Setting a new standard

Setting a new standard

Any new police chief has his work cut out for him in these days of tighter budgets, reduced manpower and demands for shifting more police officers to patrol duty in an effort to reduce crime. It is not an enviable job.

Warren’s new police chief faces all those challenges and one that is unique to his city. Chief Tim Bowers has to make a clean cut with patterns of conduct established by his predecessor, John Mandopoulos.

Mandopoulos conducted himself in a way that sent a message that the rules did not apply to him. Over the years, Warren residents were treated to various displays of Mandopoulos showing disrespect for mayors, safety directors, council members and the general public. Basically anyone he didn’t particularly like; anyone he saw as challenging what he viewed as his unquestionable authority. Eventually, his behavior caught up with him. His department came under a Justice Department review, he was forced to submit to sensitivity training, he was forced under threat of suspension to apologize to a city councilman and, finally, he retired under pressure, facing almost certain dismissal for outrageous behavior.

An unfortunate result

There is no doubt most Warren police officers are capable, conscientious public servants. But Mandopoulos encouraged a culture that, unfortunately, infected some on the department. The result was officers who thought they could mock citizens, mug for a video camera, disregard constitutional restrictions on unwarranted searches, tip off a family member about an impending police raid — and never expect to get anything more from the chief than a slap on the wrist (and sometimes a pat on the back).

One example of such laxity recently came back to bite the city in a predictable way. An on-duty patrolman accused of parking his cruiser in a fire lane while he did some personal shopping received only a verbal reprimand from Mandopoulos. When another city employee was fired for a similar misuse of time, he successfully appealed the firing.

It won’t be long before Bowers has an opportunity to show that John Mandopoulos has left the building, literally and figuratively. We hope his actions show unequivocally that there’s a new chief in town.