Colin McEnroe Show: Why Police Chiefs Don't Have As Much Power As You'd Think
Exploring recent police chief shakeups in New Haven, Hartford and Middletown.
Being a police chief is a difficult job. Chiefs manage an entire department and have to contend with politicians, citizens and unions. It's hard to satisfy everyone. In Connecticut, there's recently been a lot of shakeups among police chiefs.
Here's our story so far - In Hartford, police Chief Daryl Roberts has decided to retire or has been squeezed out, depending on whom you believe. Over in New Haven, Police Chief Frank Limon has left that job way ahead of schedule, maybe by mutual consent, depending on whom you believe.
Providence Rhode Island police chief Dean Esserman decided to resign or was squeezed out, again ... depending on whom you believe. He's getting the New Haven job after having expressed in interest in the Hartford job.
The situation of the Middletown police chief is so complicated I'm not even sure I can explain it, but his continued tenure was the subject of a ballot question in the coming election, although that question may have been rendered moot.
On today's show, what's happening to police chiefs? The shrinking of their tenures is a national trend. How did the job get so hard?
Leave your comments below, e-mail colin@wnpr.org or Tweet us @wnprcolin.
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Cost of inmates
It costs $350K to incarcerate one convict. It costs $337K to educate 25 primary school kids. Connecticut spends more on incarceration than it does on education. Why don't we measure prison performance for recidivism? Have charter and magnet prisons? Race to the Sunshine? No petty criminal left behind? I'm not talking about being nice to criminals, I'm talking about saving major taxpayer bucks by reducing criminality.I welcome the High Point intervention initiative and community policing, but what about the space between?
to Bryan
Not likely to be pension hopping. Let's face it, in this economy in particular, no town wants to bring in a police chief who's planning to stay 3 or 4 years, then leave, and if you hire someone who's already had a full career somewhere else, that's likely to happen. Departments, imho, need to be looking for chief candidates who will stay the course. Plus, the town can always stipulate in the package they offer that there is a limited pension, which often happens if they hire someone who's already had a full career. The pension is limited until the person puts in say another ten years, which no one should begrudge. And to John, re East Hampton, a vote of no confidence means nothing these days; sorry, the unions have made them all too common and they've lost their punch. And the LT they are trying to reinstate is the same one who undercut Chief Reimondo when the town council tried to fire him. If I were a member of that union, I wouldn't put my trust in a man who cut the legs out from under my boss in order to take his place.
The political leadership in
The political leadership in East Hampton has been targeting the Police Chief for over a year. This latest issue with the police union petition is a request to reinstate an officer who is currently the subject of an IA investigation. It's just the latest proxy to come along from prior attempts.
E-mail from John
In East Hampton, the police union president delivered a petition with 10 of the 13 officers showing vote of no confidence regarding the chief to the town council, because of fear of reprisal on speaking out and the lack of leadership. IT’s not totally politically driven, as Rosenblatt mentioned.
E-mail from Bryan
Is it possible that the rotating Police Chief phenomena is a little about Pension hoping. Meaning they rotate around to obtain more retirement packages. Manchester CT went through this. Chiefs just stock piling pensions.
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