Chief Michael Blake’s appointment to lead the Kyle Police Department two years ago was a god-send to an agency struggling with performance, training and compliance issues.
He has sought to remake and professionalize the department – and although he has encountered unfortunate and unsuspecting roadblocks along the way – he has gone a long way toward accomplishing his goals.
We, the officers and civilian police department employees who work with him every day, want to make sure the community knows what kind of man Chief Blake is and what he has done for your police department.
Chief Blake has shown strong, effective, intelligent, and ethical leadership skills that have been phenomenal to this department. His abilities and capacity as a Chief of Police are those that are traditionally seen with much larger agencies.
His track record is both an indicator of what he is capable of as a leader and a blueprint for where he can take the Kyle Police Department. He realized and understood the serious pitfalls that this department was struggling with prior to his appointment due to the difficulty in keeping up with the rapidly growing population. However, he voluntarily made the decision to leave the professionally established agency that he transformed, Tomball Police Department, only to start over from scratch in an unfamiliar territory.
Upon his appointment to the Kyle Police Department, Chief Blake hit the ground running with an intense focus on ideas, innovation, changes, and action. Not all the changes are immediately observable to the citizenry but they are many:
Morale and integrity
• Personal career assessment inquiry for each officer which is designed to determine what each officer wants to do in his/her career and to facilitate this through training and assignments.
• Created an “every officer involved” strategy through open discussions and committees.
• Announced an open door policy for direct communication with the chief.
• Created an “Oath of Honor” and mission statement through collaborative efforts from all officers.
• Implemented the “Challenge Coin” and issued one to every officer.
• Despite the incredible lack of square footage inside the Kyle Police Department, created a “briefing/debriefing” room from a small section of the police department.
• Created an Honor Guard.
Standardized training
• Specialized training to accommodate the needs of the city and the growing crime rate.
• Specialized training to accommodate those who are most qualified for a specific detail.
• Courses, conferences, and workshops to facilitate the department’s need to get and stay ahead of the curve.
• Management school for supervisors.
Patrol fleet and equipment
• New black and white paint scheme to underline the basis and symbol of integrity of “right or wrong.”
• New vehicle decals for a strong professional image.
• Equipment with sophisticated and advanced stages of technology to accommodate the growing need for police officer resources and tools in the field.
• Acquired Chevrolet Tahoes to facilitate physical access to some of the off-road terrain in the city.
• Acquired Dodge Chargers for the ever growing traffic hazards of speeding vehicles.
Performance, efficiency and growth issues
• Created committees made up of officers and non-sworn employees such as Excellence Committee, Vehicle Committee, Uniform Committee, and Tactics Committee.
• Researched and is in the process of acquiring a state of the art CAD & Records Management System.
• Working to replace our current policy manual with one that bears a rigid format and structure.
• Increased the size of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).
• Began a part time bike patrol unit.
• Relinquished his office space to accommodate room needed for server equipment and is currently working out of a wooden storage shed. (The current Kyle Police Department facility is so inadequately sized that it cannot sustain even the needs for a city the size of Kyle five years ago.)
• Implemented the use of/acquired software (either web based or server based) to aid the department in keeping up with today’s crime, its generated data, and to better assist and communicate those crimes to the citizens…i.e. Nixel, CrimeReports.com, Guardian Tracking, state of the art CAD/RMS, and Evidence Tracker.
In short, Chief Blake has streamlined and facilitated the availability and avenue for each officer to excel to their maximum level, to rise above anyone’s expectations, and to realize that “the world is their oyster,” and that it’s up to each officer to do what is needed to get there. He continues to demonstrate leadership that is unmatched to most others’.
With the unrelenting dynamics of the current budget hampered by economic strain, Chief Blake has been unable to make many anticipated changes to the Kyle Police Department which would further transform the department into something much desired. With a little time and the proper funding, his vision of a professional and nationally accredited police department, to most effectively serve the citizens of Kyle, will become a reality.
Those KPD employees who contributed to this letter follow:
Sgt. Tracy Vrana
Officer Catlyn Bone
Sgt. Jacob Luria
Det. Pedro Carrasco Jr.
Capt. Pedro Hernandez
Leah Harris
Stephanie Robinson
Laura Hernandez
Officer Adam Watson
Briana Brecher
Andrew Ries
Mary Ann Palomares
Det. James Plant
