July 4, 2012, statement by Raleigh Police Chief Harry Dolan

"Since December 2008, the Raleigh Police Department has successfully used the principles of community-oriented policing to reduce violent crime and build trust. Our progress was accomplished by remaining focused on priorities that are important to neighborhoods and the police alike. To maintain the gains we have made together and to continue to improve police service, it is important that the department adopt a more relevant personnel evaluation program.

"Under the existing system, 90 percent of our employees were rated as outstanding – the highest possible level. I would agree that our employees do remarkable, often courageous, work, but a measurement program that produces such results has room for improvement and leaves room for public skepticism.

"The Teamsters have committed a great disservice to their members, my officers, and our community by suggesting that the performance-based program ‘thinly veils a true quota system.’ In fact, the understandable and appropriate measurement tools that have been put into place will erase any past perceptions, and avoid any future possibilities, of having quotas.

"The department is committed to using the flexibility in its new system to address recent concerns genuinely expressed by personnel through the chain of command. Furthermore, I have demonstrated that I have always been available to meet with the Teamsters regarding workplace concerns. In this instance, I only wish they had chosen to use that avenue first.

"Perhaps the most significant challenge ahead is for all concerned to give the new system some time in real-world applications so that we as a department can demonstrate the overall benefit of administering a fair and objective performance-based management system for our employees. Through continued use and hands-on experience, we will prove to be a national model for how best to objectively measure and evaluate police performance in today’s challenging economic times.

"It is perfectly understandable to question change or to become anxious about a transition to revised performance measurements. However, to refer to the utilization of the fundamental neighborhood and police priorities below – which are additionally evaluated on the basis of quality of the service performed – as any form of quota is misguided.

"Finally, I would be remiss as a chief if I did not say to Teamsters who inaccurately criticize the RPD that it’s time for them to refocus on our public mission; a great many people are counting on us to work together."