City of Ithaca
Chief of Police Search Process
Editorial
The Rush to Judgment
There were valid reasons for keeping a lid on the names of all the chief candidates interviewed for the job, and there was unanimous agreement by the screening committee to help these individuals protect their jobs. All would agree that the police chief is the city's second most important and visible position. We want the best person for the job; we want someone who is tough, yet who can communicate with all of the various and sundry subgroups in our community. Of course, any decision won't please everyone.
If we had learned the names we would have published them, but there is no reason to infer that there was a conspiracy, or ulterior motives, behind keeping the information out of the public eye.
The Journal complains that the search process wasn't open enough, yet anyone who wanted to give his or her two cents' worth was encouraged to comment in at least three public forums. The process included input form the business community, the communities of color, the gay and lesbian community, the law enforcement contingent, youth groups, neighborhood watch groups, Common Council, seniors, and representatives from Cornell. Yet that isn't good enough for the Journal, which doesn't trust the people on the screening committee, chosen after much deliberation, to make a decision for the community at large. The fact that the committee could reach a consensus is especially noteworthy given the diversity of its membership.
The mayor could have simply made the appointment without consulting anyone, although we all know that's not how things are done in Ithaca. But going to the opposite extreme, revealing the names of everyone who applied for the job and scrutinizing the records of those who made the final cut, would be unfair to those expressing interest in the job and asking for some job protection. That's why the screening committee was assigned to visit the communities where these candidates live and work, to help conduct a thorough evaluation for our community.
Which leads us to the next question for our fellow Journalists. If the newspaper can send a team of reporters to Blacksburg, Va., for a series of stories about a community wired for sound, why can't it send one reporter to Ellenville, NY, to gauge that city's opinions about its police chief before writing a story about him? Instead, the paper made a few calls and ran a story that members of the screening committee who did visit Ellenville said was at odds with what they heard from the folks there.
After this dubious research, the Journal pointedly asked whether the chief of Ellenville could handle a department in a larger city, although he spent 17 years with the City of Albany Police. No one would blame the candidate for withdrawing his name from consideration for the Ithaca job, given the cloud placed over his head, despite favorable reports from the screening committee, which has interviewed the man extensively and talked to many of the people he has worked for, and with, during his law-enforcement career.
Maybe we should let the Journal's editorial board pick the next police chief. It's pretty obvious that nothing less will be satisfactory to them.
Ithaca Times
June 12, 1997
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