McKinney PD Shakeup

Russell · #1 (**permalink**) 10-15-2012, 8:39 AM

Quietly reported in the news last week; McKinney Police Chief Doug Kowalski is suddenly reassigned to unknown duties while his exit is arranged. City Manager Jason Gray was at the Chief's desk and Joe Williams, the deputy city manager, is slated to be the department’s new chief.

It's very interesting that Police leadership is being taken over by non-department personnel.

McKinney PD is 100% encrypted and completely non-transparent. With no visibility into Police Operations one can only suppose what is going on. Encryption can easily hide many problems up to and including corruption.

McKinney police chief suddenly reassigned | wfaa.com Dallas - Fort Worth

bhall7 · #2 (**permalink**) 10-15-2012, 10:05 AM

Thanks for the update. How in the world are McKinney citizens supposed to collaborate and partner with McKinney PD when they are so closed and have made no efforts to engage the public, but rather have done the opposite? I wrote several letters to multiple people at the City of McKinney when they encrypted all of their radio communications, and the only response I got was a statement saying that any inquiries for information could be submitted through the Freedom of Information act. When there is an immediate emergency or disaster in the city, a traffic accident with road closures, or other event requiring the real-time, or near real-time communication between city government, public servants, and its citizens, the Freedom of Information Act would hardly be of any use.

musicman476 · #3 (**permalink**) 10-15-2012, 7:28 PM

The new city manager even posted the firing on YouTube. Some people....

McKinney City Manager Jason Gray Fires the Police Chief Via YouTube - YouTube

reedeb · #4 (**permalink**) 10-21-2012, 6:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bhall7

Thanks for the update. How in the world are McKinney citizens supposed to collaborate and partner with McKinney PD when they are so closed and have made no efforts to engage the public, but rather have done the opposite? I wrote several letters to multiple people at the City of McKinney when they encrypted all of their radio communications, and the only response I got was a statement saying that any inquiries for information could be submitted through the Freedom of Information act. When there is an immediate emergency or disaster in the city, a traffic accident with road closures, or other event requiring the real-time, or near real-time communication between city government, public servants, and its citizens, the Freedom of Information Act would hardly be of any use.

Crooked and corrupt governments love this stuff. Courtesy of YOUR tax dollars. When it gets so I cannot hear anything on my scanner i will reprogram for Aircraft bands and HAM radio and forget it THEN the local LEO as well as others will whine on TV that they don't get cooperation from the citizens. [Sorry I never passed mind reading in school].

Nothing to see here citizen, go about your way!!

MaxTracker · #5 (**permalink**) 10-23-2012, 1:31 PM

Got a buddy who is a McKinney cop, about the equivalent of a DPD Covert cop. He supports the encryption (As many of McKinney's officers do) Sure it does put they're business in secret and we all have agree'd that channels used by Narcotics and SWAT teams don't need to be available to the public (We might not like these encrypted but most of us agree those channels should be free from ears)

They have been recovering a bunch of scanners from all sorts of crimes and criminal operations especially on the West side of McKinney. They have been seizing illegally cloned radios and have really made an impact on scanner wielding criminals because of the encryption.

Of course their is the other side "Police accountability" and these guys must be accountable to the citizens that hire them or McKinney becomes a "Police State" slowly moving to a "Communist state"

Was his removal due to the encryption? we don't know and may never know. Will this event and others like it open the door to scanning McKinney PD? Time will tell, but I really believe certain channels should remain encrypted - There are Police Operations that go on the Public don't need to be clued in on.

That's my thought - I'll go back to shutting up for 6 more months.

MaxTracker · #6 (**permalink**) 10-23-2012, 1:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by musicman476

The new city manager even posted the firing on YouTube. Some people....

McKinney City Manager Jason Gray Fires the Police Chief Via YouTube - YouTube

Why not? more people watch you tube than the local news ....

reedeb · #7 (**permalink**) 10-23-2012, 2:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaxTracker

Got a buddy who is a McKinney cop, about the equivalent of a DPD Covert cop. He supports the encryption (As many of McKinney's officers do) Sure it does put they're business in secret and we all have agree'd that channels used by Narcotics and SWAT teams don't need to be available to the public (We might not like these encrypted but most of us agree those channels should be free from ears)

They have been recovering a bunch of scanners from all sorts of crimes and criminal operations especially on the West side of McKinney. They have been seizing illegally cloned radios and have really made an impact on scanner wielding criminals because of the encryption.

