By Donna Lind
Each year the Scotts Valley Police Department conducts an in depth inspection of their department with a guest inspector from another department invited to take part. This year Santa Cruz County Sheriff-elect Jim Hart was invited to join Chief John P. Weiss in conducting the inspection.
Donna Lind, Scotts Valley City Council Member and retired Scotts Valley Police Sergeant provided a description of the Department Inspection and provided the accompanying photos.
It has been a long-standing tradition with SVPD to conduct annual inspections. It takes weeks of intense preparation and actually we generally are doing some preliminary preparation months in advance. The inspection is not only of each officer as far as their uniform, boots and weapons, etc. but also of every vehicle, the offices, records, evidence, administrative files, and more. Although it’s a lot of work, it really increases the professionalism and provides checks and balances.
As an example, as a Detective Sergeant, I knew the Chief would be inspecting all of our case files, evidence and logs and records. Each year as we’d prepare, we’d find a file that needed updating, find records that should be purged, update various records and so much more. This is the time that our evidence is audited as well as various accounts and funds in preparing vehicles, we’d find equipment that needed to be repaired or replaced, supplies that should be updated. This is also what keeps our Department looking (good) as we touch up paint, conduct deep cleaning knowing the Chief would be coming through with white gloves and q-tips. It is the time we’d all step back and look at things that need our attention.
Each year a guest inspector is invited to conduct the inspection of the troops. Often an inspector would comment on how good everything looked and that they were taking back some of what they saw to incorporate in their own agency. A few times we’d hear from officers in other agencies who gave us a bad time because their Chief was now raising the bar in their inspections.
Although I always dreaded the work to prepare for inspections, I also believe completely in the value. I believe that it is extremely important to set a time each year to take stock of your organization, to set aside time to give attention to the facility, records and equipment and know those checks and balances are in place. I believe this is a very important opportunity to maintain high professional standards and not become complacent which is so easy when we spend our days addressing the crisis of the moment.