By Jennifer Litz
Editor
February 26, 2008

Edward Kading says he’s not alluding to anything or anyone in particular with his campaign suggestions. But they so characterize the current San Angelo Police Department administration’s scandals, it’s hard to believe him.

Take, for example, the way he illustrates his insistence on retraining our police force. He stresses the need to train officers specifically in the areas of professionalism and ethics, as well as officer survival.

“Officers sometimes have to make life and death decisions under a lot of stress, and we’re not preparing them for that well enough,” Kading says.

Perhaps this training would have come in handy during the situation last June, when Texas Ranger Shawn Palmer confirms San Angelo police deployed Tasers when confronted with a situation where a man had poured gasoline in himself. As for Kading’s rationale for ethics training—nah, it has nothing to do with this admin:

“For me, professionalism and ethics should be taught in every profession to some extent,” Kading says. “But we haven’t taught that in our academy for officers in the last three years. I think it speaks to our personal growth as police officers.

“Everyone has to be mindful; it’s easy to become cynical in this job. It’s important we have a comprehensive ethics and curriculum course. And we hire a lot of young officers . . .”

One of Kading’s more novel training suggestions includes report writing. “We don’t teach any kind of advanced report writing,” he says. “The only way to convey [a scene] to the district attorney or a court is through a written report. And it’s tough sometimes to relay exactly what happened in what order, etc.” Focusing on report writing, Kading believes, would give the force better prosecution rates and a better image.

Kading will point out some administration shortcomings outright.

--Or at least allude to them. His Web site, www.edwardkading.com, proclaims, “It is counter-productive to publicly insult members of your city government.”

“This administration has damaged relationships between the police department and some members of city government, whether it be City Council or City Hall,” Kading says. “Regardless of what the city or chief of police wants, there’s rarely anything you can’t resolve by going in and having a courteous, polite discussion. I just don’t think we should be making demands or taking public shots at people when we don’t get what we want.”

Kading also qualifies Chief Tim Vasquez’s claim that crime has gone down on his watch. Overall crime is down, Kading admits, but property crimes like graffiti and car vandalisms are up.

“We have to change our focus on the patrol divisions to get out there and prevent this and be seen,” he says. “Instead of gathering stats, or what they call the ‘minimum work standards.’

“The minimum work standard is a formula. In it goes an officer’s number of reports; the arrests he makes; etc. That goes into a formula, and from that formula, you come up with a number. I don’t think we should be evaluating our officers on numbers.”

Kading also wants to extol San Angelo’s virtues to attract a new bunch of officers. He thinks this will fix the manpower shortage. Moreover, he wants to attract diversity to the police force.

“I think it’s a shame that we only have two African American officers in this department,” Kading says. “And I think the department should reflect the demographic; I don’t know the exact percentage of African Americans in San Angelo, but I think we should hire more of them. We do have quite a few Hispanic and White officers.

“I think we should make more of an effort in the African American community. Go to them and say, ‘you probably know who these people are better than I do.’ Let’s recruit more of those people in that community. It gets down to equity of service; whether you live in an upper-class or lower socioeconomic status neighborhood.”

Kading, an SAPD sergeant, has worked in the patrol, criminal investigation, and narcotics divisions of the SAPD. His experience with the narcotics division—scrutinized because of the local drug problem—makes him recommend more officers for the division. “We need time and liberty to go after big dealers, and start at the top, work our way to the top instead of just arresting everyone who’s using. It’s something we’ll have to work on as we hire more people.”

Kading also got his Masters of Public Administration from San Angelo State University in 2006.