Hoping to drum up citizen support as they campaign for higher pay and a better pension, Anne Arundel County police officers are issuing warnings instead of tickets in many minor traffic infractions.

The approach, which police union leaders call "Operation Impact," is a sharp contrast to prior tactics, which included negative advertising against former County Executive John G. Gary in 1996.

In an early misstep in the latest campaign, four officers were disciplined recently by Police Chief Thomas P. Shanahan after they were accused of carrying out radar speed checks and other enforcement tactics that caused a traffic backup on Route 100 during Friday morning's rush hour.

Those officers have been prohibited temporarily from taking their patrol cars home at night as a result of the incident, which led to a meeting between the chief and union officials.

"Chief Shanahan has said he completely supports [the officers'] rights to negotiate better wages as long as any of the things they do does not bring an adverse impact on citizens or misuse of resources," said police spokesman Lt. Jeff Kelly.

Union officials say they are asking police to be creative and use discretion when dealing with the public.

'Being discretionary'

"We have put the emphasis on being discretionary," said Bill Wild, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 70, which represents almost 500 county officers. "We want to treat every contact as a positive effort."

The campaign occurs as negotiations intensify on the contract, which expires June 30. The county has offered police an across-the-board 3 percent pay increase. The union has asked the county for an 8 percent pay raise and to repeal the two-tiered pension system.

Negotiations have been held for about six weeks and could go to arbitration if a contract isn't agreed to by April 8, Wild said.

The union tactics are different this year from the contract negotiation strategy in 1996, when the union aired a 60-second "civil defense message" radio campaign that criticized the Gary administration's proposal to change the county police pension system.

The next year, police negotiators signed a contract that required new officers to work 25 years before retiring, compared with 20 years under previous contracts.

"We staged an all-out media campaign and still ended up with zero," Wild said. "We're trying different tactics. We want the citizens on our side."

'Help us help you'

Operation Impact calls for union members to hang posters emblazoned with the motto "Help us help you" in businesses and neighborhoods. Union leaders are urging officers to write warnings instead of tickets and to use other friendly approaches in dealing with the public.

Wild said the incident Friday probably was a result of officers using accepted tactics to keep traffic at a safe speed and was not intended to anger citizens. Upsetting citizens would contradict the focus of a grass-roots campaign, akin to the one that helped underdog Janet S. Owens win the county executive race last year.

"We don't want the citizens to be upset," Wild said. "Our goal is to keep citizens safe. We're not going to stop doing our jobs, we're just going to do it in a different way. We want to keep it a positive contact."

Behind other jurisdictions

Wild said pay for Anne Arundel County police officers trails some neighboring jurisdictions by 30 percent and the gap widens the longer officers remain.

He said many officers have left the department, some for other law enforcement jobs, although he did not know how many.

Pub Date: 3/30/99