The Police Probe

Councilwoman Judy McCarty’s reservations about the whitewash job that City Manager Lockwood did on the Kolender issue (“McCarty Memo Blasts City Manager’s Probe of Kolender,” Dec. 6) are well taken. Some other points should be emphasized and dealt with more explicitly, however.

For example, how many city department heads or assistant city department heads have a serious, written and publicized reprimand on record in their personnel files? Damn few, if any at all. The reprimand is not really for non-tenured people anyway, because they can be fired forthwith for dereliction--and should be. Reprimands are for tenured people who are difficult to fire, and they amount to failing evaluations that lay the groundwork for eventual dismissal.

Of all city department heads whose record should be spotless, none is more obvious than that of police chief. How can he effectively write reprimands if he is guilty of impropriety himself? More seriously, how can he generate respect for law and order, which is one of his major functions and why he is paid a large salary, if he is, himself, suspect?

The public is entitled--on the basis of what has been disclosed and in effect condoned--to wonder if these revelations may not be just the tip of an iceberg of City Hall “good ol’ boy” impropriety that a heavy investigation might uncover.

In any case, we do not need a political, get-along-with-everyone, social butterfly type of police chief. We need a hard-nosed, no-nonsense, straight-shooting Matt Dillon type who concentrates on preventing crime rather than on merely reporting it after the fact.

DAVID T. SPRINGS

San Diego