Chief William Anderson of the Asheville Police Department. Photo: Renato Rotolo/Urban News
Chief William Anderson of the Asheville Police Department.
Photo: Renato Rotolo/Urban News
By Johnnie Grant and Moe White

As anyone who follows the news on local television or the daily newspapers knows, Chief William Anderson of the Asheville Police Department has been under fire lately.

Controversies in the APD are nothing new, the last chief having resigned under a cloud when the evidence room was discovered to be in disarray. While some of the controversy has been generated by discontented officers in the department, one issue arose over equipment for which certification was allowed to lapse.

Three types of issues are under review, both by the city and in the media. One concerns the chief’s management style and how it affects sworn officers doing their duty; one has to do with identified oversights in the recertification of radar guns and the security of evidence. A third is a personnel problem raised by Lieutenant William Wilke that has led to involvement by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Chief Anderson is hired by Asheville City Council but reports to the City Manager. As an appointed official, he is not in a position to speak about possible political motives behind the controversies. While accusations have been levied by disgruntled officers and ginned up by political opportunists, most of the official response has been generated by City Hall spokespersons. But the wider community has felt frustrated by not hearing directly from the chief, so the Urban News sat down with him recently to hear his side of the story.

Urban News: When did the recent allegations surrounding the Police Department start? Also, when did the group of 44 officers who signed the petition come to the conclusion that they were facing unfair treatment?

Chief William Anderson: I think there’ve been discussions like that from day one—since I started this job in March 2012. There have always been concerns about leadership, treatment of officers, and so forth, and as I understand it, these same issues have been around for a long time. Almost since I started we’ve been working to wrap our minds around them, deal with them. That’s how we ended up with a three-year Strategic Plan that’s on the table right now.

UN: One of the complaints in the petition signed by 44 officers is forced overtime. Does the Strategic Plan address the issue of overtime?

CWA: The strategic plan was adopted in May, and we started implementing it in July. It’s an ongoing process, and we have to give it time to work. It addresses lot of issues employees have brought up. You have to remember, the plan was developed with input from employees. Everyone had the opportunity to voice whatever concerns they had so we’d know what issues mattered; that’s how the plan was developed.

UN: So, where is the disconnect?

CWA: I think the disconnect comes down to change. With a different administration, expectations might be different. There’s a different level of accountability expected from this administration than historically. My style, my expectations may be different, the expectations that I have of our officers doing their job on a daily basis.

We have excellent police officers. We have good men and women who go out and do their job every day, and do it well. But the fact is, when you have a department of 224 sworn individuals, there are going to be differences.

Basically, I expect sergeants to be sergeants, lieutenants to be lieutenants. The chief cannot be the only person to make/or take disciplinary actions. That has to be pushed down to the line level.

Chief William Anderson of the Asheville Police Department.
Chief William Anderson of the Asheville Police Department.

UN: What is the impasse?

CWA: During the summer, there was a lot of increased activity downtown, so of course we increased the number of shifts downtown. Some officers have said, or complained, that they were overworked, and that’s one of the things they have stated in the petition. But first of all, no one, not one person, has come to me stating they were forced to work too much overtime, or they were stressed out—none, zero complaints.

UN: If a patrolman, sergeant, or lieutenant has a complaint, and if they complained to their supervisors, is it possible that those complaints did not go up the chain of command?

CWA: There haven’t been complaints. In fact, there’s been an opportunity to earn more by working what are called augment shifts downtown. Extra shifts are on a voluntary basis. What we had was complaints from merchants downtown about more transients, some intoxication, etc. so we increased those shifts that covered the downtown. It was on a volunteer basis, any officer had the opportunity to make more in overtime.

UN: You say there are opportunities for overtime. However, some officers claim they were worked to a point of exhaustion. Please explain.

CWA: No-one has come to me and told me they’re working too much overtime. Now, I can’t say we have not ever mandated overtime, because if it comes to a point where we cannot fill some required positions, we will assign personnel to them, but that’s very rare. When we need personnel, a calendar comes out and circulates across the department, and you can sign up, or not. And let me tell you, it fills up very quickly.

