FOP Survey Shows Low Morale

Yesterday afternoon, the Fraternal Order of Police released a survey of its members showing extremely low morale throughout IMPD. The FOP surveyed its members and received responses from about 58% of the officers. 

The results were not good.  Fewer than 17 percent said they have high morale and even less say they have the support of their commanders.  The article from the Indy Star indicates that this is a dramatic drop compared to a similar poll conducted in 2008.  85% feel they have the support of their immediate supervisors but only 5.7 percent said they have the support of Ciesielski and 3.4 percent said they have the support of Straub.

We think it probably is tough to be an officer right now.  A few bad apples have made some inexcusable mistakes and it has brought down increased scrutiny on the 95% of police officers who are doing a great job.  

But we kind of wonder when this poll was taken.  We were NOT fans of Straub for much of the past few months.  He certainly has his flaws.  But the last week or so since his centurion call to duty speech, we’ve started to feel a little differently.  He seems to be putting forth a concerted effort to get things back in line and remind the officers that they have a duty to clean up the bad apples and restore public trust.  If they do this, the morale of the department should improve. 

No one likes the boss breathing down their neck and it sounds like the immediate supervisors and Straub/Ciesielski are playing good cop-bad cop literally.