Of course their is the other side "Police accountability" and these guys must be accountable to the citizens that hire them or McKinney becomes a "Police State" slowly moving to a "Communist state"

Was his removal due to the encryption? we don't know and may never know. Will this event and others like it open the door to scanning McKinney PD? Time will tell, but I really believe certain channels should remain encrypted - There are Police Operations that go on the Public don't need to be clued in on.

That's my thought - I'll go back to shutting up for 6 more months.

Not saying such units should not have encryption YES that type of operation I see no reason not to encrypt it. BUT the day to day operations need not be encrypted [unless it is sensitive in nature] THIS leads to lack of faith in the Public Services.

motorola_otaku · #8 (**permalink**) 10-25-2012, 1:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by musicman476

The new city manager even posted the firing on YouTube. Some people....

McKinney City Manager Jason Gray Fires the Police Chief Via YouTube - YouTube

Looks like business as usual for McKinney.

I was a somewhat-frequent visitor to your city in years past. The impression I got was that most of the rank-and-file LEOs didn't care much for radio hobbyists in general.

procopper7005 · #9 (**permalink**) 10-25-2012, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaxTracker

Got a buddy who is a McKinney cop, about the equivalent of a DPD Covert cop. He supports the encryption (As many of McKinney's officers do) Sure it does put they're business in secret and we all have agree'd that channels used by Narcotics and SWAT teams don't need to be available to the public (We might not like these encrypted but most of us agree those channels should be free from ears)

They have been recovering a bunch of scanners from all sorts of crimes and criminal operations especially on the West side of McKinney. They have been seizing illegally cloned radios and have really made an impact on scanner wielding criminals because of the encryption.

Of course their is the other side "Police accountability" and these guys must be accountable to the citizens that hire them or McKinney becomes a "Police State" slowly moving to a "Communist state"

Was his removal due to the encryption? we don't know and may never know. Will this event and others like it open the door to scanning McKinney PD? Time will tell, but I really believe certain channels should remain encrypted - There are Police Operations that go on the Public don't need to be clued in on.

That's my thought - I'll go back to shutting up for 6 more months.

McKinney PD has recovered cloned radios being used by criminals? I would love to see proof of that. That would be extremely rare...much less more than one instance of it. Generally these rare instances make the news media.

BTW, most of the McKinney talk groups are recorded in dispatch and anyone can simply mail an open records request and receive radio traffic for whatever time period they want. Same goes for CAD notes, 911 calls, even the messages officers send to each other in their in car computers.

If McKinney did indeed have criminals using cloned radios I would love to see the police reports as proof, I may send an open records request for this to confirm that this actually happened.

I do support encryption on sensitive talk groups like SWAT, CID, narcotics, etc...but generally support patrol talk groups being open unless there has been some verifiable reason not to.

A great solution would be to keep everything encrypted and the agency itself provide a time delayed online feed to its patrol talk group, say 15 minutes, to remove any tactical advantage to a criminal listener. Some PD's...like Arlington, provide a live feed of all their calls in CAD online for anyone to see, this could be another solution.

As far as the chief being removed. He does serve at the pleasure of the city manager or in some cases the city council. It would be nice to know the reason here...but I doubt it has anything to do with the radios.

mikeb · #10 (**permalink**) 11-04-2012, 2:00 PM

procopper7005
How difficult is to do a "Open Records Request"
Thanks

Current_Resident · #11 (**permalink**) 11-09-2012, 11:47 AM

According to a recent article, published in the McKinney Courier-Gazette, dated October 20, "The city of McKinney asked for 411 rulings to deny public information requests in 2011, or 324 per 100,000 residents, the highest rate in the state. Most of these were associated with police records." So, good luck in getting access to police records In McKinney!

The second part of this discussion seems centered on "McKinney City Manager Jason Gray Fires the Police Chief Via You Tube". This story is total male cow manure! Jason Gray did not post this video on YouTube! The video was a planted setup by community, right-wing activists who, in-turn, deliberately misrepresented the video as being the work of Mr. Gray.