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| NEWS > 15 June 2009 |
Other related articles:
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The Governor of the Cayman Islands, His Excellency Stuart Jack, CVO, announced on Thursday, 27 March that he has put three senior police officers on required leave to facilitate enquiries into allegations against officers of the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service . Police Commissioner Stuart Kernohan, Deputy Commissioner Rudolph Dixon and Detective Chief Superintendent John Jones were put on required leave with immediate effect to enable an investigating team from the Metropolitan Police Service led by DCS Martin Bridge... Read more
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Providence Journal - Providenc
15 June 2009
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Providence Police Department,
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Providence police rebuke their
PROVIDENCE — Active and retired police officers rebuked Police Chief Dean M. Esserman Sunday, with an overwhelming vote of “no confidence.” The tally was 303 to 134, or a ratio of nearly 2½ to 1.
It did not have to come to this, say the leaders of the police-officers union. If Esserman had mended his ways, they say, a “no confidence” vote never would have come up.
His critics say the chief is in the habit of unjustifiably dressing-down officers in public with insulting and profane language and he has been using the Police Department internal-affairs unit to punish critics, often on trumped-up or petty charges.
Officers in uniform and casual clothes came and went Sunday from the cinderblock meeting hall where Lodge 3 of the Fraternal Order of Police has kept its offices for decades, at 40 Sheridan St. in the rundown Manton neighborhood. In an all-day referendum, they checked off “yes” or “no” whether they have confidence in Esserman and dropped their paper ballots into an old wooden box painted gunmetal gray.
“I think the guys really want to see change,” said Clarence W. Gough, FOP vice president and an investigator in the department’s Special Victims Unit.
Said City Councilman John J. Igliozzi, “It’s a boiling-up of dissatisfaction on how Mr. Esserman executes his management style.”
Esserman had plenty of warning, according to union leaders, of the adverse reaction to his behavior and practices. Past and present union leaders have said that they privately asked him and his command staff over the years to see that he treated his subordinates more fairly and correctly, but that there was no meaningful improvement.
“He’s been nice this week” as the no-confidence vote loomed, Gough said.
Gough related an alleged sample of Esserman’s misbehavior: The chief was caught in a traffic jam, and when he reached an officer directing traffic, he blew his top in front of citizens and told the officer that he was not doing his job.
“We’re not children,” Gough said. “Your superior should not dress you down in the public eye.”
Esserman had declined comment before the balloting, saying that he would not “speculate” about the vote.
The result will be presented to Mayor David N. Cicilline, who appointed Esserman in early 2003. The mayor on Sunday repeated his frequent high praise of the chief.
Asked about complaints that Esserman dwells too much in public on department corruption that predated his tenure, the mayor said, “We have to be very honest about the past” while recognizing that the vast majority of the police were not corrupt.
The case of Detective Jason Simoneau is a typical expression, union leaders say, of the officers’ number two complaint: Misuse of the internal-affairs unit. Some officers allege that Esserman encouraged a criminal prosecution of Simoneau because of a poisoned relationship between Esserman and retired Maj. Dennis Simoneau, the detective’s father.
The department charged the younger Simoneau with two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon by wielding his off-duty gun in a street confrontation downtown in December 2006. No shot was fired.
Some officers contend that, given the evidence, one or more of Simoneau’s accusers could have been charged criminally themselves, or, at the very least, that the case against Simoneau was too murky to press.
Superior Court Judge Daniel Procaccini dismissed the case at a trial last month without even waiting for Simoneau to present the main part of his defense. The judge declared that several men with whom Simoneau tangled were not credible witnesses.
Simoneau has not yet returned to duty because, according to physicians’ affidavits and medical records, he suffers from post-concussion syndrome due to an injury he suffered in the confrontation.
Among other objections to Esserman cited by police officers in interviews and listed in an FOP statement:
•That he repeatedly flouts the police labor contract and legally entrenched past practices, such as improperly changing officers’ work hours in non-emergency situations and failing to pay required overtime.
•That he and his district commanders improperly use callback and overtime pay to reward favorite officers.
•That he has used the department to promote his “personal political agenda” by giving short shrift to the enforcement of federal and state laws regarding illegal immigration and by lobbying in favor of the successful effort to restore voting rights to felons.
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