ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Let’s Have Boosters, Not Meddlers

Newport Beach business people are right to try to form a new Police Department booster club, but they should avoid becoming entangled with the department’s politics and personalities.

The Newport Beach 10-4 Club, named for the phrase police use to end radio communications, was formed more than 20 years ago. It closed up shop last month after a difficult period for the city’s police and the club. The 10-4 Club acted as a liaison between police and business people and sponsored an annual awards banquet.

Among the department’s problems was a lawsuit filed by current and former female police employees charging a captain with sexual harassment and the chief with tolerating it. Both men denied the allegations, and eventually retired. But police morale plummeted.

Last year, an interim police chief wisely canceled the annual awards luncheon sponsored by the 10-4 Club. Club members had lobbied for the reinstatement of the former chief, even though 10-4 leaders insisted they were acting on their own and not as representatives of the club.

Holding the luncheon would have sent the wrong message, signaling that an investigation of the department was not really serious and that it was business as usual for the friends of the suspended chief.

This year, the city’s new police chief met with the club founder to discuss how the group and the department could work together. The result was a scrapping of the club. And in a petty move, the founder took back from the Police Department a plaque and two medals of valor the 10-4 Club had awarded the department years earlier and gave the mementos to the former chief and his wife.

The new chief and the city manager have met with Chamber of Commerce officials to see if a new group will be formed. The police deserve community support, whether through a group like the 10-4 Club or in some other way.

But if a new booster club is established, its members must remember that the purpose is not to become allied with personalities, but to be a source of support for important police work.