Moving to Right a Wrong : Swift action in case of sexual harassment case in Newport Beach police department is wise

A 250-member police department in ritzy Newport Beach might seem an unlikely place to lend drama to the issue of sexual harassment in government. But in a year of tepid responses to such charges, the new city manager of Newport Beach acted with admirable decisiveness in firing the police chief.

It must all have seemed unlikely to the City Council, which managed only a lament earlier this month after a city-hired investigator reported evidence of hostility and sexual harassment in the Police Department. But give credit to City Manager Kevin J. Murphy, who eight months ago arrived from Alhambra, where he had coped with earthquake damage and mayoral corruption, only to be confronted in his new post with the unexpected. After months of investigation, this week he acted, firing Police Chief Arb Campbell, target of a lawsuit brought by 10 current and former members of his department.

Murphy has been dealing with this hot potato since September, when the first four of the employees sued Campbell and Capt. Anthony Villa, who was the focus of most of the original harassment charges. After the city began investigating charges that the department was “a hotbed of sexually offensive conduct,” a police dispatcher joined the lawsuit, charging that she was raped by Campbell and Villa at a police party 11 years ago.

The two men were placed on administrative leave. Rank-and-file officers expressed a no-confidence vote in Campbell, and the chief’s friends began a counterattack. Campbell and Villa sued the city.

But more women joined the lawsuit and the investigator returned his finding. The city first moved to fire Villa, then axed Campbell. It didn’t happen quickly enough to satisfy everybody, but the city manager did move decisively.

What’s most encouraging is the thoroughness of Murphy’s commitment to change. The firings leave no room for the “I see the light now” kind of response given by Sen. Bob Packwood of Oregon, who faces several allegations of sexual harassment but opted to remain in office. And the city is committed to new training programs, improving its investigations of sexual harassment claims in the future and intensifying efforts to bring more women into all ranks.

That’s all good. It’s been a painful period for a police department that seemed oblivious at times to societal changes over the last two decades in the relationship between women and men. Those lessons, it appears, are finally being taken to heart.