Barnes compares Sheriff's position with that of Greensboro's Police Chief.
Posted in Greensboro City Council
May. 16, 2008 at 10:30
by BrendaBee
I suggested over a year ago on this site that a sure sign of inadequate policing is to have the police chief answerable to anyone but the people. In Greensboro our Police Chief is answerable to the City Manager, and is in truth the employee of the City Manager. ( ALL city employees are the employees of the City Manager. The City Council only employs the City Manager.) With this situation the police chief who is we hope someone who is trained in police procedures and crime investigation and prevention must report to and justify his actions to someone who doesn't have this training. Police work requires a great deal of specialized training and if a person doesn't have this training they should never be given the power to direct police procedures because if bad decisions are made the safety of the people is at stake.Some say this is no problem, but I disagree. The police department isn't like any other department within the city government. In fact, police departments and fire departments are set up as quasi-military organizations for a very good reason. These departments require that members follow a chain of command immediately and without question much like the military. There is no time in an emergency situation to explain orders to underlings or to discuss the situation and take a consensus of all opinions before making a decision. If there are questions about an action there will be a time and a procedure for reviewing the action after the emergency is handled.
Because of the City Manager type of government we in Greensboro have ( one of only two in the entire state), an inept City Manager has single handedly destroyed what was once a top notch police department. We know now that he did this with lies and distortions. We haven't yet heard the truth for his doing what he did.
In order to avoid the kind of disaster we have been experiencing within the police department for the past two years my solution would be to make the police chief an elective office. So I read with interest the articled in this week's The Rhino where Sheriff Barnes (Guilford County,NC) was interviewed by John Hammer and compared his situation with that of the Greensboro Chief of Police. In effect Barnes stated that it was an impossible situation. He said they haven't the problems in their organization the GPD has because he answers to the people every 4 years and everyone in the organization answers to him. He has full authority given to him by the people to hire, fire and take any action in between. There is none of the going to the press by police officers as Hinson got away with or unions pressuring the sheriff to change policies he feels are best for the county. And neither does the sheriff's office have 12 deputies on paid administrative leave with pay while investigations take months and months to conclude such as the three police officers assaulting one other female police officer. This incident took place in December and just this week we heard the first decision when the DA said he did not have enough evidence to take the case to court. Now it is back in the hands of the police department internal investigations to determine what to do with these officers. Police Chief Bellamy said he should have a decision within a month. Six months to resolve this issue! Sheriff Barnes said it would have taken less than a week for this case to become past history in the Sheriff's Office because the decision would have been his to make after reviewing all the evidence. And it certainly should have been this way in the Greensboro Police Department.
One other point Barnes made: other than when an officer is involved in a shooting which the law requires that he be place on desk duty or leave while the case is being investigated, Sheriff Barnes said he has never had a deputy on administrative leave with or without pay. Greensboro currently has 12 officers on administrative leave and most with pay. The problem here as Sheriff Barnes sees it is that Police Chief Bellamy has no authority to fire as this is the decision of the City Manager. And for some reason Greensboro's current City Manager is protecting Black Officers.
The real irony here is that the Black officers now on administrative leave for some infraction of the rules or breaking of a law are also among those 60 + Black officers suing the city for discrimination. So these Black Officers are not only on paid vacation and being protected from any consequences for wrong doing but the City Council is now negotiating to pay them for alleged discrimination which neither the FBI nor the SBI could find any trace.
Our City Council needs to very seriously consider this option of making the Police Chief an elective office. It would be the best thing for the protection of the people since decisions can be made without all the fuss and thus more police time can be saved from these investigations to actually doing police work. Barring having the Police Chief elected by the people like the tax assessor and others the City Council should place the Police Chief directly under their control and answerable only to them. BB
0 Comments | Post Comment | Email This
