Newark cop tussle shows Plainfield the dangers

Newark's tussle between its civilian police director and its chief of police mirrors Plainfield's -- sort of.

Putting politics into play in policing certainly has its costs, as Newark -- and soon, Plainfield? -- show. Newark is already in court with a suit by its superior officers' union over the police director's attempts to make the day-to-day decisions in running the PD.

Now, the Newark chief is serving a five-day suspension for rescinding a bunch of personnel moves ordered by the Director. Sound familiar?

Restructuring the department certainly seems to be a policy matter and within the prerogatives of the Director, but the dispute centers on making specific personnel decisions. And the Newark chief's refusal to knuckle under to interference in his day-to-day operation of the department earned him the suspension.

In Plainfield's case, Chief Santiago will probably argue that the administration of Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs has not acted "in good faith" and "without political interference" in eliminating the police chief position.

The "political interference" point may be made more bluntly in Chief Santiago's case than in Newark's. I have heard that members of the Plainwood Square Merchants Association were told by an elected official at a meeting that "Ed Santiago has to go because he is not a 'team player'". And that they are prepared to testify to that in court.

(One irony making the rounds with regard to removing Santiago and appointing a "captain-level" officer to manage the PD on a daily basis? If he returns to Captain status, Ed Santiago will be the SENIOR Captain, the logical choice for the day-to-day operations assignment. Hmmm. And then, of course, there is the hefty raise he will receive as Captain, which was blocked while he was Chief. And the Green/Robinson-Briggs administration argued to the state that this was an "economizing" move?)

Meanwhile, if we needed more evidence that having a civilian police director opens the door to politicization of the city's police force, we have to look no further than the corruption trial of former Newark mayor Sharpe James, where a cop testified last Thursday that he was ordered to -- WHILE ON DUTY -- purchase an air conditioner for James' girlfriend Tamika Riley, and take another cop along to her Jersey City apartment and install the air conditioner.

And this took place during the tenure of Police Director Joe Santiago, whose views on the virtues of a civilian director were solicited by the Green/Robinson-Briggs administration, and who, in a presentation to the City Council, said --

"an appointed police director, by design, would be "transparent and more responsive" than a sworn chief"

(see complete story on Joe Santiago's presentation here).

The 'transparency' seems not to have been much in evidence when the officer was instructed to buy and install the mayor's girlfriend's A/C on the city clock.

And then there is the matter of using ticket sales to Sharpe James' annual birthday bash in police officers' annual performance reviews -- another 'transparent' item which took place under Joe Santiago's watch, but only came to light after he and James were removed from the scene.

Council President Harold Gibson was cited in Wednesday's Ledger as graciously consenting to let spokespersons for the state's police chiefs come before the Council next Monday evening to refute Joe Santiago's points. Briefly, of course.

Plainfield's City Council still has a chance to keep from letting the genie out of the bottle.

But will it?

---

Ledger: "Plainfield to hear cons of cutting cop chief job" -- Police chiefs get to make points.
New York Times: "Newark Chief Is Suspended in Police Personnel Dispute"
Ledger: "Substitute Newark police chief retracted" -- Booker between rock and hard place.
Ledger: "Cop offers chilling tale at ex-mayor's trial" -- Installing girlfriend's A/C while on duty.
Plainfield Today: "Police chief matter enters new -- and dangerous -- phase" -- Good faith? Without political interference?

-- Dan Damon

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