Chapter 35: Chief Of Police

Holden looked at me curiously. “How can I help you, sir?”

“Tell me about the department. How did you get the acting chief slot, for one thing? Seniority?”

He nodded. “Basically. I was hired by Chief Babcock back when he was first hired. Shawn Warren was hired about a year later. He has Patrol.”

“So, you’ve been a captain about two years, and he’s only been a captain one year.”

Again, he nodded. “We weren’t even considered for the chief’s slot, at least not permanently. Besides, Chief Babcock didn’t exactly leave in a state of grace. He pretty much tainted the waters around here if you know what I mean.”

“I heard,” I agreed. “Is that going to affect you or Warren?” He looked curiously at me. “Are you going to stick it out and try to fix things or are you going to be leaving, too?”

“Where the hell am I going to go? How far do I have to go where it’s not known that I was the senior guy working for a crooked chief of police? This is it for me!” he said in a mix of anger and exasperation. “When you get rid of me, the best I can look forward to is security guard at a construction site.”

“You misunderstand me, Captain Holden. I asked if you were going to stick it out and help me fix things. I have no intention to replace you. My understanding is that the shenanigans with Chief Babcock were between him and the last county exec, and it was unearthed at the county offices, not here. Is that correct?”

“Yes. He set up several dummy corporations and then sent out invoices for phony services. Some of the bills came here and were rebilled over to the county office. The county exec rubberstamped them; it turned out he was Babcock’s partner and had phony companies and invoices of his own. It was one of the clerks in the billing department over there who figured it out and since she saw Babcock was in on it, she turned it over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.”

I nodded. That was precisely the way I had heard it explained by Talbot and Thadwicket and backed up by news reports. It had all blown up about a year ago and made the news in Atlanta, not just here. “So, if you weren’t involved, I’m not planning to kick you out. If I do get rid of you, it will be because you failed in your duties for me. So, for the last time, will you stick it out here and help me fix this place?”

“You really want to fix the MPD? You think the council is going to let you do that?”

“Yes, but I need to start immediately. I have a three-year contract and a budget increase, a large one. I think it finally sank in that they can’t keep cutting their way to glory. And you?”

For the first time since we sat down, Holden smiled. “Then I’ll stick. Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. By the time we’re done, you might just be cursing me and thinking back fondly on that security guard job. Tell me about the rest of the white shirts.”

For the next half hour Holden told me about the rest of the command team. Shawn Warren was the captain in charge of Patrol; he was young, in his early thirties, had made captain only about a year ago, and had made lieutenant at a force down in Columbus only about a year or so before that. Holden thought he was good, but inexperienced. Services was now being run by a lieutenant, Sonia Ramirez, the only Latino in the command group and both overworked and underappreciated; it was an open secret she was looking for a job somewhere else. Wilson Dupree was Holden’s lieutenant; they split the duties between them, juggling jobs and trying to keep the overdoses and drug deaths under control. Ray Sansone was the last lieutenant, Warren’s deputy, and Holden reported that he was unhappy; he was five years older than Warren and thought he should have had the job.

Holden also asked me about my background and expressed surprise when I admitted my highest rank had been a sergeant. I also pointed out my experience with other forces, some good and some bad, and how I thought the MPD could be fixed.

Then I asked him to gather the command team in the conference room. That was when things started going sideways. “We don’t really have a conference room anymore. We’ve been using the chief’s office for that sort of thing.”

“What happened to the conference room?” I asked.

“Mindy Hollis, she’s the office manager, has been complaining for three years that they’ve run out of space in the file room. Babcock authorized her to start stashing stuff in the conference room.”

“Christ,” I muttered. Another thing to fix. “Okay, get everybody together in the chief’s office. I’ll speak to them there. After that I’ll want to talk to Missy...”

“Mindy.”

“Mindy. We need some sort of better storage location. I’ll also want to talk to the senior sergeant. Is he or she the Watch Commander?” I asked.

“Yes, sir, Bob Crenshaw, he’s the Day Shift Watch Commander,” Holden answered.

“Oh, by the way, any chance shield number One-Six-Three is available? It was my old number and at least I won’t have to memorize a new number,” I said with a smile.

