Excerpts from the following letter were recently published in the Beacon Free Press. Below is the full text:
"A couple of thoughts on the announcement that the city council has unanimously decided to create the position of police commissioner.
First, an quick explanation on what action was taken. The Beacon City Council voted to establish a search committee -- eleven members, comprised mostly of Beacon residents but also a few non-Beacon residents with expertise in police management -- to find and recommend a person for the newly created job of police commissioner. In the meantime, the city council will have to create the position of police commissioner, alter the city charter for the position if needed, define the position roles and adjust the roles of other positions accordingly, figure out how to fund it, make sure it is not subject to legal challenges, appoint the person and then try to provide advice, guidance and oversight.
Second, let me try to summarize what issues have, at least in my opinion, led to the council taking this action on a 7-0 vote. The city council's action comes after a long series of issues that have arisen concerning the management of the police department in Beacon. Without going into all the details (and without revealing anything that the council has discussed in executive session, and making sure I say "alleged" in every sentence), there have been three distinct sets of issues.
(1) Financial Management: One set of issues has centered around allegedly poor or lacking management of the Beacon Police Department over several years, including hundreds of thousands of dollars of excessive overtime, top-heavy management, and the inability to keep to a budget. There have allegedly been issues of poor prioritization of spending, i.e., spending too much on favorites like cushy desk jobs, gadgets (e.g., Main Street cameras that never worked correctly) and too many police dogs, at the expense of not spending enough on increased presence on our streets. There has also allegedly been an ongoing lack of responsiveness of the chief to oversight, a continual pattern of the chief going around his boss (the city administrator) to the mayor, and the inability or unwillingness of the mayor to provide effective oversight of the chief. These alleged financial management issues are the ones I have focused on in my long series of letters to this paper. These are issues of management, i.e., about the chief and his managers.
(2) Internal Management of the Department. There has been a series of complaints and events, alleging and/or pointing to bias in the internal management of the department. Several people have alleged that there is a "good old boy" system in the department, with favoritism, cronyism, nepotism, targeting, rewarding and protecting the few bad apples, retribution, hazing, sexism, and more. Good officers have left and/or filed complaints, enumerating these issues in allegations. Other officers have allegedly gotten away with drunk driving, a hit and run accident, beating citizens, and the like. There are allegations that one's treatment as an officer seems to depend on whether you are one of the "good old boys." The city council has had to hire an outside investigator to look into these issues. These alleged issues, like the financial management issues, are also issues of management -- for the most part about the chief, but also about the few officers, i.e, the bad apples. According to the allegations, the vast majority of Beacon police officers seem either to "go along to get along" in a difficult atmosphere, or suffer the consequences of not playing the game.
(3) Treatment of the Public. There has been a series of complaints and events from Beacon citizens, alleging poor treatment by police officers. Complaints alleging things like: a campaign to win the most number of tickets issued in the county (1,500+ in a year by the winning officer, the police chief's son); pulling people over for insignificant or trumped up reasons (e.g., "I say you didn't signal for the full 100 feet before reaching the corner; now let me check your police record"); frivolous arrests (e.g., a ticket to a senior citizen for having a rosary hanging from her rear view mirror); intimidation and arrogance, at times with the apparent goal of inciting arrests; targeting and stalking citizens to get minor infractions; bias in pulling people over, including racial bias; excessive use of force, including beating handcuffed people; and turning a blind eye when the same violation occurs by a police officer. There are many allegations of this type. The outside investigator hired by the city was also asked to look at these issues -- there are apparently far too many to look into all of them. For most of these alleged incidents, the same few names of officers keep coming up. The chief, in his public statements, has allegedly categorically denied each and every allegation -- apparently without even knowing all the details. So, according to the allegations, these issues point to the same few bad apples, tainting an entire department, with management in denial and/or turning a blind eye.
This is a summary of the allegations involving the Beacon police department, that were existing prior to the city council's unanimous decision to create the new position of police commissioner. I note, once again, that the allegations concern only department senior management and a few officers -- not the vast majority of the officers in the department. The new police commissioner, if the city ends up with one, will have have her or his hands full."
Lee Kyriacou
Beacon City Councilman (At Large)
lee.kyriacou@hvi.net
(845) 838-2663
