will be addressed in a private, professional setting in order to set a good example for the department, demonstrate professionalism to the community, and ensure the working relationship is not damaged.
(4) Collaboration
Collaboration between labor and management will lead to a better understanding and support of the department’s policies and practices. In turn, this will lead to an increase in job satisfaction. Employee job satisfaction, and the belief that they are treated with respect by their supervisors are more likely to treat community members with similar respect. Internal procedural justice within the Signal Hill Police Department will serve as a model for officers to provide external procedural justice to community members. Both internal and external procedural justice will assist the police department in achieving its goals. When employees feel respected, feel involved in the decision-making process, and feel that their needs are being met are often more motivated in putting in extra effort.

Promote procedural justice within the Signal Hill Police Department by obtaining input on decisions regarding equipment, new technology, health, and safety, as well as valuing officers’ views regarding policing strategies and tactics.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 81
Recommendation
A focus of the labor / management committee should be to create a collaborative environment for work.

7. Considerations in Hiring the Next Chief
The City is about to begin a recruitment for its next permanent chief of police. Clearly, this position will be critical to implementing the recommendations made in the final report for this project that are accepted by the city. Equally critical to the long term success of the Department is the acceptance of the staff who will be led by the next chief.

The project team included questions in the employee survey regarding the desired characteristics of the next police chief. These viewpoints should be considered in the process.

Respondents were asked to rank the following ten characteristics from 1 to 10, with 1 being the most desirable. MCG staff then reverse-weighted5 these responses and averaged them across employees to present the table below. The highest average weighted score shown to the right corresponds with the most frequently highest ranked characteristic across all respondents from SHPD.

Results indicate that the most desirable characteristic of the next SHPD Chief of Police is Strong Leadership, followed by the ability to be an Effective Communicator, Innovation, and a Diverse Background.
5 Reverse-weighting these scores assigned 10 points to the respondents #1 response, 9 points to their #2 response, and so on. Total number of points for each characteristic was then averaged across all employees and presented in the table above.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 82
Rank Characteristic Average Weighted Score
1 Strong Leader 8.11
2 Effective Communicator 7.58
3 Innovator 6.06
4 Diverse Background 5.56
5 Labor Relations Skills 5.39
6 Knowledge of Signal Hill 5.16
7 Community Orientation 5.06
8 Consensus Builder 4.84
9 Sensitivity to Diversity 4.61
10 Small Town Experience 4.21
Analysis of these results were consistent across all demographic categories of responding SHPD employees.

Recommendations
In the City’s outreach and recruitment efforts for its permanent chief, the qualities identified by employees should be incorporated into the ‘ideal next police chief’ prospectus.

The labor / management committee needs to be involved with interviews of short-listed candidates.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 83
Attachment A – Profile of the Police Department

1. Introduction
The following descriptive profile outlines the organization, structure, and staffing of the Signal Hill, California Police Department (SHPD). The information contained in the profile has been developed through many interviews conducted within SHPD at all levels of the organization, including managers, supervisors, and line-level staff.

It is important to note that the primary objective of this profile is to review and confirm our current understanding of the Police Department. Consequently, analysis or findings are not contained in this document. Instead, the structure of the profile is as follows:
• The organizational structure of each area of the Police Department. • High level descriptions of the main functions and work areas of each division. • The number of authorized (budgeted) and current (filled) positions by rank or classification assigned to each functional area.
• The roles, objectives, and responsibilities of each functional area.

The profile served as a foundation for our assumptions regarding staffing and current organizational characteristics of the functional areas included in scope of the study.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 84

2. Office of the Chief
The office of the Chief consists of the Chief (interim), one Captain, and one Management Assistant. The Chief provides overall direction, guidance, and leadership for the Police Department. The Chief has responsibility for every area of the organization and ensures that the Department meets its mission in accordance with the established values and has overall responsibility for budget management.

The Captain oversees the operations of the two divisions, assists the Chief of Police as needed, and assumes responsibilities for the department in his absence. The Management Assistant performs various administrative duties, handles purchase requests, and ensures department is in compliance with state training requirements.
(1) Organization
The following chart outlines the organization of the administrative functions of the office of the Chief:
(2) Staffing and Unit Descriptions
The following table provides the personnel and major tasks of staff of the Office of the Chief:

Police Chief
Captain
Management
Assistant
Professional
Standards
Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 85
Unit/Division Curr. Auth. Position Unit Description
Office of the
Chief
1 1 Chief of Police • The Chief provides executive leadership of the police department and serves as
the chief law enforcement official of the
City.
• Interfaces with the elected officials and
the public as necessary.
1 1 Captain • The Captain oversees the operations of
the two divisions, assumes command of
department in chief’s absence, and
assists chief as needed.
• Oversees emergency preparedness,
information technology, and building
maintenance.
1 1 Management Assistant • The Management Assistant performs various administrative duties, handles
purchase requests, schedules training for
department employees, and community
outreach.