He shrugged. “Not that I know of, but we’ll need to check with Mindy to be sure.”

“Okay, see if you can find out and let’s get everybody into my office. I might as well move in now.”

We split up at that point and I headed to the Chief’s office. It looked about like I had remembered it, only different, if that made any sense. Somebody in the long list of chiefs since they had fired Crowley had purchased new office furniture. Otherwise, it was much the same, same furniture locations, same clutter, same worn-out carpet. It needed to be dusted and cleaned before I could move in permanently.

Over the next few minutes several people drifted in. Crenshaw was out on patrol but was coming back in to see me. Dupree was on vacation in Texas; he’d be back on Monday. Lieutenant Ramirez would be in as soon as she was off the phone; there was a muttered comment that she was probably talking to a recruiter. Holden came in last and tossed me a shield. Smiling he said, “Congratulations. One-Six-Three was available. Mindy got you set up.”

“Thank you. I’ll speak to her as soon as I can.”

“That’s what I told her. I also told her to start figuring out what we needed to do to get organized properly.”

“Thank you.” To the others I said, “Let me introduce myself. My name is Graham Reaper, and I was sworn in this morning as the new Chief of Police. I’ve already talked to Captain Holden. As senior captain, he will remain my deputy. Now, let’s all sit down. I’ll be talking to you individually as well. For now, though, I want you to detail the number of officers in your departments and their general dispositions. Captain Holden, you first, please.”

The results were about as I expected. Roughly a quarter of the officers were in Investigations, mostly in the Major Crimes Task Force, mostly trying to keep track of drugs. The rest of Investigations was vainly trying to keep up with the rest of the crap you find in any city - stolen cars, burglaries, rapes, murders, so on and so forth. It could take days for a detective to show up to take a report on a minor crime, and the reports would immediately be dumped in a storage bin for future generations to enjoy.

Captain Warren detailed the assignments of officers to the various shifts. Patrol was simple, in that everybody did the same thing. Ever since TRT was shut down and the officers involved reassigned as regular patrol officers it was just a matter of keeping the workload evened out. Their biggest problem was that there were simply not enough officers to cover the workload. They were being rushed all over the county from emergency to emergency with barely enough time to write up the paperwork. Morale was suffering and officers were burning out.

At that time Lieutenant Ramirez came in, at least twenty minutes late. She caught on to what we were discussing and gave her summary. A dozen or so officers were assigned to Services, where they mostly supervised civilian personnel. As I remembered it, that number was down from historical averages; as the force had decreased, officers had been pulled from Services to fill in elsewhere. In some cases, officers were doing double duty, keeping an eye on both the impound yard out back as well as the evidence locker in the basement. A major complaint was about scheduling around vacations.

I thanked everybody and reminded them that I would be speaking to them each separately, and to begin working up the detailed plans for fixing what they had highlighted. Then I asked Lieutenant Ramirez to stick around when the meeting broke up. After everybody had left, I closed the door and moved to sit down behind my desk. The group meeting had been around the coffee table to the side; for this meeting I wanted something a little more formal. I motioned her to take a seat in front of me.

“Lieutenant Ramirez, who were you on the phone with earlier?” I asked.

“Sir?”

“I was informed that the reason you couldn’t join us was that you were on the phone and that it would just be a few minutes. Instead, it was closer to twenty minutes. So again, I ask, who were you talking to?”

Sonia Ramirez looked both angry and nervous. She would never be able to be a decent detective! “I was talking to somebody about the impound yard.”

“For twenty minutes? And they couldn’t talk to you any time other than when you were to be meeting the new chief of police? Or were you talking to somebody else? Or just didn’t care that a new chief had shown up?”

She couldn’t or wouldn’t answer, though her mouth was trying to move. I waited a minute and shook my head. “Let’s make this simple, Lieutenant. When I ask to see you, I mean now. I don’t know whether your issue is with me or with my predecessor, and I don’t particularly care. I’ve heard from more than one person that you are contacting recruiters and anybody else you can think of to find a new position. That’s fine. If you aren’t happy here, then go somewhere else. In the meantime, however, make sure that you understand that the phone system and the computer system here belong to the Matucket Police Department and as such are our property and not yours. If I order it, I can have your computer search history and files examined and your phone calls traced. If you are going to look for a job, do it on your own time. On our time, you work for the MPD. You work for me. Is that understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. Now, if you would begin working on the plans necessary to get Services fixed, I would appreciate that. The sooner the better. Send in Sergeant Crenshaw if he’s available. Otherwise, please send in Ms. Hollis. Thank you.”

