NEWARK — City council members want to bring back a position that once divided government at the highest levels: the police chief. In a surprise move, members are considering a motion to restore the position that has been vacant for three years, said Council President Donald Payne. “It is the feeling of the council as a whole to reinstate...
The Newark City Council listens to a speaker during an October 2010 meeting.NEWARK — City council members want to bring back a position that once divided government at the highest levels: the police chief.
In a surprise move, members are considering a motion to restore the position that has been vacant for three years, said Council President Donald Payne.
“It is the feeling of the council as a whole to reinstate the position of chief of police. We had tried the experiment proposed by the mayor,” Payne told The Star-Ledger. “We were the body to remove the position, it is our opinion it is time to make the department whole.”
The move could reignite a debate that resulted in the ouster of then-police chief Anthony Campos in 2008 following his turf battle with then-police director Garry McCarthy.
The change came after a lawsuit by the Superior Officer’s Association challenging McCarthy’s ability to run the day-to-day operations of the department. The city and the SOA settled by agreeing the chief was to run the day-to-day operations while the director focused on policy.
The city followed up with what Mayor Cory Booker termed a move of “legal jujitsu”: it abolished the chief’s post and relegated Campos to public safety director. But with McCarthy’s departure to Chicago and the installation of acting director Samuel DeMaio, some council members have called for the return of a uniformed officer to help lead the department.
Booker’s chief of staff said the mayor was open to reinstating the chief position, but saw fighting violence as the key police priority. “Although we are not fundamentally against the reinstatement of the chief’s position we remain focused like a laser beam on acting Director DeMaio’s safe summer plan to reduce violence in our city,” said Modia Butler.
DeMaio said last night he fully supported the move and welcomed the return of the chief’s position.
“I am in total full support of bringing back the chief of police position,” DeMaio said in a phone interview. “There is a lot of history and tradition attached to that position. It’s something the department needs.I don’t feel that position should have ever been removed, whatever the reasons may have been,” he said in a phone interview.
Other police officials reached tonight said they supported the move.
“Director DeMaio has made great strides in his brief tenure to bring our department back to the height we were at a few short years ago,” said Jimmy Stewart, vice president of Newark’s Fraternal Order of Police.
“Reinstating the chief’s position is another step in the right direction. Hopefully one of the next moves is to bring back some of our laid-off guys as we move into the summer season.”
By David Giambusso and James Queally/The Star-Ledger
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