Sworn 2 2
Civilian 1 1
Total Staff 3 3
Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 86

3. Operations Division
The Operations Division is led by a Lieutenant and is comprised of the Patrol Bureau and the Detective Bureau. Also contained within the Operations Division is the Traffic Unit/Parking Control, Property/Evidence, and the Task Force. Staff is comprised of a combination of sworn and non-sworn personnel.
(1) Organization
The following chart outlines the organizational structure within the Operations Division:
(2) Staffing and Unit Descriptions
The following table provides the personnel and major tasks of staff in the Operations Division:

Lieutenant
Patrol Bureau
Traffic Unit
Homeless
Liaison Unit
Detective
Bureau
Property
Evidence
Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 87
Unit/Division Curr. Auth. Position Unit Description
Operations
Division
1 1 Lieutenant • The Lieutenant manages the overall
operations of the division. Provides
oversight of all employees within the
division.

Patrol Bureau 4
4 12
2 1
0 5
1 4
4 13
2 1
2 8
1 Sergeant
Senior Police Officer
(SPO)
Patrol Officer
(including 3 in field
training program)
Traffic Officer
Homeless Liaison
Officer
Recruit Officer
Dispatcher/Jailer
Parking Control Officer
(part time civilian
position)
• The Sergeant is the patrol watch
commander, the immediate patrol team
supervisor, and oversees jail operations
during a shift.
• One Sergeant has collateral supervisory
responsibilities of the traffic unit.
• The Senior Police Officer (SPO) is the
watch commander and the patrol team’s
immediate supervisor in the sergeant’s
absence. When sergeant is on duty, the
SPO performs officer functions.
• Patrol Officer responds to community
generated calls for service and provides
proactive law enforcement services.
• Traffic Officer investigates traffic
crashes and responds to community
generated calls for service when needed.
• The Homeless Liaison Officer assists
homeless population with resources and
assistance. Also responses to
community generated calls for service
when needed.
• The recruit officer is currently attending a
police academy.
• The Dispatcher/Jailer answers both
emergency/non-emergency calls from
the community, dispatches officers to
CFS, and performs other routine
dispatcher duties. Dispatcher/Jailers
perform prisoner searches, conduct
medical screenings, book prisoners into
jail, and are responsible for the care and
custody of prisoners in facility.
• Dispatcher/Jailer transport prisoners to
and from court and other law
enforcement facilities as needed.
• The parking control officer issues parking
citations and assists with traffic control
when needed.

Detective
Bureau
1 1 Sergeant • The Sergeant supervises the day to day
operations of the detective bureau.

Assigns and reviews cases and
Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 88
Unit/Division Curr. Auth. Position Unit Description
1 2
1 1
3 1
Senior Detective (SPO)
Detectives
Administrative
Assistant
coordinates investigative activities when
needed.
• The Sergeant has functional
responsibilities for the property/evidence
room.
• The SPO is assigned cases and
supervises detectives in Sergeant’s
absence.
• One Detective is assigned property
crimes, one Detective is assigned Fraud
Crimes, and one Detective is assigned
Crimes against Persons. The Property
Crimes Detective also has sex offender
notification duties, consisting of
processing paperwork and conducing
sex offender station check-ins.
• Detectives conduct interviews, write
warrants and coordinate arrests. They
will respond to crime scenes and are on
call on weekends for major cases.
• Detectives transport evidence to lab,
process all department arrest
paperwork/citations, and transport arrest
packets to courthouse.
• The Administrative Assistant performs
routine clerical work and has basic
property/evidence room clerk duties.

Sworn 28 32
Civilian 7 10
Total Staff 35 42
Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 89

4. Administrative Division
The Administrative Division is comprised of two sections which are led by either the Support Services Manager or the Administrative Sergeant. The Support Services Manager manages the Records Bureau, and is responsible for department training and recruitment, the budget and vendor contracts. The Administrative Sergeant supervises the field training program, the jail, fleet management, and the department’s volunteer program. Staff is comprised of a combination of sworn and non-sworn personnel.
(1) Organization
The following chart outlines the organization of the Support Bureau:
(2) Staffing and Unit Descriptions
The following table provides the personnel and major tasks of staff within the Support Bureau:

Support Services
Manager
Records Bureau
Administrative
Sergeant
Jail
Field Training
Program
Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 90
Unit/Division Curr. Auth. Position Unit Description
Administrative
Division
1 1
0 1
1 1
Administrative
Sergeant
Support Services
Manager
Emergency
Management
Coordinator
(part time position)
• The Sergeant performs administrative
duties, manages the field training
program and the homeless liaison unit,
oversees jail operations and the firearms
range.
• The Sergeant also has the following
management/supervisory
responsibilities: volunteer program, fleet
management, intern program, explorer
program, and citizens academy.
• The Support Services Manager oversees
the records Bureau, ensures department
training certifications, and oversees
department vendor contracts.
• The Emergency Management
Coordinator operates the EOC during
emergency situations, trains city
employees in emergency management
operations, manages city emergency
planning grants, and teaches citizen
CERT courses.

