A very important item on last week’s city council agenda got very little ink this week. Chief Tyrone Spencer will be retiring soon, prompting the City to commence a search for Patterson’s next top cop.
The selection process for this position is quite thorough, the committee numbers over 20 “community representatives”. Representatives range from the beautification committee to the friends of the library. Even the garden club gets a seat at the table.
However, there is one glaring problem with this antiquated procedure. The current process allows for 2-3 Hispanic “at large” representatives. This is surely an attempt to include minorities on the hiring process. However, Patterson is no longer a community comprised of white and hispanic residents. We now have a far more diverse population that warrants some minor changes to the process.
We don’t think it would surprise anyone to point out that people of color, on average, have more “interaction” with law enforcement.
Therefore, it would make perfect sense to include new minority residents when selecting a new chief for Patterson.
We believe that the Garden Club; the Friends of the Library and the Historical Society should be removed from the selection committee in order to make room for a more diverse committee.
We propose that representatives from the African American, Tongan, and Filipino communities should replace the aforementioned organizations on the committee.
While we congratulate Mr. Spencer on his retirement, we can honestly say that we’re not sad to seem him go. Under his leadership, there has been little attempt to truly engage the community in public safety. A few gang identification forums doesn’t cut it. While we didn’t expect Tyrone to be Mr. Community, we did expect some effort. Au Revoir Tyrone.
arseniomataka said,
April 29, 2009 @ 11:10 AM
Another issue to consider may be that since Chief Spencer is responsible for the management of the Sheriff’s Departments law enforcement services in the City of Patterson and in the unincorporated area of West Stanislaus County, it would only seem logical to include those unincorporated towns during the selection process. Obviously, all of them wouldn’t need a seat, but maybe two of the four.
Diablo Grande
Crows Landing
Westley
Grayson
The Recorder said,
May 9, 2009 @ 12:38 AM
Mr. Mataka:
Forgot to mention that during the meeting the geographic question came up. At one point, City Manager Cleve Morris says that the Chief has the “final word” for the Westside. After he said that, Smith then said, for a brief moment, that the other towns should be included. However, she was sidetracked when she thought that Newman was also under the sheriff. So then Morris corrected her on Newman, and no one really answered the question about the other towns. Campo then abruptly ended the dialogue by stating that she wants to follow Tyrone’s recommendation. Sorry its a little choppy, but your recommendation appeared to gain some traction with Morris, however, no one on the council caught on.
The irrigator also picked up the Sheriff story, talking more about the ethnic breakdown.
The Recorder
patterson87 said,
September 28, 2009 @ 3:03 PM
I want to wish Chief Spencer all the best with his retirement.
I know that my enthusiasm for the new chief is shared by quite a few citizens. We are optimistic that the new chief will actually encourage her officers to actually “protect and serve” instead of just showing up to do their time and then head home. That maybe they will act as if they are accountable to the city instead of to a department that is 20 minutes away.
There are some citizens that actually think that with the new chief coming on board, the city may once again be less of a safe haven for the gang members and drug dealers and more of a citizens city. That maybe our kids, if they are unfortunate to have to walk to and from school, will no longer be solicited to buy drugs in the mornings and afternoons.
So, here’s wishing Tyrone a great retirement, and at the same time, a wish that the citizens of Patterson can sleep with the knowledge that the gang and drug problems will begin to be really cleaned up. That those assigned to “protect and serve” the city of Patterson will be doing just that.