MONROE, La. (AP) - The Monroe Police Union has tabled a vote of no confidence in Chief Quentin Holmes.
Union members met Wednesday to discuss the results of a departmental survey that showed low morale and little confidence in Holmes among police officers.
The survey’s findings, obtained by a public records request from The News-Star (https://tnsne.ws/1tqqere), showed 66 percent of officers did not have confidence in top management and 87 percent said morale was “much lower” than in previous years.
“We’ve had some serious concerns about those results. Those results are, shall we say, not entirely surprising results. Those were concerns we had and we knew. That survey confirmed the concerns we had,” said union President Michael Calloway.
Despite those concerns, Calloway said the union is delaying the call for Holmes’ ouster after Holmes and Mayor Jamie Mayo promised change.
“We’ve been given some assurances that changes are going to be made and progress is going to be made toward some of the concerns we do have, so at this point we essentially tabled any discussion of (a vote of no confidence) and take a wait-and-see approach,” Calloway said.
The union is expected to revisit the survey in two to four weeks and evaluate how much progress has been made.
The Monroe Police Union has about 180 members, compared to about 200 total employees in the department.
Wednesday’s meeting gave those members the opportunity to set a checklist of what they’d like to see change within the department, specifically more staff for patrols and more patrols during peak call hours.
Holmes instituted a controversial switch from a 10-hour shift to a 12-hour shift. The result was a more equitable disbursement of leave time, but it left less overlap of officers during peak crime hours and a more stressed workforce, Calloway said.
Calloway said Holmes and Mayo seemed receptive to their requests when union members met with them last week.
“Some of these issues that were brought to the public’s attention were not new to us,” Calloway said. “We’ve discussed this with management and in other meetings before. I think union members were appreciative to have this meeting, know that it’s out in the public and know that our concerns will be taken seriously.”
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Information from: The News-Star, https://www.thenewsstar.com
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