UN: What happens if an officer has been scheduled to work, and something happens, e.g., a family or medical emergency—what then?

CWA: If someone has signed up for augment shift, and something comes up so that they can’t do it, they circulate an email throughout the department to ask others if they can take it for them, and those openings are snapped up. The officers resolve that amongst themselves before it ever gets to the level of a supervisor having to assign someone. Ninety-nine percent of the time it is addressed by the officers themselves. Flexibility is there.

UN: Another complaint is that staffing levels are low. Please explain.

CWA: As of today [Oct. 29, 2014], we have 224 sworn officers and seven vacancies. Now, 29 of them are in training, not on the street.

UN: Compared to historic levels, are you well staffed at ‘this’ point?

CWA: Understaffing has been a problem with the department for decades. It’s been historically difficult to retain individuals. Part of the reason is compensation. Once an officer comes to work here, and has a college degree, we can only keep him approximately three to four years. Because if you come here, have your degree, and have a good record, you’re marketable. You can go anywhere and get better pay, and find new opportunities that would be beneficial to you. That’s been the case for a long time, and the Strategic Plan addresses that. The first team [working on the plan] is recruitment and retention.

UN: Tell us about the breakdown in each shop (your preferred terminology) that has caused upheaval.

CWA: Again, I think it’s the change in the culture of the organization, how we do business. How it’s been done in the past versus how it’s done today. That’s true of any organization. If you’re used to a certain way of doing business and someone comes in and says, “Now we’re going down this new path,” that’s a change—and it’s part of a culture change if you’re used to old way. It’s always going to be challenging, it’s going to be stressful.

UN: City Councilman Cecil Bothwell has alluded to racial bias he feels played a part in the petition from the officers. Do you think that had any role in this discontent?

CWA: I think the readers can make that determination. I’m police chief of the city of Asheville, the entire city, that’s the way I approach it. If some folks have issues because of the way I look, that’s their problem.

UN: How much of this is political football being played during the election season, as Mr. Bothwell and others have suggested?

CWA: I do not get into politics, I stay as far away from that as I can. I’m appointed, not elected, and I try to keep politics out of my police department. Top to bottom, I run a non-political shop.

UN: State Representative Moffitt has called for an SBI investigation, Lt. William Wilkie has gone to the Department of Labor, and others have called for the Police Benevolent Association (PBA) of NC to get involved “to make sure the investigation is fair.” All this culminating during a highly contested mid-term election season. Is it possible to keep politics out of it when the motives of those who raise the issues are political?

Chief William Anderson of the Asheville Police Department. Photo: Renato Rotolo/Urban News
Chief William Anderson of the Asheville Police Department.
Photo: Renato Rotolo/Urban News

CWA: I can only say, bring it on. There’s nothing in here that’s corrupt or improper, so I welcome anyone to look into whatever they want to.

UN: What about the allegation that one of your officers was not allowed to go to his military detail?

CWA: No one was denied leave or disciplined for taking leave. This is something that’s expected of anyone in a supervisory position: I expect that if you’re in a supervisory position, you have all your bases covered. You ensure that the men and women you are responsible for have adequate supervision while you are away. It’s your responsibility. You don’t leave the City of Asheville hanging because you didn’t make the right decision.

Let me make this clear: I totally respect our military; I’m a former reservist myself. I served eight years in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve, while I was working in a police capacity. I know what our expectations are from both sides, from the side of local law enforcement responsibility, and from the federal government side. You have a job; the city expects you to do that job. But we also respect those who serve our country and no one was ever denied the ability to take their leave.

UN: Let us ask you about the evidence containers. The previous chief was forced to retire after so many problems were found in the evidence room; what’s the difference here?

CWA: We have some temporary containers that we use as part of the evidence room function. We’re an accredited agency by Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA), and part of the accreditation requirement is that property and evidence rooms be alarmed [fitted with alarms].

Our property room is alarmed and has always been. The temporary trailers that we use are also alarmed, but when we installed a new HVAC system, we unhooked some of those trailers’ alarms. It took nine months for all the work, and after the work was done, some of the trailers were not reconnected for about three months.

