Another blow for UNC Hospitals Police Department
Recently Interim Chief Kelly White called for a department wide mandatory meeting.
White started the meeting speaking of how he valued what officers do as law enforcement/security professionals but that quickly turned into White chastising officers for “spreading rumors” ending his rant with the threat “if you don’t want to work here you can leave”. Great moral booster and opening to an already low moral department.
Morale is low because of the way White has come into the department and made changes that were not conducive to the well being of officers. White claimed when he came to the department, he had several conversations with officers that relayed they were not receiving any training (false). White had all of the Captain’s introduce themselves and give a speech about what they were responsible for but it was obvious the Captains appeared miserable and run down most reminding us to make sure we have a great work/life balance. Is that a clue or a cry for help?
White bragged about cutting 1.6 million dollars from the budget, but what is most alarming is it came at the expense of bullet proof vests and uniforms for our security officers and outside carriers for our POLICE officers. White said the reason for doing away with outside carriers was due to nursing staff complaining that our police officers looked too “militant”. White said, “were not guarding Ft. Knox, we work at a hospital”. This insensitive statement comes after the UNC Campus school active shooter which resulted in loss of life. It was also during this shooting, that hospital police officers responded. This also comes after UNC Hospital Police officers were made to respond by White to UNC Campus to assist with highly televised Palestine protest in May. We may not be guarding Ft. Knox but we have a responsibility not only to our hospital staff and patients but to our fellow law enforcement surrounding agencies.
The biggest take away is because nursing staff, who have no idea what it is like to wear a vest much less be a police officer say they don’t like the way we “look” you take it away? Once again taking away from the already below average pay police officer what about the better health benefits of wearing an outside carrier? Have you spoken to the officers who wear the vests and uniform their thoughts? Several officers in attendance challenged this decision and was met with evasive answers eventually leading White to say, “we can table this for now”. Which translates to “we don’t care about your concerns”. White went on to talk about bringing in outside contract security officers, but just spoke about cutting 1.6 million out of the budget to focus on other things like training and salaries. Isn’t bringing outside contract security yet another cost?
White spoke about rebuilding the department from the “ground up” and has been working with Dan Lehman to restructure the department. White told officers in attendance that he will only have two police Lieutenants to run the Chapel Hill Campus. An officer spoke up asking what this would look like and what would the hours be to which White replied he “couldn’t get into the weeds of that right now”. Why bring it up at all when you have no further information to relay to the troops in attendance? You are talking about changing the hours, duties of a police Lieutenant but can’t give out any further information, another bad decision and poor communication on White’s part.
White talks about transparency, the definition of transparency is open and honest without secrets. White has been nothing but secretive and disruptive to the department and in a negative way. White’s entire speech was filled with contradictions and lies. The department has taken a severe negative moral dive since the implication of Kelly White.
The worst part is Dan Lehman and Colbert Trotter was in attendance to watch this massacre. Dan Lehman spoke about not wanting to make the same mistakes as he did with prior police chief Kevin Phillips and vowed to be more in tune with the department. Dan, have you spoken to any of our recent employee departures to find out why they decided to leave the department? Have you spoken to any current employees to find out why morale is so low in the department? I can guarantee its not due to pay. Mr. Lehman, you are failing us once again. Kelly White is not what this department or organization needs.
This meeting was pointless and further added to the already low morale and a huge waste of time. The whole department is angry, and no one is in support of Kelly White. There is an understanding that with new leadership comes change however if the new leadership is creating a worse environment for the department what is the point? Has anyone truly checked Kelly White’s credentials?
Prior departments he has served as “interim” did not appreciate his tenure, several officers in leadership expressed feeling a sense of relief upon his exit. It appears that White is here to build his resume, which is not surprising since he formerly ran for Alamance County Sheriff and lost. White ran his campaign on “unity and trust” although it seems officers in the law enforcement community would not use either one of those words to describe Kelly White.
Is anyone going to pay attention to what is going on in hospital police?
