New State Patrol leader hopes to move past investigations, morale issues
By Bill Kelly , Senior Producer/Reporter Nebraska Public Media
Nov. 22, 2017, 6:45 a.m. ·
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Colonel John Bolduc took the oath to become commander of the Nebraska State Patrol on October 16, 2017.
Previously he served as police chief at the Port of San Diego since 2010. He also did stints as chief of police for departments in Brainerd and Mora, Minnesota.
His appointment came as the agency was reeling from a series of embarrassing incidents and accusations about the conduct of senior leadership at the agency. Bradley Rice had been removed from the office four months earlier.
During the first month on the job Bolduc declined interview requests, spending the time traveling the state to visit with officers and civilian employees at each of the regional headquarters and other agency facilities.
His first interview was with Bill Kelly of NET News where he spoke about the investigations being conducted internally and by the FBI. Both are reviewing accusations of top patrol leadership meddling in reviews of officer use-of-force cases and other concerns. They also spoke about his positive perceptions of NSP personnel, community policing, and the need for more diversity in the department.
A transcript of the interview follows.
Bill Kelly, NET News: Let's start with you taking the tour around the state. You've been visiting with troopers and leadership at each of the state patrol troop headquarters. What have you been learning and what do you think the challenges are having heard what you heard?
Col. John Bolduc: Well, this is the fun part of the job. Going around the state and talking to our troopers and just getting to know them and asking them what they like about their job, and getting to know who's doing what job.
That's been the important part of my first few weeks here is just understanding the job. What I've discovered is we have great news for Nebraskans. We have a great workforce. And the challenges? There are some but they are minimal compared to the good work that goes on every day.
Kelly: What were some of the issues that you heard the troopers raise?
Bolduc: Well, certainly one of the big concerns is the out-standing investigation involving six of our troopers, and the good news is that's coming to a close. That'll be wrapped up in the next month or so, at the most, and that will come to its logical conclusion and it'll be behind us.
Now, I'm not going to portray that I know what the outcome's going to be because I haven't read that investigation yet. I will in due time as part of the process, and we'll have to make some decisions based on the facts and at that point we're going to put that behind us and move forward.
The purview of the organization is (limited to): Are there policy violations which could result in discipline? And there may be, but again I haven't read the files yet.
I'm actually in a great position to objectively evaluate the facts and objectively mete out any discipline if it's warranted. Because I don't know these people. I'm here to, as I said, objectively evaluate the facts that are presented to me and then decide on the administrative matter of whether or not there are policy violations that warrant discipline.
Kelly: Do you intend to release that investigative report in its entirety?
Bolduc: No. That would not be permitted under state law, but we can talk generally about the investigation and what the results were, but the specific investigative files are considered confidential data.
Our purview internally at the state patrol is the internal investigations. If there are external investigations, as has been widely reported, FBI or prosecutors in certain counties, that's under their purview. We wouldn't be involved in that, so I'm only speaking of the administrative part of the investigation.
Kelly: Have you gotten any indication from the FBI or other law enforcement officials as to what the status of those investigations are?
Bolduc: I've had no discussions regarding that.
Kelly: Does that surprise you?
Bolduc: No.
Kelly: Have you sought that out?
Bolduc: No. I need to stay out of that. That's their purview, and when they're done they will let us know what their results are.
Kelly: A very specific example. There have been troopers on road patrol who have felt their law enforcement mission has been de-emphasized in favor of traffic enforcement, especially seat belt enforcement. (They believe) they were discouraged to take advantage of drug intervention opportunities in favor of things like seat belts. You heard that, I'm assuming.
Bolduc: I have heard that, and that's a legitimate viewpoint.
Traffic safety is important, but it's not the only thing. We do have a larger mission across the state as police officers, as troopers, to take care of the drug interdiction and you don't have to read very far in any of the papers about the opioid crisis.
So, while we may have had some specific emphasis on some aspects of traffic safety that won't go away but I think we have an opportunity to broaden our view of criminal interdiction and disrupting the flow of meth in our communities. That's going to be very important as we look ahead and not lose sight of the fact that it's a serious challenge for the entire state of Nebraska.
Kelly: You felt like those were legitimate concerns that the troopers had?
Bolduc: I do.
Kelly: For some time there's been a significant morale problem within the patrol. That's been documented in surveys the patrol itself reviewed over the years. From what you've heard during these visits, what has been the concern of staff that has led to those kind of problems?
