Hurtt: I'm just an old softy

HPD Chief Harold Hurtt is starting to respond to the complaints leveled against him in the police officers' union survey, saying officers were mistaken in calling him an overly strict disciplinarian. As a matter of fact, KHOU reports, he's practically a lovable old teddy bear in a uniform:

"This chief has handed out less discipline to officers than any chief in the last 20 years of the Houston Police Department," [HPD attorney Craig] Ferrell said.

So is that really something to brag about? Apparently, yes, as we learn from a more in-depth report from KUHF. Jack Williams reports that, though the number of officers who have been fired has increased since Hurtt was hired, the number of discipline cases in 2005 (his first full year on the job) was 829, slightly less than half the 1,681 in 2003 under ex-Chief Clarence Bradford. What that indicates, Ferrell told KUHF, is that Hurtt is more fair:

"If you messed up, you're going to have to face the consequences and if you don't mess up, the chief's going to protect you, give you good policy and training and support your efforts and if all you do is make a mistake, guess what, he's not going to lower the hammer on you, and that's what the officers asked for and that's what they got."

Ferrell said he's waiting to review each of the more than 2,000 survey responses, but he attributed the results — three-quarters of officers who responded said they had little or no confidence in Hurtt's ability to lead the department — to people who don't like change. "When you have change in an organization ... you're going to have people, sometimes they're doing to disagree if they feel that, 'Well, this is better for me, but if it's going to cost me a little more work or if it's going to cause me to do some things that I really don't like doing,'" Ferrell said.

KUHF couldn't get any comment from the Houston Police Officers' Union, which conducted the survey. (From KHOU, you can download a summary of survey findings if you're interested.)