City of Ithaca
Chief of Police Search Process
Only 1 Chief Candidate May Be Left
A finalist to become Ithaca's police chief apparently has accepted a job in California, leaving only one candidate.
Richard Basile, 50, of Ellenville, N. Y., in Ulster County and Michael Berkow, 41, chief of police in Coachella, Calif., 30 miles east of Palm Springs, are the two finalists, sources confirmed.
Berkow, however, was set to sign a two-year contract Wednesday night making him the new police chief in South Pasadena, said Sean Joyce, manager of the Los Angeles suburb.
"I've hired him, and he's accepted the position. His contract is to be presented to the city council for final ratification tonight," Joyce said.
Berkow could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Ithaca Mayor Alan Cohen said he wasn't sure if the remaining candidate automatically would be offered the chief's post if Berkow withdraws.
"That would be something we'd have to consult the screening committee about. I've committed to a process, and the screening committee is part of it," he said.
| Population: 4,243 |
| Racial Makeup: 24 percent minority population |
| Size of police force: 13 full-time, 14 part-time officers |
| Police department budget: $900,000 |
| Chief salary: Approximately $52,000 |
| Population: 29,541 |
| Racial Makeup: 18 percent minority population |
| Size of police force: 76 sworn officers |
| Police department budget: $4.7 million |
| Chief salary: Range is $46,000 - $69,000 |
News stories in the Los Angeles Times and the Desert Sun of Palm Springs also said Berkow was leaving Coachella for South Pasadena. However, Cohen maintained Wednesday that Berkow was still a candidate for the Ithaca job.
"That was a mistake on their part. He's aware of those stories. They were prematurely released," Cohen said Wednesday, shortly after speaking with Berkow.
The names of Berkow and Basile were not released by Ithaca officials or the screening committee, but sources close to the search confirmed them this week.
The Ithaca police force has been under the command of Deputy Police Chief David Burns since Harlin McEwen, the former chief, left in February 1996 to work for the FBI. Cohen hopes to have the city's new top cop in place by midsummer.
Community, training
Basile said a community's image of its police department is raised when officers take the extra step to become involved in the community they serve."The whole department needs to be sensitive to community's needs, not just the community police division," he said. "Crime fighting is what we like to think we do but ... crime fighting is 5-10 percent of the work. ... The vast majority is community service."
Describing himself jokingly as a "short, pudgy guy," Basile has more that 25 years of law enforcement experience, of which 18 were spent with the Albany Police Department and three as the training director with the state's Division of Criminal Justice Bureau for Municipal Police.
Basile focuses on community policing, in which officers know the people and happenings on their beats; and training and support for his officers, because "we just don't walk away from (traumatic events) undamaged."
Basile began a campaign to fight drugs. Prior to his arrival in 1992, the village averaged 30 drug-related arrests per year. Since then, village police have made 500 felony and misdemeanor arrests, according to the Times-Herald Record of Middletown.
The following year, Basile expanded the Drug Abuse and Resistance Education program to include an adult component that also taught parenting skills. Another component taught children in kindergarten through fourth grade personal safety techniques, including conduct with strangers and avoiding and reporting sexual abuse.
In May 1996, Basile helped create in the village the Police Athletic League, which offers youth opportunities to play several sports.
His most recent undertaking is a youth court run by local young people, he said. In his free time, he also coaches in the police league and umpires for Little League games, which he was headed for after a phone interview with The Journal Wednesday afternoon.
His objective for local youth is to keep them too busy to get in trouble and interact with police on a non-law enforcement basis.
"If we can reach these kids now, then we're not chasing them five or six years later," he said.
Having followed nearly 10 years of Basile's career as the crime reporter for the Albany Times-Union, Joe Mahoney, now a spokesman with the state Attorney General's Office, said Basile has the knowledge to handle many of the big-city problems arising in the small city of Ithaca.