But this building, the main evidence room here, has never been non-alarmed. And we have no missing evidence, no compromised evidence, no problems with evidence or property stored there, no problems at all. The “scare” was just an attempt to discredit the Police Department.

UN: When you said “we,” did you have knowledge that these alarms were disconnected?

CWA: No, I didn’t have knowledge at the time, but I’m the chief, and therefore I’m responsible. What would have been of concern would be if items were missing, or evidence compromised, but did not happen.

UN: The other equipment issue here is the failure to recalibrate the speed/radar guns.

CWA: Basically, what happened is that we had a systems breakdown. The law requires recertification once a year, and several of them fell out of certification. We didn’t have a system to track that because we moved the tracking from district level to logistics. The city has three districts, and it used to be that the officers in in each district took care of re-certifying the radar guns in their district. Then we moved that responsibility to logistics, whose job is to maintain and track all equipment and certifications and so on.

But more important than the systems breakdown is the individual responsibility. When you’re trained to be a radar operator, one of the first things you’re trained to do is to ensure that your equipment is certified. So there’s individual breakdown, and then on top of that we had a breakdown in the system that should support those individuals.

But the bottom line is, the buck stops with me.

UN: Are there other issues that that you would like to address at this time?

CWA: The biggest thing I would like to emphasize is that the Asheville Police Department has always seemed to get a bad rap, whether deserving or not. What I can speak to is the progress we’ve made in the past two-and-a-half years. We’ve worked hard to be more responsive to the community, particularly the minority community. We’re more involved with youth.

We’ve made progress in dealing with some of our criminal issues. Whatever we’re faced with that has to do with doing our job, we’ve done a very good job.

The community sees someone sitting in this chair who cares, who’s concerned about the relationship between community and the Police Department—and someone who’s doing everything we can to strength that.

UN: We understand you can’t talk about personnel matters, or politics, or racial issues, but can you give us your take on what’s going on in general?

CWA: When you have folks that are unhappy, it creates an unhealthy environment, and we have had some issues that have come up that have been exposed in the media—or leaked to the media—and that helps foster that unhealthy environment. And whether you’re a 23-year-old police officer or a 50-year-old police officer, you want to come to work and feel good about what you do. And one of the things we have to work on is improving that environment.

All the issues that have come up, all the things you’ve read about, recruitment and retention, leadership, community—those are all outlined in the Strategic Plan. And that plan is a community effort. We had employee meetings, community meetings, partner meetings with other law enforcement and safety agencies like the sheriff’s office. In all those meetings we asked what are we doing well and what are our areas for improvement.

We took all that info and broke it out into six areas that we are addressing: Leadership; Recruitment and retention; Equipment and technology; Agency outreach; Community involvement; and Organizational structure. Those are all areas we’re working on.

UN: Speaking of leadership, what is your definition of leadership? It’s been said that a good leader delegates opportunities for others to lead and assume responsibilities. What are your thoughts?

CWA: All of that—setting the tone, leading by example, being accessible. I get input from my staff, I try to get all the information I need, and I empower them to make decisions. I think that’s one of the changes that has occurred. If I empower you to make this type of decision, then I expect you to do so to keep the show running. Management style is “participatory”: I want participation from all levels when it comes to making a decision.

UN: Would you address this fallout, the discontent, the equipment, as being the responsibility of someone in the chain of command who’s not doing their job(s)? That is—if you expect them to take care of their shop(s)?

CWA: It’s a concern. Under the leadership section of the Strategic Plan, that’s one of the things we hope to strengthen. We have an issue of some areas that do break down, that we’re working on leadership training, ethics training, to help them deal with these issues.

UN: Is there an issue of PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] in police departments?

CWA: I haven’t seen that, but the Employee Assistance Network program is good in the city. If we recognize that an employee is having difficulties, we have resources to reach out to get them assistance.

UN: Do you feel embattled, and/or do you feel well supported by the city administration, City Council, the public?

CWA: No, I hate that word [“embattled”]. And I will say, support from the City Manager’s office and City Council has been overwhelming. And quite frankly, I’m feeling total support from the community. Everywhere I go people give me support, they tell me to make sure I keep my head up, keep doing my job, stay the course. And that’s all I can do.