Bolduc: I think largely the feedback that I've gotten is concerns around clarity of mission, communication. Things that I would expect in a larger organization. How do we clearly communicate expectations throughout the organization about where our priorities should be?
The important part that I took away from the meetings is that our troopers are dedicated to providing great service. They enjoy their job. They got into this job because they want to serve, they want to help their community, and they still enjoy doing that.
That's the good news, and that's evidenced by the good work that we see everyday on the street. Just this week we arrested three bank robbers. I had the privilege of giving out four lifesaving awards to troopers in different parts of the state. We are taking literally pounds and pounds of methamphetamine and fentanyl off the street as a result of good police work.
When you talk about morale, one of the measures of that is how is the quality of the work being produced? And I have to tell you, our troopers are doing a great job of providing great police work across the state.
Now, when you go on a listening tour and ask people their opinion, they'll actually tell you and that's a good thing. So, there are some frustrations and there are some things that we can work on systemically within the organization that I think will improve communication flow and will actually in the end, over some time improve morale.
I'm very concerned about morale, because look, we have enough challenges externally in law enforcement that it's a tough job, and thank God we have men and women willing to step up and serve their community and do this difficult job. Our job as leadership is to remove obstacles and remove barriers to success within the organization, and we're going to do that.
Kelly: When you've been going out and talking to the general public, have they had their own set of issues as well that they feel like you need to address?
Bolduc: None specifically. More along the lines of, "Hey, what's going on with those folks? We're reading this stuff in the paper and it doesn't seem to match with our experience." That's about as harsh of feedback as I've gotten.
So, it's important that we provide an explanation to the public, especially with respect to the current internal investigations. Once those are resolved we will give a public explanation of lessons learned, what actions were taken if any, and within what's restricted by policy or law regarding personnel matters we will offer an explanation for where we're at, and I think that will satisfy a lot of the questions because really it's more about, what's going on with that? Probably some healthy skepticism based on what they've seen in the media, and that's fair. I would expect the public to ask questions like that.
Kelly: Does the Nebraska State Patrol have a diversity problem with hiring women, hiring people of color, (and) hiring people with Spanish-language capability?
Bolduc: We have a diversity opportunity.
Half our population are female. Five percent of our workforce, sworn troopers, are female. We need to do better, so we’re trying some new things.
Who better to recruit female troopers than female troopers? But it also has to be messaging from the top, and I’m here to tell you. We need to hire more women as troopers, and we’re working on doing just that and we’re employing our female troopers to help us with that in our marketing, in our advertising, and I look at it as a great opportunity.
Now, the good news/bad news proposition is, that’s not new to law enforcement nationwide. Sixteen to eighteen percent of our sworn officers are female. Half our population are female. We have work to do as an industry.
With respect to diversity, this was a serious challenge in my last job and we set some audacious goals that we wanted to be the most diverse police department in San Diego County. Halfway through that goal period we’re on our way to getting there, so we do.
Spanish language, very important as the Spanish language becomes more prevalent in our country, so hiring officers with that skillset is going to be a priority and we definitely have room to improve in terms of diversity.
So, the challenge that we all face is, how do we assemble a workforce that more accurately represents the people that we serve? And that’s the value proposition and that’s something that our team is up for the challenge and we’re going to continue to work to improve that.
Kelly: Governor Ricketts has asked the troopers to renegotiate their labor contract just a few months after it was signed. He’s taken issue with the process laid out with the impact internal affairs investigations have within the contract. Have you talked with the governor about the advisability of making adjustments to the contract, and do you think that’s a good idea?
Bolduc: Well let me put it this way. There are some things in the contract that I've never seen before, and I've had the privilege of negotiating several contracts in several different agencies.
But that's not to say that it wasn't negotiated at some point in good faith. It just means that look, that's not really industry standard language, and to be able to go back and renegotiate some of those things I think is prudent.
I would expect that the union in this case is going to start with the answer of no, but that doesn't mean that's the final word. I can only speculate as to what the timing might be.
At some point, we will have an opportunity to talk about those things and come up with perhaps some compromise or some better language, but there's a process for that and it's still very early.
I haven't had those specific discussions with anybody, but it's certainly something that's on the radar for future discussions.
Kelly: When you spoke with Governor Ricketts, either during the interview process or subsequently, what mandate did he give you?
Bolduc: Well, it's not a mandate in terms of, "Here's the five things I want you to do." His mandate to me is look, come in and use your experience to help us find ways to make improvements within this organization. Let's emphasize the things that we're doing well. Let's identify the things that we can improve on, and then set a course to get there. And that's a fair mandate, and in fact that's the same mandate as I received in other jobs that I've come in from the outside and have had the privilege of taking over, and it's the same thing here but it's not the new colonel with all the great ideas.