Records Bureau 1

2.5 4
1 2.5
4 Supervisor
Records Clerk
Cadet (part time paid
position
• The Supervisor is the first-line supervisor
for Records Bureau.
• The Records Clerk processes
incident/arrest reports, performs
customer service functions, processes
vehicle releases and public records
requests, and other administrative tasks.
• Cadets issue parking citations on city
street sweeping days and assist records
clerks with various administrative tasks.

Sworn 1 1
Civilian 8.5 9.5
Total Staff 9.5 10.5
Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 91
Attachment B – Results of the Employee Survey
Introduction and Key Highlights
The Matrix Consulting Group (MCG) was retained by the City of Signal Hill (CA) to complete an Organizational Assessment of the Signal Hill Police Department (SHPD). The scope of work included a survey to gauge the attitudes of the employees of the department in various topics about the Department and serving the community. An employee survey is important in any police study today.

Of the 49 total invitations sent to SHPD employees, there were a total of 39 responses (either partial or complete) received by the project team, resulting in a response rate of 80%.

The survey was conducted between March 21, 2022 and April 3, 2022.

Key Highlights
While many of these topics are expanded upon in the following sections, there are several key takeaways to note:
• Positive outlooks and high levels of agreement are expressed regarding a variety of topics such as:
– Providing a high level of service to the Signal Hill community, – Having a clear mission statement,
– Communication practices of direct supervisors,
– The prioritization of community policing principles,
– General training protocols, and
– The need for change within SHPD and the desire to enact said change. • Opportunities for improvement surround topics such as:
– The overall direction of SHPD,
– Recent changes in department administration’s ability to address problems, – Morale, accountability, and trust throughout SHPD,
– Communication practices from the top of the organization, and – Hiring and retention practices at SHPD.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 92
• There is a consensus of desirable characteristics of the next SHPD Chief of Police; including being a strong leader, an effective communicator, and innovative.

Employee Survey Results
Responses are organized into sections based on question topic/themes. MCG project staff arrived at these specific questions and themes after consultation with members of SHPD staff during the early stages of the project.

1. Respondent Demographics and Background Information
This section provides information relating to the demographics and background information of responding employees of SHPD. These demographics will be utilized to construct crosstabulations of viable responses in succeeding sections.

Of the 39 responding employees, there were a total of 28 (72%) sworn employees compared to 11 (28%) of civilian employees.

Employee Status % #
Sworn 72% 28
Civilian 28% 11
Total 100% 39
A large majority of respondents indicated being a male (59%), followed by Female respondents (38%). One employee (3%) indicated that they gender was not listed in the given responses.

Employee Gender % #
Male 59% 23
Female 38% 15
Non-binary 0% 0
My gender is not listed 3% 1
Prefer Not to Answer 0% 0
Most responding employees indicated that they have served SHPD for 2 years of less (23%), followed by an equal number of respondents indicating that they have served SHPD from 6 to 10 years and 16 to 20 years (21%).

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 93
Employee Tenure % #
2 years or less 23% 9
3 - 5 years 15% 6
6 - 10 years 21% 8
11 - 15 years 8% 3
16 - 20 years 21% 8
20+ years 13% 5
Prefer Not to Answer 0% 0
A large majority of respondents are line staff (67%), followed by Supervisory personnel (23%) and Command Staff (8%).

Employee Current Rank % #
Command Staff (Lt. and Above or Civilian Managers) 8% 3 Supervisory Personnel 23% 9
Line Staff (Officer or Civilian Staff) 69% 27

2. Multiple Choice Questions
The following two sections report responses to questions relating to 1) General Topics of the Signal Hill Police Department and 2) topics specific to the Patrol Division. The general topics section was asked to all employees, regardless of current assignment, while the patrol specific questions were asked to those employees who indicated that they were currently assigned to patrol.

Questions regarding these topics were asked in statement form, asking respondents to indicate their level of agree (i.e., Strongly Disagree (SD), Disagree (D), Agree (A), or Strongly Agree (SA)). Results are presented with a shading of blue in correlation with the level of agreement (or disagreement) with the statements listed.