"He is responsive," Mahoney said. "If, God forbid, a crime were perpetrated against a member of my family, I would want to have the person heading that investigation to be somewhat as thorough and diligent as Rich Basile is."
Despite a list of achievements and confidence from people like Mahoney, Basile's record is not spotless in Ellenville.
In November, controversy surfaced when the village chapter of the National Association of Colored People reported that nearly 15 complaints were filed with the chapter alleging harassment by police and that an incident of police brutality occurred at the jail.
Jesse Williams, vice president of the organization's Ellenville branch, said those complaints were misconstrued by some as an indictment of racism against the chief and the police force. However, the NAACP merely wanted cultural sensitivity training for officers, so they could deal effectively with people in the village's diverse population.
"That's all we ask for. We did not accuse him of racism," Williams said. "We can't call anyone racist."
Basile's reply at the time was that training was conducted at the jail, Williams said. While the organization did not oppose training for corrections officers, "we're not inmates out here," he said.
Basile said Wednesday that the organizations' (sic) public revelation of the accusations surprised him because they didn't come to him first, as they had done in the past. The department also was cleared of any wrongdoing following an FBI investigation.
When asked about Basile's performance as the chief, Richie Rothman, a downtown businessman in the village, did not waste words.
"Total ineffective," he said flatly. "He started out like a house on fire then he fell asleep."
Rothman said when Basile arrived, he made advances that culminated in a large drug bust. However, drug transctions are seen daily on village streets and police seem to do little, he said.
Rothman said he and other business people shared that sentiment with members of Ithaca's police chief screening committee during a recent visit.
"I'd love to get rid of him," he said he told them. "It's a double-edged sword because he's not doing his village any good at all, but I feel sorry for who gets him."
Police work in his blood
Pending council approval, expected to be a formality, Berkow was to start in South Pasadena July 28 at nearly $91,000 per year, Joyce said.In Ithaca, no salary has been set, but the former chief was paid about $70,000.
Berkow was a finalist in three or four chief searches around the country, Joyce said. "He's a very attractive candidate. This guy is a superstar."
Before Coachella, Berkow, who is married and has a child, spent 17 years on and off with the Rochester Police Department. He joined the force in 1976, working patrol, then enrolled in Syracuse University's College of Law in 1978, earning a law degree in 1981.
He left the force in 1982 to become a law clerk for U. S. District Court Judge Michael Telesca and later took a job as an associate with a Seattle law firm.
But Berkow couldn't get police work out of his blood.
He returned to Rochester in 1983, taking a 25 percent pay cut as a beat officer working a midnight shift. After a series of promotions, he headed internal investigations into former Police Chief Gordon Urlacher's arrest on federal charges of embezzlement and misapplication of public funds and later into allegations of civil rights violations against six officers.
Sgt. Mark Gerbino, who joined the force with Berkow in 1976, said his friend took an "incredible amount of heat" for his controversial work on those investigations.
"He did it with a lot of integrity and a lot of personal pain," Gerbino said.
Colleagues and friends described Berkow as a fast learner and a visionary.
"He's probably one of the clearest thinkers under pressure that I've met in 21 years of policing," Gerbino said.
Former Rochester police chief Roy Irving called Berkow a tireless worker with many talents.
"I've never seen anybody who can read a book and write a report as fast as he can," Irving said.
Berkow left to manage a $12 million U. S. Justice Department project in August 1994 to rebuild and maintain two academies for the Somalian National Police Force. A year later, he helped create Haiti's first civilian police force and academy.
In Coachella, a largely Hispanic farming community of about 21,000, Berkow oversaw 29 officers and a budget of more that $2 million. He implemented community policing and oversaw a 58 percent decrease in crime.
"I have nothing but great things to say about this man," said Juan De Lara of the Coachella city council. " 'Effective' would be understating his performance here. He just did a tremendous job for us."
De Lara said that Berkow submitted his letter of resignation earlier this week.
The Ithaca Journal
June 5, 1997
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