Long before a group of Newton Police officers hit upon the brilliant idea of egging their supervisor’s home, it was clear that there was something rotten in the culture of the Newton Police Department. As a search gets underway in earnest for a new chief of the 139-officer department, Newton Mayor Setti Warren would do his constituents a big favor by hiring a new chief with no connection to the Garden City.
With its low crime rate, strong schools, handsome homes, and good transit connections, Newton ranks at or near the top of the best places to live in Massachusetts. It’s not a place where one might expect to find police officers behaving like dolts. But the wakeup call came in October when Matthew Cummings, the former Newton police chief, was terminated after a city investigation concluded that he made “boorish, disrespectful, and insulting’’ remarks to female employees, including telling his former secretary that she looked like a “whore.’’
Comments
I believe this reporter needs to look, long and hard, at what he is talking about. Every city I know wants home grown police officers living in the Community... Newton’s traditions seem's to prove out well, with a very low crime rate. I grew up in Newton, I turned into a bad guy; I never hated police though even after I crossed over to the other-side. I believe due to the fact I grew up with these guys and even though I was an idiot they treated me humanly.. Why? Because I could have been one of them and they could have been me.. I hope Newton keeps its long tradition, with its very low crime rate, due to law enforcement, it seems to have proven out very well, all things considered...
The incidents raised are troubling and of great concern. They need to release the names of the officers involved. no special treatment should be involved - did the officers get the same penalties that an ordinary citizen would have received for egging someone's house? if not then it is wrong and this article has merit.
If the supervisor (victim of the egging incident) is satisfied with the punishment of these officers then neither the Globe or it's readers has standing in the incident. Newton must be doing something right. They are consistently rated one of the safest communities in the country. Bringing someone from the outside in never works. They are carpetbaggers using their latest assignment as a stepping stone to something else. They come in, make ridiculous changes that PERF tells them to do and leave the department in shambles. Do a solid, in house, search for the best qualified individual.
It's worth noting that the last time Newton went outside for a police chief, just a few years ago, was a disaster.
Yes, thanks to Civil Service, union contracts and Mass. laws that require impact bargaining over any little change in policy.
Mr Harmon has no idea what makes a police department effective. His comment regarding police procedures has the same value as my observations regarding journalism. Harmon's dream is to have the next Police Chief pass the poltically correctness litmus test. Newton tried this recently and it was a miserable failure for all concerned.
Harmon in incapable of understanding why cops would laugh at descriptions like "boorish, disrepectful and insulting. The author of phrases like that lacks any understanding of a semi-military enviornment or maybe he/she has been booked or locked -up
Seems like the comments in this forum are likely originating from the same boorish, disrespectful culture endemic in the Newton department. Oh, my mistake, the "highly qualified", semi-military families they hire are cognitively immune to character criticisms that run to multiple syllables and, naturally, find them laughable. Visions of junior high school boys in charge of the police department coming to mind for anyone? Think for a minute about how the Newton Police Department police search would stack up in a truly competent, professional organization. We would start by saying with a straight face to all of our employees and stockholders that we are going to hire five family members because they are truly the most qualified individuals we can find. And then we're going to look only within our organization for our next CEO because, on merit, we have a lock on all of the best candidates available; nationwide. And furthermore, no outsider could come into our organization, understand it, and be accepted and effective. Umm, not gonna fly. if it weren't so impactful to the citizens of Newton, it would be amusing to see how an insular, juvenile, sub-culture could delude themselves into thinking they are somehow effectively fulfiling their mission, and at the same time holding an entire community hostage to their ignorance. It's a wonder why they've had such difficulties? This is not an organition of professionals; it's Lord of the Flies revisited. My apologies to the Newton officers for the literary reference. I'm sure it's laughable, but go ahead and look it up anyway.
Why does bringing in an outsider often not work in Massachusetts? Think strong police unions and Civil Service. As a former outsider chief who served in Chelsea once wrote..."I spent more time dealing with grievances over road details than police work." Anyone in this business knows there is a cultural and supervisory problem in Newton. To point out one example of lack of supervision noticed by those of us who use Newton/Wellesley Hospital for medical emergencies, Newton officers have a habit of dropping their drunks off at the ER rather than dealing with them under the protective custody law. This has been rampant and obvious for too long and I am surprised NW administration hasn't done something about it. Or, maybe they have and the Newton PD administration ignores them.