Sergeant Crenshaw came in about two seconds later, so he must have been waiting in the hallway for me to free up. He entered and came to attention.

“At ease, Sergeant. Thank you for coming in. I hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long.”

Crenshaw broke from attention and replied, “No, sir, not a problem. Welcome to the MPD, sir.”

“It’s more like welcome back, Sergeant. I learned my trade here back in the old days. Have a seat, please.” I motioned towards the seat in front of my desk that Ramirez had just vacated. “Sergeant, what do you think we need to do around here? Everybody seems to think the MPD needs fixing. Agree? Disagree?”

“Nothing that can’t be fixed, sir.”

“How?”

“Discipline. Personnel. That’s the start, anyway. We can fix other stuff later. It always comes back to the people, sir.”

For the first time that afternoon I really smiled. “Discipline is something that starts at the sergeant level. What went wrong, Sergeant?”

“Permission to speak frankly, sir?” I nodded and he continued, “We weren’t allowed to discipline people, not really. There were some complaints and lawsuits threatened a few years back, and we got orders to lighten up. It got to the point we couldn’t even chew people out over personal demeanor and dress.”

“I was over at the Cherokee the other day. I saw a lot of shaggy hair and day-old beards. That ends today. I want you to find the relevant regs and type them up in a memo. Do that today before you go off shift. I’ll sign it. Pass the word and tell everybody to let their buddies know. I expect haircuts and shaves by tomorrow morning. I will be at roll call in the morning. Tell the other sergeants as well. You guys are the first line in maintaining discipline. I’ve been a sergeant. I know what you can do. Make sure the other sergeants understand I will be watching them as well.”

“Yes, sir, understood. Chief, we’re going to lose some officers over this. Just letting you know. Some of these characters are going to say that this is bullshit, and they don’t need to put up with some white shirt asshole who’s going to be gone in six months anyway. Just saying, there’s going to be some talk like that.”

I gave him my most wintery smile. “I have a three-year contract, Sergeant. I think I can outlast the critics on the force. I would expect an experienced sergeant could make sure any complainers understood who’s going to win and who’s going to lose.”

He smiled back. “Yes, sir, understood.”

I stood up and stuck out my hand. “It was good to meet you, Sergeant Crenshaw. I expect to be talking to you frequently. Start working on that memo, and tonight, when you are drinking a beer at home, start thinking about a list of what we need to do around here.”

“Yes, sir.” He headed towards the door and turned to look back. “Sir, were you ever in the Army or Marines?”

“Army, two tours in Iraq. Why?”

He smiled. “Just curious.”

“You?”

“Marines, one tour, Kabul.”

“Semper fi.” He laughed at that, and I continued, “If Ms. Hollis is out there, send her in.”

“Yes, sir.”

I was pleased. Sergeants liked order and discipline. If I could get my top sergeants on my side, the job was half done. My job was to simply get them the resources they needed and keep them from getting grief from anybody outside of the department.

A short and pudgy brunette came in next. “Chief Reaper? I’m Mindy Hollis. You asked to see me?”

Mindy, I motioned over to the chairs around the coffee table. “Thank you, Ms. Hollis. Is it Ms., Miss, or Mrs. Hollis?”

“Ms. or Mrs., whichever you want. I’m divorced. Just call me Mindy, sir.”

“Thank you, Mindy. I’m told you’re the Office Manager. You report to Lieutenant Ramirez, correct?”

“Yes, sir, and yes, sir. How can I help you?”

“Simple. Tell me what I need to do so you can do your job. I’m not going to tell you how to do that job. Just tell me how to help you.”

That seemed like a pleasant shock to her. “Yes, sir, I can do that.”

“I learned today that the file room is filled to overflowing and we are now storing files in the conference room. Is that true?”

“It’s worse than that, sir. We’re storing evidence in there, too.”