Muscle Shoals Police in a Pickle

 

Bad Management: Leadership Styles That Cause Turnover

By: Constabulary Critic

While every manager wants to believe that they are the ideal leaders, this is often not the case. For every effective leader, there exists a bad manager whose behaviors cause their employees undue strife. For the worst of these managers, their bad behaviors can lead to continuous turnover issues and significant losses to the organization. While everyone is familiar with the standard “bad manager” with unrealistic expectations and highly-critical feedback, other far more subtle leadership failures can lead to employee turnover as well. Leaders who struggle to control their own temper are often the first to notice difficulties with managing their staff. Frequent outbursts of anger, yelling at employees, and attempting to manage through fear are signs of a manager who is insecure and uncertain of their leadership skills. Employees quickly become resentful of the stress these managers place them under, and often turn to leaving their job to escape.

So is the case at the Muscle Shoals Police Department concerning the 4 year reign of Chief Clint Reck. His struggle to control his temper and outbursts of anger are clear signs he lacks necessary leadership skills.

Gone are the days before Chief Reck when the M.S. Civil Service Board would have hundreds of applicants for one single position at the MSPD. Now on a good day, there may be 5 applicants while that number reduces to 2 or 3 after the application process and testing. Considering MSPD has one of the best employee packages in the area, how did such a drastic reduction in applicants become a problem in the 4 short years Chief Reck has been in that position? With such a small pool of candidates for a job, the competition among the applicants leave little room for qualified and professional hires. 

Once hired, it would stand to reason, there would be little reason for those in the employ to look elsewhere with such good pay and benefits. Not the case. Over the last 4 years Chief Reck has caused an exodus of half of those in law enforcement in Muscle Shoals. 18 out of 37 police officers have severed ties with Chief Reck taking less desirable jobs that pay a good bit less. While seasoned officers hired in at MSPD, but quickly determined the culture within the department was not a professional environment and immediately resigned within months of being hired. Career experienced and mature officers took early retirement to leave the hostile work environment, while others found jobs within their profession, also settling for less pay and benefits to get away from the MSPD toxic environment.

How does this affect you, the citizen and taxpayer? Each time a rookie young person is hired, there is a cost of training in the Academy, uniforms, outfitting, and benefits. This is not a cheap investment to result in a short stint on the streets of M.S. when these young people become licensed officers. Another issue with the rookies is the level of inexperience in responding to emergencies. Domestic disputes, drug dealers and emergency calls are life and death situations that require mature and seasoned officers for the safety and welfare of citizens. This doesn't happen when the majority of officers in a department are young rookies. 

Muscle Shoals Mayor and City Council need to acknowledge there is a problem. There is a common denominator - Chief Clint Reck.

18 out of 37 officers have left MSPD in 4 years under Chief Reck. That is no coincidence. No excuses are acceptable.

Chief Reck should resign or the Civil Service Board should do their job and demand the Mayor and City Council remove the common denominator - Chief Clint Reck.

M.S. Civil Service Board - Who Do You Serve? Do Your Job.