Reassignment at Warren PD doesn't inspire confidence

If the Warren police chief and city administration were looking for ways to make people feel less confidant about the Warren Police Department's ability to police itself, they couldn't do better than they have in recent days.
Last week, Police Chief John Mandopoulos summarily reassigned the internal affairs officer, one of the few people in the city who seemed willing to tell the chief things the chief didn't want to hear. Of course, in typical Mandopoulos fashion, when he was told something he didn't want to hear, he generally ignored it.
So Mandopoulos's reaction when he was asked about the reassignment isn't a surprise. The same can't be said about Mayor Michael O'Brien.
What happened
Lt. Joseph Marhulik, who investigated internal-affairs complaints for the department for the past two years and issued findings of apparent wrong-doing with which Mandopoulos obviously disagreed, is now performing background checks on new hires. He was replaced last week by Lt. Thomas Skoczylas.
Mandopoulos responded to a question about the reassignment by saying that he doesn't have to answer to anyone about the assignments that he makes and that his decisions are nobody's business.
We'd agree that history has shown Mandopoulos has to answer to very few people on very few things, but that doesn't mean his decisions aren't the public's business. It is, after all, the public that pays his salary, the salary of the police officers under his command and has a perfect right to question how the department is being run.
And, especially now, at a time when the residents of Warren are being asked to renew a 0.5 percent income tax devoted to the safety forces. Wouldn't this be a time when the chief would be eager to send a message to every voter that, yes, he wants the operation of his department to be transparent, that he recognizes that everything he does is the people's business?
Source of irritation
Marhulik obviously went about his duties as internal affairs investigator in a way that irritated Mandopoulos. Marhulik would find instances of officers conducting illegal strip searches or being disrespectful to citizens or trying to get their hands on private firearms that should have been locked up in the evidence room. He'd write up the reports, and then Mandopoulos would try to ignore the findings and would resist making them public.
Maybe we're just too, too cynical, but we are not convinced that Marhulik is suddenly the only person in Mandopoulos's department who can conduct background checks on prospective hires. That is a duty that any competent police officer should be able to tackle and that any experienced detective could do at the drop of a hat.
The mayor's response -- that the city is trying to best utilize its officers and that a priority is the hiring of new officers -- doesn't rise to the level of candor we have come to expect from O'Brien. We hope it is nothing more than a momentary lapse in a political career that has generally been built on sound judgment.