Mud flying in race between Penman and Milligan

SBPD has recently been chided by the public in Sun for claiming the eagerly awaited officers are “in training”. Initially, I felt empathetic, understanding the time SBVC’s Dean Gloria Fisher and others determine as appropriate for preparing our society’s future peace keepers. Now, I’m not so sure.
If “…a department commander last month…. …assured that the message was just an honest mistake by a green employee” is to be trusted, and surely we should be able to trust our finest, then our finest need some refinement.
Let me explain:

The “…green employee…” is a veteran member of San Bernardino’s finest;

She has been a familiar SBPD-uniformed presence at many events for a long time now (measured in years, not weeks or months);

She has always been the public’s first link to SBPD in the pivotal original Operation Phoenix area and has even longer been that throughout the central city areas, too;

She is trusted by SBPD to go door-to-door in our neighborhoods and is a familiar sight, hand carrying flyers to help get new watches off the ground;

She is trusted to get and keep her finger on the pulse of the community on an intimate level, observing and reporting back to SBPD;

She is entrusted with knowledge of what information SBPD does, and does not, permit her to provide the public and is well-practiced in repeating, “I can’t comment on matters under investigation”. Those “Lucky 7” words give the residents she’s interacting with a sense of hope and further greases the all-but-one-way flow of information to SBPD’s – and by extension, SB POA’s benefit.

She is trusted to encourage and establish Neighborhood Watch groups on the smallest scale possible, meaning more Block Captains & Neighborhood Watch groups, each with fewer members and more ability to micromanage the city’s inhabitants – and less interaction on a larger scale among area residents. This is convenient when a particular area has a unique situation. And, it is convenient when a particular faction is wanted kept “out of the loop”.
Establishing the smallest possible watches are her assigned goal. Ideally, every block would have their own watch and block captain. The SBPD “green employee” is entrusted this daunting task.

This is very important to SBPD and powers that be. With the city organized block by block like this, information may be spoon-fed to small groups at a time. So, rather than attending the usual area meetings and interacting with neighbors up the street, or a block over, we are hoped to be reduced to their utopia of no block member ever needing to set foot off a curb to attend their watch’s meetings! The streets themselves form the idealized geographic boundaries in this skewed perception of utopia. Guest speakers – often candidates – will be able to tailor their messages to meet the specific interests of their audience members, not that they don’t already.
Instead of generalized proclamations to “fix things”, they will be able to arrive offering promises to “fix the pothole on the corner first”, to block one, then, “to replace the dead street light first”, to block two, then, “to crack down on truants first”, to block three by the park, and so on. Nobody will be the wiser – except us.
To SBPD’s credit, this micromanagement of the watches is an established effective method with national acclaim.
Unfortunately, the opportunity to spoon-feed information to candidates on SB POA’s favored endorsed list, thereby allowing them to arrive briefed at meetings where they honestly would otherwise not have a clue provokes an undeserved sense of confidence in the interest and ability of any given candidate, leading to an easily anticipated win at the polls.
If you think not, consider these two scenarios:

Candidate One arrives for the block meeting, genuinely disinterested in anything more that securing public office and addressing a hidden agenda but freshly briefed about the block’s concerns by members of the SB POA endorsing the candidacy. Confidence-inspiring conversation regarding the solutions that will be enacted, contingent upon success at the polls, of course, is had by all. They say goodnight and don’t see each other again. The neighbors comment among themselves, after the candidate departs, about how it seemed the candidate lives right there with them and knows all the nuances of the block.

Candidate Two arrives for the block meeting, full of experience, interest and ideas for changing things for the better – and eager for the attendees to share their concerns. Conversation regarding the problems and solutions, contingent upon success at the polls, of course, is had by all. They say goodnight and don’t see each other again. The neighbors comment among themselves, after the candidate departs, about how it seemed the candidate didn’t have anywhere near the grasp of their situation as the other candidate.
Which candidate do you think would be elected? And THAT is one way the well-intentioned and sincere but naïve electorate is manipulated into voting for a string of candidates later bemoaned as having seemed like such nice people when campaigning – AND, it is how many truly dedicated and honest people intent upon providing public service at the highest levels of accountability are dissuaded, discouraged and defeated, too!

That said, this SBPD-commander-proclaimed “green employee” has risen through the ranks and attained the distinction to serve our community as:

Sharon Crawford Community Service Officer II Central District

If after all this, she remains seen by department command as a mistake making “green employee”, how many years, if not decades, will it take for our promised 40 officers to be deemed “competent” and ready to begin service?

Which is it? Is SB CSO II Sharon Crawford an incompetent “green employee” committing “an honest mistake” at every turn, but entrusted with quite important tasks and even more important and eagerly awaited sworn officers will be even longer in the coming to readiness to serve, or, to use a bit of peace officer parlance now in the American vernacular, is SBPD _BUSTED_?

I find it most curious that SBPD CSO II Sharon Crawford, a fixture in the Central District for years now, suddenly disappeared off the scene at about the time her e-mail was leaked. The official response to inquiries indicates she plans to remain absent from the Smart & Final SBPD Substation, serving San Bernardino’s Central District under Lt. Ernie Lemos, “until October 02, 2007”. Is this the consequence of her e-mail making waves, or does constantly financially challenged SBPD offer vacations of nearly 2 months to “green employee” “honest mistake” makers routinely?

The plot thickens.