Jeff Davis has the highest fundraising record of all the San Angelo police chief candidates to date. (LIVE! photo/Joe Hyde)

Davis is the fundraising forerunner in the police chief runnings. He had close to $10,000 in donations as of last reporting period cutoff (Jan. 15).

How’d he raise the money?

“Actually, I didn’t even start collecting money until a little after the first part of November,” says Davis, who is a 22-year veteran of the SAPD patrol and narcotics divisions. “I know a lot of people are wanting a change, and people came forward and said, ‘We believe in you.’ I had one fundraiser that I thought would lose money; it actually made about $400-plus. [I’ve had] two fundraisers, and made $1,300 . . . after expenses.”

Much has been said about Davis’s fundraising. Little has been said about his thorough platform, which he has thought through to the point of the legislation that will bring it to fruition. His main points of contingency are public safety, police department morale, and economics.

“Public safety encompasses more issues than anything,” Davis says. “It’s not the police department’s fault per se, but they’re short on manpower, and [they] can’t provide the service they’re getting paid for. Everyone’s suffering for it; the officers we have on duty are working their tails off. They’re working 12 to 20 hours per day.”

Davis says the first step to solving the manpower problem is lifting chapter 143 of the civil service code, which puts an age limit on auditioning officers: 37 with no prior military experience; 45 if they’re prior military. Davis says we should raise that bar to 55.

“Get retired military who can pass the physical, get other retired police officers, retired businessmen,” Davis says. “You bring maturity, leadership, education; you bring everything to the table to help young officers, which are 60 to 70 percent of the force. You bring a balance, and save the city money, because more than likely, those officers aren’t going to stay long enough to vest their retirement.

“To do this, we can go through the City Council. It’s a simple process, something that Austin’s tried and it’s working for them. They were able to fill some slots they weren’t able to before. With more mature people, there’s also less liability. Today’s 50 is yesterday’s 30, is the way I look at it.”

Davis also has a pragmatic approach to raising morale: abolishing the minimum work standard point system, which Davis says causes some officers to underperform; others, unnecessary stress; and citizens to get pulled over for petty “offenses.”

“When it was put in place, everyone was above [the minimum work standard]; there were only two or three officers dragging their feet,” Davis says. “And instead of dealing with these people they . . . made everyone pay the price. Others dropped their performance to meet the minimum requirement. It’s really stressful on these officers. And now, cops will pull people over for brake lights, slow rolls through stop signs . . . violations not putting anyone in jeopardy.”

As a result of demoralizing practices, Davis says, about 22 percent of the force is expected to leave soon. “There are about 150 officers left there, maybe less, and last I heard from the Sergeant, they were over 20 short.”

“One more thing—for every 10,000 people in this city, how many patrol officers do you think are on duty? Try one or less. And that should be backed up. The argument to that is we have detectives around town; SOS special operations, about 5 guys, and they can complement patrol, but—on any given day, I think a good number should be 11.”

Incumbent police chief candidate Tim Vasquez has touted the decreased crime rate in his re-election campaign. But Davis pulls stats that signify an ongoing problem. He quotes FBI crime statistics for three Texas communities around the 109,000 population mark—Round Rock, Richardson, and San Angelo—for 2006.

“Richardson and Round Rock have an interstate,” Davis reminds before rattling off sobering numbers. “Property crimes: We had 4,557, Richardson had 3,100, and Round Rock had 1,900 . . . Round Rock’s violent crime [rate] is104; ours was 396. It shouldn’t be that way. Those numbers are crazy. Forcible rapes are a lot higher here than the other two cities also . . . “

Davis’s economics ideas include practical money-pinching strategies, like downsizing vehicle and fuel costs for the force. Take the detective and narcotics and other non-essential support groups’ cars and downsize to compact cars, he says. “Because they don’t carry people or equipment. Right now they’re in the range of 7 to 10 or 11 miles per gallon. If you took those and downsizes, got double the mileage, there are Hondas, Nissans, etc. that you can get 20-plus gallons with, and you’re gonna save over $60,000 per year.”

Davis’s policies have been looked upon favorably by many groups. He received an endorsement from the Texas Narcotics Officers Association.

Meet Davis in person at tomorrow’s meet and greet at Riverview Terrace at 5:30 p.m. The event is hosted by Mayor J.W. Lown and citizens from the community.