Page 9 - TPA Journal November December2021

right. Do something wrong. Do not do nothing.

At the same time he empowered his officers to be leaders as well. If they had an idea he
would encourage them to bring him a plan, and then he would put them in charge of making
it happen! In this way, officers were bought in, brought their own passion to the initiative,
and could see it through from start to finish. There would be no tossing it over the fence and
being upset when things didn’t happen. They had ownership and responsibility, and with that
brought great pride in success.

As a Chief, he also recognized that he had to do his part for the city. He met with city
leadership and made personal connections with them. He worked with them to understand
what their constituents were wanting, what their personal interests were, and tried to find
ways to help them with their goals and needs. They began to work together and he built trust
that allowed city leadership to understand what he was trying to do and see his perspective.
All of this work garnered support for his programs and allowed the department to give back
to the community in positive ways they would not normally have identified.

So what about solving the biggest training problems we always see.. workers comp fears,
budget issues, and staffing shortages. First off, admit that these issues are going to come up,
anticipate this and put plans in place to address them when it happens. Set a culture of
expectation of performance, and don’t punish folks for moving toward that goal and hitting a
snag along the way. In light duty cases, don’t allow Officers to treat it like vacation and slack
off. They are focused on healing, but give them real work to do with expectations of delivery.
They can contribute in that role, but often will be extremely motivated to get back to the patrol
life they love to get out from under the office work!

“Do more with less”, the common budget paradigm in police circles. Chief Sauceda believed
it could be done efficiently through the right technology, but it still costs money. He figured
out how various city budgets were used and other sources of funds that the PD could access
including seized funds, auction proceeds, and city grants or funds. He embraced TFO positions
with federal agencies to integrate with the greater law enforcement community and leverage
their funding sources. He spoke with city leadership and negotiated that items auctioned from
the police department would go into a fund for them to use instead of back into the city
general fund. Where there is a will, there is a way.

Specialized staff, like the officer who is assigned as a dedicated personal trainer for anyone
who participates in the fitness program, were given the freedom to adjust their schedule any
way they needed. This allowed them to go to any shift at any time and meet those officer’s
needs, instead of a graveyard officer trying to shoehorn day shift hours into a massive change

Nov.-Dec. 2021 www.texaspoliceassociation.com • (512) 458-3140 5