General Questions
General topics questions were asked to all staff. These questions cover topics such as relationships with the community and City government, training, operations, organization, and policies and procedures. Results are listed in the table below:

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 94
# Statement SA A D SD NO
1 The Police Department provides a high level of
service to the community. 32% 61% 5% 3% 0%
2 The department is headed in the right direction. 0% 32% 37% 26% 5% 3 The department has a clear mission statement. 11% 55% 18% 13% 3% 4 Recent changes in command staff have addressed
problems for the organization. 3% 21% 50% 26% 0%
5 I feel that I can trust management in the department. 3% 18% 29% 39% 11% 6 There is a high degree of accountability throughout
the department. 0% 13% 37% 45% 5%
7 There is adequate communication from the top of the
organization. 0% 13% 42% 42% 3%
8 Direct supervisors are consistent in their
communication with me. 13% 42% 18% 18% 8%
9 The distinction between the roles of Sergeants and
Senior Police Officers are clear to me. 11% 45% 26% 13% 5% 10 Everyone in the department is working towards the
same goals. 5% 21% 47% 26% 0%
11 I can make a career at the department. 5% 47% 24% 13% 11% Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 95
12 Staff within the department treat each other with
respect. 8% 42% 24% 26% 0%
13 Community Policing is a high priority for the
department. 24% 50% 18% 5% 3%
14 I have the technology necessary to complete my job
adequately and efficiently. 0% 34% 39% 24% 3%
15 I receive enough training to be effective at my job. 5% 45% 26% 18% 5% 16 The training I receive is relevant to my job. 11% 81% 5% 0% 3% 17 The training I receive is high quality. 8% 63% 24% 3% 3% 18 We have sufficient training to handle critical incidents. 3% 29% 37% 26% 5% 19 Our policies and procedures are up to date. 0% 82% 18% 0% 0% 20 Policies and procedures are consistently applied
across all staff. 0% 39% 34% 24% 3%
21 The police department's hiring practices are racially equitable. 19% 62% 3% 3% 14%
22 The police department's hiring practices bring in the best employees/officers for the job. 3% 34% 47% 13% 3%
Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 96
23 The Department adequately addresses employee
retention issues. 0% 11% 37% 39% 13%
24 There are adequate mental health/support programs
provided by the Department. 0% 32% 19% 27% 22%
25 The department encourages me to maintain a healthy
balance between my work and personal life. 3% 32% 32% 26% 8% 26 Work demands placed on me are manageable. 3% 50% 29% 16% 3% 27 The overall morale of the Department is good. 0% 13% 45% 39% 3% 28 I would recommend this as a good place to work. 0% 39% 21% 29% 11% 29 The policing profession is what I expected it to be. 3% 47% 34% 3% 13% 30 I am not afraid to identify potential problem areas to my direct supervisor(s). 13% 50% 16% 16% 5%
31 I trust the decisions made by my direct supervisor are the best decisions for the future of the department. 3% 58% 24% 13% 3% 32 I believe my coworkers understand the need for
change within the department. 34% 42% 8% 16% 0%
Responding employees indicated having high levels of agreement relating to the following topics:
• SHPD provides high level of service to the community, • SHPD has a clear mission statement,
Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 97
• The consistent communication practices of direct supervisors at SHPD, • The distinction between roles of direct supervisors,
• The ability to make a career at SHPD,
• SHPD’s prioritization of community policing practices, • SHPD’s frequency and relevancy of training protocols, • The racially equitable hiring practices at SHPD,
• Work demands placed on employees, and
• Trust in administration and supervisors to make necessary changes when the opportunity arises.

While there is a long list of questions with high levels of agreement amongst SHPD staff, there are also a variety of areas identified by MCG project staff as opportunities for improvement within SHPD. These topics are listed and expanded upon in the section below.

General Topics Opportunities for Improvement
Expansion of these areas are listed on a question-by-question basis. Expansion is constructed across relevant employee demographic and background information collected at the onset of the employee survey. Only relevant findings are portrayed. #2 “The department is headed in the right direction.”
Employee Current Rank SA A D SD NO
Supervisory Personnel 0% 11% 56% 33% 0%
Line Staff (Officer or Civilian Staff) 0% 35% 31% 27% 8% 63% of respondents either disagreed or strongly disagreed that the department is headed in the right direction. This level of disagreement was found throughout both supervisory personnel and line staff (shown above).

