In the Squad Room, a Sigh of Relief After Tense Times

As though it were a Christmas present, a red bow was tacked next to the sign that read “NEWPORT POLICE CHIEF FIRED” in the squad room where officers gathered Wednesday for roll call.

The day after the city fired embattled Chief Arb Campbell, officers stood at attention for inspection as normal, then listened to a routine recitation of the last shift’s crimes and arrests. But for the first time in a while, there was a sense of relief at Newport Beach police headquarters.

After three months of stress over the fate of Campbell and Capt. Anthony J. Villa Jr., who are accused of rape and sexual harassment by 10 current or former female department employees, the people said they feel that they can finally get back to business. From dispatcher to dogcatcher to division commander, the employees said they hope that next year would be a better one.

“At the point we’re at now we just have to look ahead,” said Tami Wittich, one of about 70 female employees at the 250-member department and only six sworn officers. “Everybody’s optimistic. The shock is starting to dissipate. We’re looking forward to having a new chief that you can respect.”

“Terminating them (is) like removing the cancer,” said Detective Tom Tolman, president of the police association, which had hit the chief with an overwhelming vote of no confidence in October. “It will go a long way to helping the department back to a healthy state.”

From the start of this scandal in September, employees said, they had struggled to maintain their neutrality and focus on their work. Still, each day at briefing, they traded tidbits of the latest gossip, passed around photocopies of the latest newspaper articles and dealt with the tension of life in the spotlight.

At parties and on patrol, the topic has been the Campbell/Villa controversy.

“It was like a never-ending saga,” said Officer Mike Everton as he cruised his patrol beat behind the bay Wednesday. “Each day you’d come to work you’d get hit with another article. The day never started on a positive note.”

When the lawsuit was first filed Sept. 24, the department was deeply divided, employees said. Longtime officers, many of them close friends of the chief and the captain, rallied behind their mentors, while others silently thanked the first plaintiffs for coming forward about problems that have plagued the department for years.

A few weeks later, when Campbell and Villa were placed on paid leave after a fifth woman joined the suit, charging that she had been raped by the pair, the tension thinned somewhat, employees said Wednesday. The no-confidence vote then became a unifying force.

“Any kind of tragedy kind of makes you pull together,” Wittich said. “Initially, there were supporters and non-supporters of the chief. At this point, you see less of that.”

But a continuing source of stress was the city’s own investigation into the sexual harassment charges, which involved lengthy interviews with 169 employees, including all the women and all the supervisors. Many people said that they initially feared telling the truth and that the thorough review of the department’s sexual politics made them nervous.

“Any time that an organization which has become a part of you is under serious attack, you have to feel saddened, threatened,” Capt. Mike Blitch said as he looked through his office window at the detectives he oversees. “You have to feel that a large part of your life is under scrutiny, and I don’t know that that’s comfortable for anybody.”

Capt. Gary Petersen, a close friend and colleague of Villa and Campbell who also supervised several of the plaintiffs as commander of the administrative division, described the entire experience as “traumatic.”

“I have some feelings for everybody involved,” Petersen said. “Most important, I have a deep feeling for the Police Department. I’ve been here 30 years. It’s like a family.”

Officers on Wednesday collected Campbell’s car, beeper and badge, ending his 27-year career with the Newport Beach force. The city also has moved to fire Villa, but the captain may appeal his termination through civil-service hearings which can last two months.

Still pending is the lawsuit, which alleges that the department is a “hotbed of sexually offensive conduct” and the completion of the city’s internal investigation into the harassment charges. While most people said they saw Tuesday’s firing of Campbell as a turning point that would help the department start afresh, others feared that the worst was yet to come.

“I don’t see the situation getting brighter; it’s going to get more dismal,” Everton said, expressing concern that if the lawsuit goes to court, officers will have to revive and make public what the city’s confidential investigation uncovered. “We’ve seen nothing yet in terms of how dirty this is probably going to get.”

“Relief is probably a year or two away. Relief is not sudden,” agreed Officer Danny Reynolds. “For anybody to feel relieved now, it’s just premature.”

With the Police Department problems dominating local headlines, many employees have faced questions on and off duty. Women employees have been asked whether they were part of the lawsuit--or whether they experienced harassment. Men were sometimes treated snidely by residents who believed the things they had heard.

“ ‘How can someone from the Newport Beach PD talk to me about good character when I’m reading what I’m reading in the paper,’ ” Lt. Jim Carson remembered one caller asking.

Detective Mark Fisher said people poked fun at him while he was confiscating two stolen Mercedes-Benzes recently. Referring to a Times article that showed Campbell had diverted a Mercedes acquired in a drug raid to his personal use, they said, “Oh, Newport Beach is looking for another Mercedes,” Fisher recalled.

“We’ve all been professionally demeaned by this whole incident,” said Everton, a 12-year veteran of the force. “It took a lot of the shine off of us. Those of us that tried to hold ourselves to high standards, we got knocked down. We don’t walk around with the same pride as before.”

Some say acting chief Jim Jacobs has brought a relaxed atmosphere, but others miss the close-knit community of the old guard.

“We’ve managed through the years to keep a closeness that inevitably, probably because of social changes, is leaving,” said Blitch, who has been on the force since 1970. “I don’t think any organization is going to be the same in the ‘90s as it was in the ‘70s.

“Police departments are probably far harder to drag into change--our change is coming rather dramatically and quickly.”