Should City Public Servants Be City Neighbors?

Thanks to Bill Reddish at WICO-AM for this “View From Across The River”:

I got a phone call the other day from our police chief Al Webster. The first thing the Chief wanted me to be absolutely clear on was he did not listen to this program. Well…that’s just fine …since “AM Salisbury” and “The View Across The River” are intended for Salisbury and Wicomico County citizens and the Chief is neither……his listening preference really doesn’t matter. If the chief wants news about his community, his neighborhood, the police force that protects his hearth and home, and how his tax dollars are being spent….then he’s most likely listening to WETT in Ocean City.

The chief’s number one concern was that he had been informed that I was reporting that he lived in Ocean Pines. He wanted to make it clear that he is a resident of Ocean City. I appreciate the chief setting the record straight and I apologized to him for the error.

The Chief told me that he tried but could not find a suitable home in Salisbury…..and he already owned the Ocean City property (a very smart investment on the chief’s part I might add!!) and the Mayor and Council “signed off” on his request to live at the beach.

I told the Chief what I have said here before and will say here again…his choice of residence is all above board and legal. I understand his personal reasons for wanting to live there….and frankly, the chief has a right to live anywhere he wants. At this point in time I have absolutely no reason to question our chief’s qualifications or professionalism. I have no reason to believe that his choice to live 30 plus miles away from the citizens he’s sworn to protect effects his ability to perform his primary role as a department head and administrator. Bottom line…..I don’t have a problem with Al Webster.

What I have a problem with is my tax dollars paying for a fully equipped city police car and all the expense that goes with it to spend a big chunk of it’s time outside the city. I’ve always felt that our city’s top administrators are themselves community leaders, after all, who knows better how well our city is really doing then those who are heading up the day to day battle. The example they set for the citizens they serve goes along way in determining the success or failure of the programs and policy the city administration implements. When the people who run your city prefer not to live in it…that speaks volumes!

Two of the city’s top programs that have been promoted recently are community policing and live where you work … the example Chief Webster sets doesn’t do a whole lot to promote either of them. And what does it say to the citizens of Salisbury and his own officers, when your top cop prefers to live under another police department’s protection?

Chief Webster points with great pride to the fact the his department is the only one in the area that publishes it’s crime stats and that’s good, ….all of them should. The chief questions some numbers that critics have quoted about the city’s ranking when it comes to crime and I’m sure that’s a big reason he wants citizens to see his department’s numbers. As I have said here before, I work in a business that lives and dies by statistics. Any entity that uses statistics will always present them in the best possible light. So…putting statistics aside and looking at the blatantly obvious…..our city is not as safe as it used to be and certainly not as safe as any of us want it to be.

Last week, in his role as department head, Chief Webster informed the city council that twelve officers will be leaving the department soon; most of them hired away by higher salaries. The number one example of the funding problems that the city and his department are facing. I don’t envy Chief Webster. He has a tough job to do with increasing demands and limited resources. I believe Chief Webster’s head is fully into the job. I just wonder if his heart is too. It doesn’t rank real high on the priorities list but it would say a lot to the world about the direction our city is headed if our public servants weren’t just our employees but our neighbors too. That’s my view across the river today.

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