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 98
Employee Length of Service SA A D SD NO
2 years or less 0% 56% 22% 22% 0%
3 - 5 years 0% 40% 60% 0% 0%
6 - 10 years 0% 13% 63% 25% 0%
11 - 15 years 0% 0% 67% 33% 0%
16 - 20 years 0% 13% 13% 50% 25%
20+ years 0% 60% 20% 20% 0%
Further, while there were a majority of respondents overall in disagreement with this statement, respondents who have served SHPD for 2 years or less and 20 or more years were the only length of service categories in agreement with the statement that SHPD is headed in the right direction.
#4 “Recent changes in command staff have addressed problems for the organization.” Employee Current Rank SA A D SD NO
Supervisory Personnel 0% 0% 67% 33% 0%
Line Staff (Officer or Civilian Staff) 4% 23% 50% 23% 0% There was a total of 76% of respondents who either disagreed or strongly disagreed that the recent changes in command staff have addressed problems for the organization. This high level of disagreement was found across both supervisory and line level personnel.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 99
Employee Length of Service SA A D SD NO
2 years or less 0% 56% 22% 22% 0%
3 - 5 years 0% 0% 100% 0% 0%
6 - 10 years 0% 13% 63% 25% 0%
11 - 15 years 0% 0% 67% 33% 0%
16 - 20 years 0% 13% 38% 50% 0%
20+ years 20% 20% 40% 20% 0%
Those who have served SHPD for 2 years or less were in agreement that the recent changes in command staff have addressed problems for the organization; however, they were the only length of service category in agreement with this statement. #5 “I feel that I can trust management in the department.” Employment Status Agree Disagree
Sworn 21% 75%
Civilian 20% 50%
A majority of respondents (68%) either disagreed or strongly disagreed that they can trust the management at SHPD. While there was a high level of disagreement across both sworn and civilian personnel, there was an increased level of disagreement throughout the sworn ranks (75%) compared to civilian staff members (50%). The increased level of disagreement was found throughout all current ranks and lengths of service at SHPD.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 100
#6 “There is a high degree of accountability throughout the department.” Employment Status Agree Disagree
Sworn 14% 82%
Civilian 10% 80%
86% of respondents indicated that they disagree or strongly disagree with this statement relating to accountability at SHPD. This increased level of disagreement was found throughout both sworn and civilian employees (shown above), as well as all current ranks and employee lengths of service (shown below).

Employee Current Rank SA A D SD NO
Supervisory Personnel 0% 0% 44% 56% 0%
Line Staff (Officer or Civilian Staff) 0% 19% 35% 38% 8% Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 101
Employee Length of Service SA A D SD NO
2 years or less 0% 33% 11% 33% 22%
3 - 5 years 0% 20% 40% 40% 0%
6 - 10 years 0% 0% 38% 63% 0%
11 - 15 years 0% 0% 33% 67% 0%
16 - 20 years 0% 0% 50% 50% 0%
20+ years 0% 20% 60% 20% 0%
#7 “There is adequate communication from the top of the organization.” Employment Status Agree Disagree
Sworn 11% 86%
Civilian 20% 80%
84% of respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed that there is adequate communication from the top of the organization. This high level of disagreement was present throughout both sworn and civilian staff members (shown above), as well as all employee current ranks and employee lengths of service.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 102
#10 “Everyone in the department is working towards the same goals.” Employee Length of Service SA A D SD NO
2 years or less 11% 56% 22% 11% 0%
3 - 5 years 0% 20% 60% 20% 0%
6 - 10 years 0% 13% 63% 25% 0%
11 - 15 years 0% 0% 100% 0% 0%
16 - 20 years 13% 0% 38% 50% 0%
20+ years 0% 20% 40% 40% 0%
73% of respondents indicated that they disagreed or strongly disagreed that everyone at SHPD is working towards the same goals. This trend of disagreement was present across all employee demographics at SHPD with the exception of employees early in their career (2 years or less).
#14 “I have the technology necessary to complete my job adequately and efficiently.” Employment Status Agree Disagree
Sworn 25% 71%
Civilian 60% 40%
63% of all respondents indicated that they either disagreed or strongly disagreed that they had the necessary technological resources to complete their assigned tasks. Sworn employees exhibited a higher level of disagreement (71%) to this statement compared to their civilian employee counterparts (40%).

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 103
Employee Length of Service SA A D SD NO
2 years or less 0% 22% 33% 33% 11%
3 - 5 years 0% 40% 40% 20% 0%
6 - 10 years 0% 38% 38% 25% 0%
11 - 15 years 0% 0% 33% 67% 0%
16 - 20 years 0% 25% 63% 13% 0%
20+ years 0% 80% 20% 0% 0%
The only employee demographic exhibiting a majority level of agreement to this statement were those who have been employed 20 years or more (shown above). #18 “We have sufficient training to handle critical incidents.” Employment Status Agree Disagree
Sworn 25% 75%
Civilian 50% 30%
63% of respondents indicated disagreement or strong disagreement regarding SHPD having sufficient training to handle critical incidents. There was an increased level of disagreement throughout sworn employees (75%) compared to civilian employees (30%).

All other employee demographics have a majority of respondents in disagreement with this statement, with the exception of those who have served 2 years or less at SHPD.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 104
#20 “Policies and procedures are consistently applied across all staff.” Employment Status Agree Disagree
Sworn 39% 61%
Civilian 40% 50%
58% of employees disagreed or strongly disagreed that the policies and procedures at SHPD are applied consistently across all staff. This trend remained relatively consistent across both sworn and civilian employees at SHPD.

