City of Ithaca
Chief of Police Search Process
Ithacans Accuse IPD of Tainting Search
Members of the Ithaca Police Department were accused of tainting the community's participatory search for the new police chief at last night's community forum.
According to Ithaca Mayor Alan Cohen '81, a disproportionately greater number of IPD officers than Ithaca citizens submitted forms for rating the importance of characteristics to be possessed by the next police chief.
In addition, "there were definitely some submissions from the IPD with perspectives contradictory to what a representative community would want," Cohen said.
Priorities
While Cohen said the department's priorities are often different from those of the community, several residents insisted that the IPD loaded the process by intentionally rating important priorities low on a rating scale.The most recent aspect of the community input process, which consisted of categorizing and prioritizing the 74 characteristics generated by the community over the past several months, took place at a Jan. 22 community forum.
Rating forms from both the public and the IPD were given to Cohen, who reviewed them before submitting the forms to a screening committee. The committee, comprised of 12 members, is responsible for organizing the community-wide participatory efforts.
At last night's meeting, Prof. William Trochim, human service studies, the facilitator for community input in the search, presented Ithaca residents with a concept map illustrating important characteristics in the search.
Residents raised concerns about the perception of the map and the prioritization of the characteristics. The debate centered specifically on the commitment to diversity.
Diversity
"This community is committed to diversity. It is a main concern," said screening committee member Cecilia Vargas.Due to the implications of IPD interference in the community input process, Trochim said the screening committee has scheduled a meeting for next week to reach a more accurate consensus in terms of the community's desires.
Cohen said a group was created to specifically focus on the IPD's views on the community.
The Cornell Daily Sun
February 11, 1997
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