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Mar 26, 2008 9:58 pm US/Central
Southlake Officers Express Concerns About Chief
Survey Allowed Officers To Candidly, Anonymously Share Opinions
SOUTHLAKE (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
Southlake police officers have accused Chief Wade Goolsby of interfering with investigations and showing preferential treatment to influential citizens. He has also been the target of two hostile work environment complaints.
CBS 11 has obtained copies of an employee survey that sheds more light on how the chief is viewed by some of his officers.
Last summer, the City of Southlake conducted an assessment of employee attitudes and opinions. It was called the Matrix Study. Several city employees participated, including nearly half of Southlake's police officers.
The survey didn't require participants to write opinions, but many officers wrote or typed additional thoughts on paper.
Here's what some of them had to say:
"There is no faith in our leadership," stated one typed response.
Another wrote, "The biggest influence on police officers is the chief of police, and my morale has dramatically decreased since Chief Goolsby was hired."
"Our chief does not support his staff," wrote another.
"Our officers are scared when they're at work," read the statement. "Not of a bad guy, but of the chief and the command staff."
"We have a terrible morale problem in our department, and it starts with the chief. He keeps looking for answers, but refuses to look in the mirror," one officer wrote.
Another officer stated, "Morale is as low as I have seen it... very much an 'every man for themselves' mentality."
Yet another officer wrote that there was "not a lot of faith in police chief."
"Given the current state of staffing, we are one bad incident away from having a 'line of duty' death that the city could have prevented," read one response.
Another public safety officer wrote that the "police services staffing is very poor."
"I feel other agencies look at us as a laughing stock," wrote another officer.
In contrast to those statements, the Matrix Study concluded that many of the respondents felt they work with some of the best, most dedicated officers around.
Southlake's losses may be other city's gain. The Southlake Journal reports that since the conclusion of the grand jury investigation, three officers have left police services. Four more are currently testing at other area departments
A Tarrant County grand jury investigated Chief Goolsby and found no criminal wrong doing within the department. But DaKurt Stallings said that the report pointed to possible ethical wrong doing and policy misbehavior.
In February, city officials announced they had hired an outside firm to look into problems.
The Southlake city manager and the mayor turned down requests made by CBS 11 to comment about the contents of the Matrix Study.
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