Employee Current Rank SA A D SD NO
Supervisory Personnel 0% 11% 56% 33% 0%
Line Staff (Officer or Civilian Staff) 0% 46% 27% 23% 4% Supervisory personnel were more likely to disagree that policies and procedures are consistently applied across all staff, while line level personnel expressed slightly more positive outlooks.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 105
Employee Length of Service SA A D SD NO
2 years or less 0% 78% 11% 11% 0%
3 - 5 years 0% 20% 60% 20% 0%
6 - 10 years 0% 38% 38% 25% 0%
11 - 15 years 0% 0% 33% 67% 0%
16 - 20 years 0% 38% 13% 38% 13%
20+ years 0% 20% 80% 0% 0%
Respondents employed 2 years or less at SHPD also exhibited high levels of agreement in comparison to their counterparts.
#22 “The police department's hiring practices bring in the best employees/officers for the job.”
Employment Status Agree Disagree
Sworn 32% 68%
Civilian 50% 40%
While 60% of all respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed with this statement, there is an increased level of disagreement with this statement amongst sworn employees (68%) compared to their civilian counterparts (40%).

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 106
Employee Current Rank SA A D SD NO
Supervisory Personnel 0% 11% 67% 22% 0%
Line Staff (Officer or Civilian Staff) 4% 35% 46% 12% 4% Further, supervisory personnel exhibited more negative outlooks relating to the hiring practices of the department in comparison to line level personnel, although line level employees still disagreed or strongly disagreed with this statement 58% of the time.

Employee Length of Service SA A D SD NO
2 years or less 11% 67% 11% 11% 0%
3 - 5 years 0% 20% 60% 20% 0%
6 - 10 years 0% 0% 75% 13% 13%
11 - 15 years 0% 0% 100% 0% 0%
16 - 20 years 0% 38% 38% 25% 0%
20+ years 0% 60% 40% 0% 0%
Employees who have served less than 2 years, or 20 years or more were in agreement with this statement. Any other tenured group of SHPD employees followed the general trend of disagreement relating to hiring practices at SHPD.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 107
#23 “The Department adequately addresses employee retention issues.” Employment Status Agree Disagree
Sworn 11% 82%
Civilian 10% 60%
76% of responding employees indicated that they disagreed or strongly disagreed with the current methods of retention at SHPD. Retention issues were a common theme of disagreement and negative outlooks throughout the employee survey. These negative outlooks were expressed across both sworn and civilian staff, across all current ranks, and across all lengths of service.
#24 “There are adequate mental health/support programs provided by the Department.”
Employment Status Agree Disagree
Sworn 39% 50%
Civilian 11% 33%
While only 46% of responding employees disagreed or strongly disagreed with the adequacy of the mental health support programs provided by SHPD, there was also an increased number of employees responding, ‘No Opinion’6. This 46% disagreement rate, combined with only a 32% rate of agreement, makes this a relevant opportunity for improvement on behalf of SHPD. There were higher levels of disagreement than agreement across both sworn and civilian employees.
6 Open-ended responses at the conclusion of the series of multiple-choice responses also brought forth several employee responses indicating that they selected ‘No Opinion’ in response to the adequacy of mental health programs at SHPD because of the lack of programs in general. These respondents did not want to respond in any other manner and portray the misconception that programs were present.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 108
Employee Current Rank SA A D SD NO
Supervisory Personnel 0% 44% 11% 44% 0%
Line Staff (Officer or Civilian Staff) 0% 32% 16% 20% 32% The trend in the level of disagreement was consistent across all current ranks (shown above) as well as all employee lengths of service except for those who have served SHPD for 2 years or less (shown below). There was a high level of employees responding ‘No Opinion’ in this demographic as well.

Employee Length of Service SA A D SD NO
2 years or less 0% 44% 11% 11% 33%
3 - 5 years 0% 0% 40% 40% 20%
6 - 10 years 0% 29% 0% 29% 43%
11 - 15 years 0% 33% 33% 33% 0%
16 - 20 years 0% 38% 13% 38% 13%
20+ years 0% 40% 40% 20% 0%
Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 109
#25 “The department encourages me to maintain a healthy balance between my work and personal life.”
Employment Status Agree Disagree
Sworn 29% 64%
Civilian 50% 40%
58% of respondents indicated disagreement relating to the ability to maintain a healthy balance between work and personal life at SHPD. This level of disagreement was found prominently amongst sworn staff (64%) compared to civilian staff (40%).

