The Leader Has to Make the Decisions : Government: The mayors of other big cities speak out on the tough calls of leadership and their experiences with police.

I have had situations like Mayor Bradley’s--though happily, not with the police chief--in which the power to hire and fire rested with an outside board, and I wondered if I would be successful. From my point of view, I just do what I have to do. If I feel someone should resign, I’m not going to make my decision based on whether I think the person will do it.

A lot of people in leadership positions do believe that we should sacrifice goals in order to have agreement among more people, but that just doesn’t happen to be my view.

I have made a career-long crusade for reform of police civil service, which is a detriment to good police work. I have been in the minority in calling for reform, and that has not dissuaded me. In my research of police civil service, I have found that it is too strong and makes police organizations unaccountable. It appears that California is even worse in this regard than Texas in terms of civil-service systems that remove police organizations from accountability for their actions.

We now have a civilian review board in Houston. Critics say it’s not strong enough, because it acts in an advisory capacity to the chief of police, but we’re going to give them a chance. In order to have public support, we need to at least have some public input.

I feel perhaps more strongly about this issue of police accountability than any other one I have worked on, and it is the most frustrating one I have worked on. Through the Texas Municipal League, we have been able to organize some statewide effort to deal with this, but even so, we have to beg members of the state Legislature to even carry our legislation because we live in fear of the political power of the police unions, one of the strongest lobbies in the state. I am sure that is true in California, also.

I certainly have sympathy for Chief Gates, but on the other hand I feel that he does have to be accountable.