IA Chief: Low Police Morale a National Problem

WATERLOO, IA—The city's police chief detailed his accomplishments after more than a year on the job and plans to boost retention, even as a pro-police political organization released a survey it says shows morale problems in the department are squarely on his shoulders.

Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald presented his draft strategic plan for the Waterloo Police Department at Tuesday night's City Council work session, focusing on policies he said would help boost morale.

Fitzgerald said he had 229 goals and action items in his plan, and shared a copy of the presentation on the department's Facebook page Wednesday.

Among the goals: He wants to work to diversify the force to better reflect the community, move to a 10-hour shift schedule and reallocate wards and beats assigned to patrol officers, and add 34 new police officers, two sergeants and one lieutenant over the next 10 years.

"The reality is when you look at workload and morale, the first thing people point to is staffing," he said.

He said six officers had resigned since he started, some to take "high-income opportunities." Another seven retired, and four were "forced by injury to retire" early, for a total of 17 who have left. He also noted he's hired 12 new officers and has eight vacancies.

"National attrition in policing is up overall in the nation 45%," Fitzgerald said.

According to a national survey by the Police Executive Research Forum, there was a 45% increase in the retirement rate at U.S. police departments between April 2020 and March 2021, along with an 18% increase in resignations and a 5% decrease in departments' hiring rates.

Fitzgerald said he believed the department's retention and resulting morale issues have more to do with national trends than his arrival in Waterloo in June 2020.

"The morale post- George Floyd, I think, is the biggest thing that's come up lately," Fitzgerald said. "It's not simply a matter of it being a leadership change — not this soon."

The pro-police political action committee Cedar Valley Backs the Blue disagreed, releasing a document saying more than 60 current officers thought morale at the department was "low" or "dangerously low," and included a pie chart that said 100% of 98 respondents responded "no" to the question, "Do you believe that Chief Joel Fitzgerald is the right man to lead the Waterloo Police Department?"

Cedar Valley Backs the Blue said 65 of those respondents were current officers, though no names were appended to the document and all comments were anonymous.

"The survey painted a sad picture and gave a raw look into the lives of our police department," the group said in a statement.

The griffin's retirement, though contentious, was "such a small part of the overall problem," retired WPD officers Andrew Clark, Robert Hewitt and Rhonda Weber collectively wrote in a guest column slated to run Sunday in The Courier. Weber also is treasurer for Cedar Valley Backs the Blue.

"The negative issues within the department are due in large part to the poor leadership and direction of Chief Joel Fitzgerald," they wrote.

Lynn Moller, chair of Cedar Valley Backs the Blue and a retired WPD investigator, said some of Fitzgerald's policies implemented over the past year "definitely contribute to the current low morale issue."

"Here is 14 pages of officers pouring their heart out on their frustration of what's wrong with this department in the last year," Moller said at the council meeting.

Former WPD chief Dan Trelka, now Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors chair, said the morale and retention issue "frightens me."

"All I ask is that you take a logical, sensible approach as to why we're having these challenges," Trelka said. "I fear this is going to get worse before it gets better."

Council members mostly noted they were also concerned about the department's morale problem.

"When you talk to an officer, their perception is they're not getting support from above, and they leave that station and they're not getting support from the public," Councilor Dave Boesen said, saying he would be in favor of an outside firm conducting a survey of all city departments including police. "So they're an island, and their morale suffers."

Councilors Ray Feuss and Sharon Juon agreed with Boesen's survey idea.

"What I'm missing from this survey is the unbiased piece of it, because it was written by a pro-police PAC," Feuss said. But he noted, "There are so many truths in there. We can't ignore them, and if we do ignore them, we are doing a disservice to our officers."

Councilor Margaret Klein said there was "nothing disreputable" about the survey coming from the PAC.

"To read some of their heartfelt statements, the stress they take home ... all of these things are flags and should be acknowledged by this council," Klein said.

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