Columbia police turn to politics for relief

In 2008, when the Columbia Police Department was 51 officers short of meeting its minimum patrol standards, the City Council passed a three-year, $2.5 million salary increase for the department to try to retain officers.

But those salary increases never happened, victims of the city's general fund budget woes.

Frustrated, some Columbia police officers say they are turning to the only avenue they have left: politics.

"At this point and juncture, talking about it doesn't seem to help," said Jon VanHouten, an investigator at the department. "So we have to try the political aspect."

VanHouten and three other police officers have formed a chapter of the Southern States Police Benevolent Association, and their first public act was to endorse Steve Benjamin's candidacy for mayor.

A few weeks later, they endorsed Walter Powell Jr., a volunteer firefighter, for City Council District 4.

In a city with historically low voter turnout, a small energetic group can make a difference. But the political weight of the new organization is yet to be seen.

In one year, the chapter has attracted 150 members from several law enforcement agencies across Richland County.

But those officers did not vote on the political endorsements. That decision came from a four-person steering committee that did not interview all of the candidates. Instead, they based their decision on the candidates' answers to a questionnaire sent out by the Columbia Firefighters Association.

"Steve Benjamin is a better candidate," VanHouten said. "I've spoken with Steve Benjamin several times. He's not promised us anything. All he's offering us is to try" to make things better.

The police officers say they want to model their organization after the Columbia Firefighters Association, which doesn't practice collective bargaining or negotiate contracts with the city but does call itself a union. That organization has been active since the 1960s but only recently has begun to flex its political muscle.

The firefighters' association endorsement came from a vote of the group's 220 members, with more than 80 percent voting for Benjamin, according to Travis Carricato, the association's spokesman.

Since then, Carricato said firefighters have spent Saturdays knocking on doors for Benjamin and marched with him in the St. Patrick's Day parade in Five Points.

But the association's most impressive victory came not at the polls, but at City Hall, they say. City officials reduced staffing levels at two fire stations in April last year because of budget cuts. After the association got involved - and city officials said the funding situation improved - staffing levels were restored in December and January.

"We've provided (the police association members) with some guidance and pitfalls to avoid, because it's always a slippery slope when you start a union," Carricato said. "You want to work in conjunction with your employers, but at some point you are going to agree to disagree on some items. There are some things you have to be very cautious with what lines we cannot cross."

The police officers are taking it slow, what VanHouten described as "baby steps." Robert Calby, the association's president, says some members won't come to meetings out of a fear that it could cost them their job.

That's not true, said Mike King, Columbia's assistant city manager for public safety.

"Critique is a part of our job. We're constantly listening and receiving and sharing" criticism, King said. "We want to make sure any type of critique or criticism would be represented as members of the association, not the Columbia Police Department."

The police officers arguably have plenty of things to criticize. The department's budget has been cut, just like every other city department. Officers are driving old cars and using old equipment and their training is not as specific as it once was, the officers said.

The department's "emergency vehicle response training," in which officers once practiced driving in a high stress situation, has "been reduced to a PowerPoint presentation," Calby said.

King said the driving portion of the department's emergency vehicle response training was eliminated in 2007, before King and Police Chief Tandy Carter were hired.

"We work for the city," said Boyd Webb, a member of the association's steering committee. "We want the best for the city, not just for ourselves but for our citizens. But we can't do that under some of the rules and budgets that we are having to deal with right now."

The department does meet all training standards as required by state law and the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, King said.