Police chiefs get the boot for officers' misconduct quicker than the actual perpetrators

Former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy is the most recent top cop fired for allegations of unchecked police violence on his watch.  McCarthy joins at least six others who also took the fall for their departments running wild. Meanwhile, the actual officers responsible for much of the mayhem on the streets get to keep their jobs and continue being threats to the public’s safety. McCarthy, who was a New York City police officer for about 30 years, came to Chicago after being Newark, New Jersey’s police chief under Mayor Corey Booker.  His record there wasn’t exactly spotless either.

Shortly before McCarthy’s day of reckoning in Chicago, Andre Anderson announced he was stepping down from his position as interim chief in Ferguson, Missouri. He had just taken the job in July, having been hired for a six month period. It appears that he, too, had some skeletons in his closet. Tom Jackson, who oversaw the Ferguson, Missouri police department for five years, resigned in March of this year. Do I really need to go give you a refresher about this guy?

Anthony Batts got the boot from his job as police commissioner in Baltimore, Maryland, this past spring. He was criticized for the department’s lack of aggressiveness in dealing with protests over the death of Freddie Gray. Batts went to Baltimore after leaving his job as Oakland’s top cop, also under less than savory conditions.

In Fort Myers, Florida, Police Chief Doug Baker was canned this past August for lying during a wrongful arrest investigation. Nate Allen, an Oakland Raiders Defensive Back who grew up in the area, had been detained by officers in February of this year. A subsequent investigation found Allen had been held unjustly and that Baker had lied about giving the order to release him.

In another part of Florida, Coconut Creek chief Michael Mann resigned after charges of a cover-up were leveled at the department. Thirty-nine-year-old Calvon Reid had a stun gun deployed on him several times this past February and died two days later. The officers, who were deployed because Reid was said to be acting aggressive toward paramedics who were trying to treat him, were not certified in the use of tasers, and Mann is alleged to have kept the news of Reid’s death a secret for several days.

In April of this year, Vicki Yost resigned as chief of the Inkster, Michigan, citing “differences” between herself and the city’s administration over the police department’s direction. Yost resigned after one of her cops, William Melendez, had been charged with several crimes once video surfaced of him placing William Dent in a chokehold and striking him 16 times in the head. Dent also charged that Melendez planted drugs on him.

Whether through resignation or outright firing, it’s clear that police chiefs leave their positions much, much faster than the officers who actually commit acts of brutality on the job.  And that needs to change.