Warren police chief to forbid employees to talk with press

The chief says he won't talk to the press, either.
WARREN -- Employees of the city police department will be forbidden to talk with the press under an order Chief John Mandopoulos says he will issue next week.
"The reason for this is that there seems to be much too much vindictiveness," said Mandopoulos, who is on vacation until Monday.
The chief and his department have been the subject of a number of unflattering news stories in recent weeks.
The stories have included the emergence of several candid videotapes of police officers, allegations of police brutality and coverage of an internal report that concluded that officers were conducting illegal strip-searches.
Mandopoulos said that the extensive coverage of the Warren Police Department could jeopardize undercover investigations, like the one that resulted in arrests Thursday.
"The way the media has been treating us recently, it is going to get somebody killed," he said. "This way, we are going to make sure our covert ops stay covert."
Mandopoulos said he will be the only person in the police department permitted to talk to the press.
"But I'm not going to," he said.