Amid claims of communication issues and dwindling trust in leadership, some Columbus Police Department officers say a policy requiring them to be “on standby” without compensation during scheduled days off has further drained morale at the department, though officials dispute any problems exist.
Three officers, who contacted The Dispatch and spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation at work, said frustrations have reached a breaking point, sparking rumors of a potential blue flu – a coordinated sick leave – in protest.
The officers said department morale has fallen so significantly that they no longer believe Chief Joseph Daughtry can restore it, and they openly called for new leadership.
“It’s like a slap in the face to us,” one officer told The Dispatch, referring to the unpaid standby time. “It’s like, ‘We don’t care about your life. We don’t care about your family and things you have going on outside of Columbus Police Department. If we need you, you’re going to be here.”
“At this point, I feel like (Daughtry) has lost the department,” another officer said. “Unfortunately … it may be best if he was to move on.”
Officers told The Dispatch they are routinely listed to be on standby during their days off, meaning they have to be available at a moment’s notice to come into work if another officer scheduled calls in sick or takes vacation. They said they are not compensated for remaining available during the off days, even though they claim the policy keeps them from leaving town, attending parties or taking their children to out-of-town medical appointments.
“That … takes away from your family time, takes away from your personal time,” one officer said. “You’re just sitting there in wait. You pretty much can’t do anything … and you just hope and pray that they don’t call you. You might as well just go to work because you can’t do anything anyways.”
The likelihood of being called in on a standby day is heightened by CPD being about eight officers short of its budgeted roster of 55, they said. Officer disciplinary suspensions cut even further into manpower.
The Fair Labor Standards Act delineates when employees should and shouldn’t be compensated for off-duty, on-call time based on how restrictive it is to employees’ personal time. If the conditions are “so restrictive that the employee cannot use the time effectively for personal pursuits, such time spent on call is compensable,” according to Section 553.221(d) of the Code of Federal Regulations.
City Attorney Jeff Turnage said he doesn’t believe the department’s standby policy violates federal law, as the officers are not confined to the police department or kept from personal activities.
“An employee who is not required to remain on the employer’s premises but is merely required to leave word at his home or with company officials where he may be reached is not working while on call,” Turnage wrote in a statement emailed to The Dispatch. “In other words, I don’t think the complainants are due anything extra based upon the facts as I understand them.”
Daughtry concurred and said he has never communicated to officers that being “on standby” restricts officers from their personal priorities.
“I heard somebody mention that we gave guidelines that you can’t go here, you can’t (go there),” Daughtry told The Dispatch. “… I never said that. I don’t know where all that’s coming from. I think it’s just somebody who just doesn’t understand the importance of being an essential worker.”
One officer said that distinction – being an essential worker – was used before to justify the “mandatory” standby restrictions.
“The chief, his main thing is, ‘You are essential employees.’ But we also have our days off, our assigned days off,” the officer said. “That ‘essential’ only comes in when there’s an emergency. … There’s a difference when you’re telling us, ‘Wait on your day off until you get called, if you do get called.’”
‘We are ready to walk out’
One officer said the unpaid standby time has added another layer to an already desperate morale problem at the department.
Communication at CPD “is at an all-time low,” he said, adding that officers’ feel undercompensated and disrespected.
“We’re fed up to the point where we are ready to walk out if we cannot get a raise,” one officer said.
Starting patrol officer pay works out to about $40,000 annually with no overtime, Daughtry said.
While he backed up the need for greater compensation for officers, there are plenty of opportunities for officers to log paid overtime hours – like grant-funded enhanced traffic patrols and other events throughout the year, “so if they really was in a financial bind, (and) they wanted to make some money, they’re welcome to.”
“Some of it’s just going to be money management,” he said. “And the other part is going to be that some people just are not going to ever be happy. If they gave him a $5,000 raise today, then next week, they’re going to want another ($5,000).”
Daughtry refuted any claim of a morale issue. Instead, he pointed to a recent increase in disciplinary actions against officers possibly making them disgruntled.
“I wish that if these officers have this issue, that they would come and try to voice themselves (to) me,” Daughtry said. “But they’re not going to do that because they just want to try to start… I don’t know why they try to start something.”
Officer concerns, one officer said, tend to “fall on deaf ears.”
“The current chief, it’s his way or get out: ‘I don’t care if you quit,’” the officer said. “That’s why we lost so many officers because he has that mentality (of) ‘I don’t care, quit. Go somewhere else.’ … We have to work a lot harder because y’all let other officers walk out the door because you don’t want to hear our viewpoint.”
Mayor Stephen Jones said he’s unaware of any morale issues, noting visits he’s made to CPD where “all seem to be getting along.”
“None of them have said anything to me,” Jones said. “… I’m down there all the time, so they’ve had many opportunities to say anything that they wanted.”
Jones said officers with concerns should use the proper channels within the city to get a solution, like filing a grievance with the human resources department. No such grievances have been filed, he said.
Frustrations with the administration on all levels – from the chief to the mayor to the council – have officers considering staging a blue flu as a last resort for demanding better treatment.
“We’re fed up to the point where we are ready to walk out if we cannot get a raise,” one officer said. “If we walk out, it’s going to be the sheriff’s department to have to cover the city. We’re serious.”
Daughtry and Jones were both concerned with the impact a blue flu could have on public safety, and both said officers who participate could face consequences for doing so.
“If they want to do a blue flu without coming to the proper steps first, then definitely, they’re going to put their jobs in jeopardy,” Jones said.
Council reaction
To the extent the officers’ gripes are true, city councilmen who spoke with The Dispatch on Friday all said they knew nothing about it.
Ward 5 Councilman Gary Jefferson said it is common to “hear grumblings” or for leaders to get pushback from subordinates, but he had not “heard anything this extreme” from CPD.
Still, he is not dismissing the validity of the officers’ claims, at least not before more investigation.
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Jefferson said. “I wouldn’t believe they would just come in and make up stuff. I would hope not anyway. … As leaders, I think we make mistakes (sometimes), but eventually the buck is going to have to stop with the council, the mayor, the chief, whatever the problem may be.”
Rusty Greene, Lavonne Harris and Jason Spears, council members for Ward 3, 4 and 6, respectively, said they also plan to fully look into the situation.
“There would be a definite concern if officers felt like they needed to approach the newspaper with it instead of their supervisor,” Greene said. “If there’s a problem, we need to address it.”
Harris said she also wants officers to know they have direct access to the council, no matter whether they felt like they did in the past.
“I hate they feel they can’t come talk to the council,” she said. “You don’t have the council you had before. You’ve got a new council. … At the end of the day, anybody who works for the city, whether it’s for the police department or whoever, they can always come talk to the city council.”
As for a potential “Blue Flu” walkout, Spears said he hopes it doesn’t come to that.
“I would ask those individuals to think of the citizens,” he said.
Ward 2 Councilman Roderick Smith said he is concerned about morale at the department but provided no further comment.
Vice Mayor Ether Stewart, councilwoman for Ward 1, did not respond to calls and messages from The Dispatch on Friday.
Managing Editor Zack Plair contributed to this report.
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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