INC NEWS - Police Chief candidate forum tonight

[RW Pickle]

If you have any desire to shape the future of the head of our Police
Department, Tuesday night you'll get your chance. Starting at 7pm down at
City Hall, there will be a public forum in which to ask some questions and
voice your opinion as to whom the best candidate might be. It's already
been narrowed down to three possible top cops; Ron Hodge our current
Deputy Chief, Jose Lopez, Sr. of Hartford, Conn., and Don Green of
Knoxville, Tenn. Looking over the FBI crime statistics for the respective
communities, there are some differences in what each community has issues
with. Rape, robbery, and larceny or theft were higher in their respective
cities than ours. And in Knoxville, arson was a serious problem. I asked
Green about this after the forum because arson is almost three times
greater in Knoxville than in Durham. He said it was due to how fires are
classified and that some UT students seem to like to burn things. Car
theft in the other cities was much greater as well. Perhaps that is due to
the difference in population size relative to Durham (City).

Along with several other community leaders, I had the opportunity to meet
and ask questions of them yesterday and there are some big differences.
Hodge, the local guy, knows Durham. He's been here for 24 years. So if you
think crime is under control and everything is great, then he should get
the status quo vote. But if you think we need a change, the other two men
offer a life-long commitment to law enforcement and a fresh approach on
how to deal with crime in communities.

Lopez, the only fluent speaker of Spanish among the three, has 22 years of
service with the Hartford Police Department. He has held many different
positions on his way to the Deputy Chief position there. He was
instrumental in the 2005 initiative of instituting Community Policing
within the Hartford community and has been very involved in his off time
within the community. He attributed much of the 25%+ reduction in the type
1 crimes there to the community policing initiative. He said he'd utilize
many of the Federal tools available to help in reduction of drug
trafficking as they have in Hartford. Lopez and his wife (a retired Police
officer from Hartford as well; they started their careers at the same
time) have been featured on the TV program "America's Top Cops". I liked
this guy. He had a fresh approach to what the Police should be in our
community and seemed like a great community oriented individual. Plus he
would bring to the table his Spanish heritage which is something this
community is in desperate need of (with our growing Spanish speaking
population). His photo in the newspaper and on the Hartford website do not
do him justice.

Green wants the Durham job so he can live closer to his twin brother who
lives in Wilmington. Which for me is the wrong reason to be going after
the position. He has spent his life as a career law enforcent  member;
some with municipal departments and some with the FBI. He mentioned more
than once that crime was a 24 hour a day business and he expected his
officers to stick with it even after their shift had ended (because crime
wouldn't take the rest of the day off). He seemed to have a lot of
examples to put forth but I didn't really get much about what he (Green)
would do.

In fact, no one really impressed me with any new initiatives. It all
seemed to be "look, wait and see, and then work with what's here"
approaches. There didn't seem to be much desire on any of their parts to
get things done or make a big change. Maybe they were just unsure of what
was ahead of them since two of them were from out of state. Hodge has an
"in" only because he is already established here. But he's out the race if
you think Durham needs a change. He becomes part of the problem instead of
a solution since he's been here 24 years already. But if he sticks around,
and one of the other candidates gets the job, he will be the excellent
resource as he has always been. All three were very personable and no one
seemed to have much of a sense of humor. I guess that just goes with the
job...

So get out to the forum and check out these guys for yourself. All of them
said, that if selected, they would be here 10 or more years. So we're
talking about a long time in the picture of how crime will be shaped in
Durham. Here's your last chance to let those who will make the decision
know what you think.

RWP
27 Beverly