Employee Current Rank SA A D SD NO
Supervisory Personnel 0% 22% 33% 44% 0%
Line Staff (Officer or Civilian Staff) 4% 31% 31% 23% 12% Respondents across all employee ranks indicated a high level of disagreement regarding the ability to maintain a healthy balance between their personal life and work life.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 110
Employee Length of Service SA A D SD NO
2 years or less 0% 67% 0% 0% 33%
3 - 5 years 20% 20% 20% 40% 0%
6 - 10 years 0% 13% 50% 38% 0%
11 - 15 years 0% 0% 33% 67% 0%
16 - 20 years 0% 38% 38% 25% 0%
20+ years 0% 20% 60% 20% 0%
Respondents who have served SHPD for 2 years or less indicated having the ability to maintain a healthy work life balance; however, all other tenure categories continued the trend of disagreement found throughout a majority of SHPD. #27 “The overall morale of the Department is good.”
Employment Status Agree Disagree
Sworn 11% 86%
Civilian 20% 80%
84% of all respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed that the morale of SHPD is good.

This finding was consistent across both sworn and civilian ranks (shown above).

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 111
Employee Current Rank SA A D SD NO
Supervisory Personnel 0% 0% 56% 44% 0%
Line Staff (Officer or Civilian Staff) 0% 19% 38% 38% 4% All three employee current ranks indicated overwhelming disagreement relating to the overall morale of the department. The only category with any positive responses were those of line staff employees; however, this only made up 19% of those responses.

Employee Length of Service SA A D SD NO
2 years or less 0% 33% 33% 22% 11%
3 - 5 years 0% 0% 40% 60% 0%
6 - 10 years 0% 0% 63% 38% 0%
11 - 15 years 0% 0% 33% 67% 0%
16 - 20 years 0% 13% 38% 50% 0%
20+ years 0% 20% 60% 20% 0%
Employees throughout all tenure categories expressed consistent levels of disagreement or strong disagreement with this statement (shown above).

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 112
#28 “I would recommend this as a good place to work.”
Employee Length of Service SA A D SD NO
2 years or less 0% 56% 22% 11% 11%
3 - 5 years 0% 60% 0% 20% 20%
6 - 10 years 0% 50% 13% 25% 13%
11 - 15 years 0% 0% 33% 67% 0%
16 - 20 years 0% 25% 25% 50% 0%
20+ years 0% 20% 40% 20% 20%
50% of respondents disagreed that they would recommend SHPD as a good place to work. While this finding is not as dramatic as previously listed opportunities for improvement, it is worth noting the results to this question when broken down by employee length of service.

Employees in the 3 least-tenured categories (2 years or less, 3 – 5 years, and 6 – 10 years) indicated high levels of agreement with this statement. In contrast, those respondents from the two most-tenured categories (16 – 20 years, and 20 or more years) had most respondents in disagreement with this statement.

General Opinions Open-Ended
At the conclusion of the general opinions multiple-choice section, respondents were provided the opportunity to expand upon any of the addressed topics. Responses (12) underscored the trends outlined in the previous section – indicating high levels of mistrust between administration and line-level staff, the need for increased trust and accountability measures, and the necessity of better training and resources provided to staff.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 113

3. Patrol Specific Questions
MCG staff and SHPD administration also selected a bank of questions to ask specifically to patrol officers of SHPD. These questions are pertinent to gauge opinions relating to daily operations of patrol efforts and services directed toward citizens of Signal Hill.

These questions were also asked in statement form, asking patrol officers to indicate their level of agreement with said statement (i.e., Strongly Disagree (SD), Disagree (D), Agree (A), or Strongly Agree (SA)). Results are presented with a shading of blue in correlation with the level of agreement (or disagreement) with the statements listed. In total, 22 personnel indicated being currently assigned to patrol and responded to this bank of questions.
# Statement SA A D SD NO
1 I have enough time to be proactive or engage with the community. 18% 55% 9% 14% 5%
2 There are adequate backup units available when
responding to calls for service. 0% 27% 32% 41% 0%
3 I have contact with my field supervisor on a regular basis while on patrol. 32% 45% 9% 0% 14%
4 We have an adequate response time to high priority calls for service. 36% 55% 9% 0% 0%
5 We have an adequate response time to low priority calls for service. 23% 73% 5% 0% 0%
*Questions only asked to personnel currently assigned to patrol; (n=22).

Results presented above show that patrol officers had a positive outlook and high levels of agreement relating to topics such as their time to be proactive and engage with community members, contact with field supervisors while on patrol, and response times for both high- and low-priority calls for service.

There was an increased level of disagreement to the statement relating to adequacy of backup units available, which presents SHPD administration with an area for Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 114
improvement to be addressed in the future. This finding was prevalent across all categories of employee length of service.

Patrol Open-Ended
Following the previous multiple-choice section, patrol personnel were presented the option to expand upon any of the previous topics in the multiple-choice section.

