On Kaua’i, everyone but beleaguered police chief George Freitas, the Kaua’i County Police Commission that recommended Freitas be placed on paid leave while complaints by high-ranking officers against him were investigated, and the county administration that acted on that recommendation
On Kaua’i, everyone but beleaguered police chief George Freitas, the Kaua’i County Police Commission that recommended Freitas be placed on paid leave while complaints by high-ranking officers against him were investigated, and the county administration that acted on that recommendation Monday is talking about the chief’s situation.
But even if the allegations against Freitas are fairly specific, the chief’s overall situation is anything but unique.
Police chiefs throughout the United States are fired, suspended and removed from duty every day, often without any reason at all being given.
Northern Kentucky, across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, has become a semi-rural bedroom community for the largest city in southern Ohio. Three counties – Boone, Campbell and Kenton – run parallel to the river and Cincinnati. In just the past three years, 14 of the 26 police departments in those three counties have seen new chiefs and acting chiefs appointed.
More than half of the 14 people the new chiefs replaced were forced out, according to news reports. And according to published reports in the Cincinnati newspapers, all but one of those departing chiefs wasn’t even given a specific reason for his termination.
Mike Piccirillo was fired from his job as chief of police in Cold Spring, Ky., because the mayor said he was an ineffective leader.
Fort Wright’s former chief, Mark Brown, was fired by a mayor who cited low morale in the police department, a charge that could be made almost everywhere. Anonymous complaints about morale within the Kaua’i County Police Department are received from The Garden Island at a rate of one to two complaints per week, usually from higher-ranking officers.
Three former northern Kentucky Police Chiefs, including Piccirillo, filed lawsuits after they were fired by mayors who didn’t file specific charges against them before termination.
But the former chiefs may not win settlements or regain their jobs, according to legal experts, because to win, they have to prove they were fired for an illegal reason, which is very difficult legally.
In most states, police chiefs are employees-at-will. That’s the prime reason, again according to legal experts, that more dismissed chiefs don’t file lawsuits.
“One of the real problems that the industry has is that very few chiefs operate under contract. They serve at the will of the city (or county) government,” said Larry Campbell, an executive staff member for the Oregon Association of Chiefs of Police.
Campbell said his organization has been discussing with neighboring state police chief associations the development of national job-seeking criteria by potential chiefs themselves.
“Down the road, we’re hoping we can get together and (have chiefs) refuse to take any uncontracted positions,” Campbell said.
But that is quite a ways down the road, and right now Oregon isn’t any easier on chiefs than northern Kentucky.
Several chiefs in Oregon have been terminated by local governments recently, Campbell said. He added that while the association sympathizes, “we don’t get involved. We don’t have the financial wherewithal for the substantial lawsuits” that would be necessary.
“We don’t want to wait until after they get in trouble, because it is very difficult sometimes for (dismissed chiefs) to get on someplace else after a dismissal,” Campbell noted.
Pay is another problem for chiefs.
“We have chiefs in small towns in Oregon that make less money than a patrolman in Portland,” Oregon’s largest city, Campbell said. “Since most (dismissed chiefs) are in smaller communities, this just adds to the problem.”
That’s also true on Kaua’i, where all three inspectors in the KPD make $13,000 more per annum than their titular boss.
And because they are appointed and not elected, police chiefs can’t usually express themselves as freely as others in the same field, according to Campbell.
He said sheriffs, who are elected, “are far more outspoken in Oregon than our chiefs. Sheriffs work for the people. Chiefs work for the mayors and (local) governments.”
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net
