02/29/2016
VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE
On behalf of the members of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 142 (FOP Lodge 142) and the officers of the Morgan State Police Department, we regretfully write this letter. Unfortunately, circumstances have left us with no other recourse. We have lost all trust, faith, and confidence in Chief Lance Hatcher’s ability to lead this Department.
Chief Hatcher has fostered an atmosphere of hostility, retaliation, and unethical behavior. An example of this would be in his interaction with a subordinate where he stated “I can play a F*&k (profanity) you game!” when addressing a problem. His lack of leadership, mismanagement, and poor policy decisions have damaged the relationship between the administration of Morgan State University and the men and women of FOP Lodge 142 as well as other members within the department.
Attempts to address workplace problems with Chief Hatcher have gone unheeded. We feel that the relationship with Chief Hatcher is irreparable. He has bought morale to an all-time low. His lack of leadership and poor management style has begun to affect retention and recruitment of qualified personnel. Chief Hatcher has established a pattern and practice of inequitable treatment of department personnel and utilizes the internal investigation and threat of disciplinary action as a means to intimidate members. We can no longer be tolerate of it and are asking for relief.
Chief Hatcher’s inaction to resolve problems within the Agency continues to jeopardize the safety of the entire Morgan State Community. Issues surrounding safety such as inadequate staffing, inexperienced officers being forced to learn the job without adequate supervision, and shoddy equipment such as broken radios, inoperable/ insufficient vehicles are but a few of the problems that affect our ability to provide adequate services for the students and faculty of Morgan State.
Additionally, Chief Hatcher has never provided a strategy for the department to combat the rising violence we are experiencing at Morgan State University. A simple example would be the recent homicide that occurred at Morgan View. Chief Hatcher still has not met with the rank and file to lay out a strategy or even update us on the matter in hopes of deterring this from happening again. We have been woefully neglected of any leadership, guidance, or exposure to active shooter training, communications training, and have yet to receive riot gear for every officer which is a violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement by and between Morgan State University and FOP Lodge 142.
For the past six (6) years, we have tried to work with Chief Hatcher on these and many other issues within our house. If we continue to do what we have been doing and expecting a different result, we would clearly be called insane. And, it should be noted that while attempting to deal with these matters at the lowest level and internally it only yielded negative results and the wrath of Chief Hatcher.
With everything that is going on internally, we barely are able to address the safety of our students and staff. This is evident by the number of violent altercations such as armed robberies, assaults, parties that have erupted in violence, stabbings, shootings and multiple attempted and actual homicides that have occurred. We only wish to focus on bettering this Department and protecting our students who attend Morgan State University in hopes of receiving a great education. Chief Hatcher has yet to realize that his neglect and inaction on these and numerous other issues that have been presented to him make him the biggest threat to safety on campus.
A bad manager can take a good staff and destroy it thereby causing the best employees to leave the Department and those that remain to lose all motivation. Chief Hatcher’s abuse of power and bullying has finally resulted in an investigation being conducted by the Maryland State Police regarding allegations of possible misconduct as well as unbecoming conduct while in office. Regardless of the outcome of that investigation, we now ask that the Administration intervene on our behalf and take the necessary steps to provide quality leadership and direction at the helm of the Morgan State Police Department.
In closing, we would like to reiterate one last time that the men and women of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 142 and the officers of the Morgan State Police Department have lost all trust and faith in Chief Lance Hatcher’s ability to lead this Department. We, therefore, respectfully ask that you support our VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE and relieve Chief Hatcher of his duties and responsibilities pending identifying a new head of the Police Department. The leadership of FOP Lodge 142 would like to be a partner in identifying its new Chief and developing a plan to rebuild this Agency and help move it in a positive direction.
2/29/2016
