City of Ithaca
Chief of Police Search Process
Forum: Hire talkative top cop
By J.R. Clairborne
ITHACA – Ithacans got one last chance Tuesday night to help draw up part of the job description for the city’s new police chief.
Eleven residents spent almost two hours brainstorming at Beverly J. Martin Elementary School about who the next police chief should be and the issues he or she will need to address.
Participants agreed the new chief should know what’s expected of him or her. Key to that were sensitivity to diversity, effective communication, the foresight to keep pace with technology and the ability to attract and train a staff that bears much of the same.
“This represents Ithaca,” said Judy Long, a sociology professor at Syracuse University who lives in Ithaca. Long said it was important that the new chief be able to handle race issues and class divisiveness in Ithaca.
Jackie Milton Scott, executive director of Southside Community Center, said the best aspect of Tuesday’s forum was that it was a chance for the community to take ownership in the selection process. “It’s important for the mayor to listen to the community.”
Tuesday’s forum was the last verbal chance for public input. However, written suggestions can be submitted in drop boxes placed around the city. The screening committee, yet to be named by the mayor, will get the comments and whittle down an applicants list to six, and the public is expected to meet them in a series of forums. The committee will submit a list of three names to Mayor Alan Cohen, and representatives will visit the finalists’ communities. Cohen is expected to choose by mid-April. At a Jan. 15 meeting, the public will prioritize the more than 100 public suggestions.
Chief comments: Submit ideas in drop boxes at GIAC; Titus Towers; the Northside Community Center; the Southside Community Center; and the city clerk’s office on the first floor of City Hall until 5 p.m. today.
Return To Main Page
This project is sponsored in part by:
Concept Systems Incorporated |
 |