Responses (9 total) indicated that they feel that staffing concerns are leading to officers “being overwhelmed” and leading to officer safety issues.

4. Desirable Traits of the Next Chief of Police
Signal Hill will be hiring their next Chief of Police in the coming year. Because of the timing of this recruitment and this study, it would be advantageous to poll current employees on what they thought would be desirable characteristics in their next Chief of Police.

Respondents were asked to rank the following ten characteristics from 1 to 10, with 1 being the most desirable. MCG staff then reverse-weighted7 these responses and averaged them across employees to present the table below. The highest average weighted score shown to the right corresponds with the most frequently highest ranked characteristic across all respondents from SHPD.

Results indicated that the most desirable characteristic of the next SHPD Chief of Police is Strong Leadership, followed by the ability to be an Effective Communicator, Innovation, and a Diverse Background.
7 Reverse-weighting these scores assigned 10 points to the respondents #1 response, 9 points to their #2 response, and so on. Total number of points for each characteristic was then averaged across all employees and presented in the table above.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 115
Rank Characteristic Average Weighted Score
1 Strong Leader 8.11
2 Effective Communicator 7.58
3 Innovator 6.06
4 Diverse Background 5.56
5 Labor Relations Skills 5.39
6 Knowledge of Signal Hill 5.16
7 Community Orientation 5.06
8 Consensus Builder 4.84
9 Sensitivity to Diversity 4.61
10 Small Town Experience 4.21
Analysis of these results were consistent across all demographic categories of responding SHPD employees (e.g., Sworn vs. Civilian, Current Rank, and Length of Service; see Appendix A).

5. Open-Ended Responses
The concluding sections of the survey asked respondents to answer in open-ended form, indicating what they thought were 1) the top three strengths of SHPD, and 2) the top three opportunities for improvement at SHPD. Keyword phrase analysis was used by project staff to analyze these open-ended responses. The most frequent responses are displayed in the following tables. Number of responses are displayed for each corresponding table (as these responses were optional).

Top 3 Strengths of SHPD
Responses relating to the top three strengths of SHPD were the 1) service provided by SHPD to the Signal Hill community, 2) patrol officers and their efforts, and 3) the interpersonal relationships built between officers at SHPD.

Rank Response Code*
1 Community Service
2 Patrol Officers
3 Relationships
*n=83
Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 116
Top 3 Opportunities for Improvement at SHPD
The most frequent opportunities for improvement at SHPD in the eyes of responding employees was 1) the formation of a new administration team, 2) increased accountability measures, 38) recruitment and retention efforts, employee morale, and equipment and resources. Another top response was 4) communication.

Rank Response Code*
1 New Administration
2 Accountability
3 Recruitment/Retention
3 Morale
3 Equipment/Resources
4 Communication
*n=92
8 Recruitment/Retention, Morale, and Equipment/Resources responses were tied for the third most frequent response amongst responding employees.

Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 117
Appendix – Desirable Chief Characteristics Details
The following charts display the ranking order of desirable chief characteristics by the selected employee demographic. Characteristics are displayed in alphabetical order, as they were in the employee survey to not sway employees to provide a certain response.

Number 1 corresponds with the top response from that employee category. (1) Employee Status
Employee Status
Characteristic Sworn Civilian
Community Orientation 6 8
Consensus Builder 8 5
Diverse Background 4 7
Effective Communicator 2 2
Innovator 3 3
Knowledge of Signal Hill 9 3
Labor Relations Skills 5 6
Sensitivity to Diversity 7 9
Small Town Experience 10 10
Strong Leader 1 1
Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 118
(2) Employee Current Rank
Employee Current Rank
Characteristic Supervisors Line Staff
Community Orientation 7 8
Consensus Builder 3 10
Diverse Background 5 5
Effective Communicator 1 2
Innovator 7 3
Knowledge of Signal Hill 6 4
Labor Relations Skills 4 6
Sensitivity to Diversity 10 7
Small Town Experience 9 9
Strong Leader 2 1
Police Department Organizational Assessment – September 27, 2022 Signal Hill, CA Matrix Consulting Group Page 119
Employee Length of Service
Employee Length of Service
Characteristic 2 yrs or
less
3 - 5
yrs
6 - 10 yrs 11 - 15
yrs
16 - 20
yrs
20+
yrs
Community Orientation 4 5 7 8 10 7
Consensus Builder 10 9 4 1 5 5
Diverse Background 6 3 9 1 3 9
Effective Communicator 3 2 1 5 2 2
Innovator 2 4 5 10 4 4
Knowledge of Signal Hill 7 7 3 1 8 10
Labor Relations Skills 5 5 10 1 6 3
Sensitivity to Diversity 8 8 6 8 9 6
Small Town Experience 9 10 8 5 7 8
Strong Leader 1 1 2 5 1 1