Usually the best ideas come from within the organization organically. I ask our troopers and our staff, what are the things that we're doing well? What are some things that we can improve on? And there are some great ideas out there. So, it's a team effort. It's not just the guy in the corner office making the decisions. It is a team effort to deliver this great public safety service that Nebraskans deserve and pay for.
Kelly: You're taking over at a time where the budget is a real issue in the state of Nebraska. Do you have concerns that some of the objectives that you're hoping to achieve are going to be reined in just because of budget restraints alone?
Bolduc: Well, budget restraints are a reality of public safety across the country. It's not new here. It's not new just at this time period. But we have an obligation to the taxpayers to deliver service as efficiently and as effectively as possible. We may have to do without some things as a result of the budget. The reality is the Legislature will allot us what I call a bucket of money, and we have to operate efficiently within that bucket of money and sometimes it means we may not be able to accomplish everything that we've set out to do, but we do owe it to the taxpayers to deliver that service as best we can within the constraints of the budget and it might require some creativity, but let me tell you. We have no shortage of creative people in our organization who are willing to take on that challenge.
Kelly: What were some of the key areas that they felt you could do better?
Bolduc: Well, communication. Number one. And that's no surprise.
Every organization that I've been in, clearly understanding what we would call "commander's intent." What is the expectation on the street every day, and we owe that clear expectation of our troopers and our staff, and setting those expectations comes in a lot of different ways. It comes in our policies. Policies are a way of communicating expectations and being consistent with the application of those policies. Directly communicating with our troopers.
We're trying some new things. Video email so that they can hear directly from me what the expectations are. Those are some things that I think will help us in the long term, but I'm also open to suggestions and believe me. There are no shortage of suggestions from the field on how we can do things better, and frankly I think employees feel when they have a say in how the organization is run, if they believe that they can contribute, they have more satisfaction in their job.
Kelly: Regardless of the issues, regardless of whatever the perceived problems are, are there areas that you would just like to see emphasized or some of these strengths taken advantage of as law enforcement priorities, your mission priorities?
Bolduc: Absolutely. One mission priority is community engagement. That means across the state in our different troop areas is making sure that we spend adequate time interfacing with our community outside of what you would consider traditional law enforcement activities. Writing tickets, arresting people. Now, don't get me wrong. We're going to do those things.
That community engagement and being involved with our schools, being involved with our sheriff's offices. Our local, especially our small police departments in the rural parts of the state, and engaging with them.
Every community has opportunities for us to be involved. It's something that we're tracking. It's something that we're encouraging. It's something that is just part of good community policing and everyone will probably get tired of hearing me say this, but community policing is a philosophy, not a program. And our troopers do a great job of that, and we need to make sure that we emphasize that and we reward that and we make that a priority, so that's one.
Kelly: In a metropolitan area, community policing a lot of times means just getting out of the car and walking around and doing a little foot patrol. With a 500-mile wide state, how do you address community policing and what does that look like?
Bolduc: When I talk to our officers in the more rural areas, it really means getting to know people in their community which they already do a great job of. In the rural parts of Nebraska, the people that I've talked to refer to the troopers in their area as their troopers. "That's my trooper. Those are our troopers." So, they've already done a great job of being known in their community, being involved in the schools.
When there's a civic event going on we're there. We're putting the public face on, and you're right. It is a little bit different in the urban area, and that requires more intentionality. We tend to be a little busier in the urban area, so we have to be pretty intentional about going to events and being engaged with our communities, and our troopers have some great ideas on how we can build on that good work that's already being done.
Kelly: From what you've seen so far, what are those strengths from the Nebraska State Patrol?
Bolduc: Well our number one strength is our people. We have some outstanding people who really have a heart to serve. Notwithstanding the fact that we have some people who are alleged to have committed policy violations. We only can hire people. We don't have robots to do this job, and I'm not prejudging the facts in that matter, again, but sometimes you're going to have people who make mistakes.
That's true in any organization, but compared to the everyday good work that's done by our people I would say we have great strength in the quality of people that we have serving as troopers, serving as civilian support staff. So that's the good news that doesn't always get the top billing in the media, but I'm here to reassure Nebraskans that they have a great workforce that they can be proud of, and frankly our troopers do take great pride in serving the public.
Editors Note: The proceeding was edited for length and some questions were resequenced for at the clarity of the reader.