Wednesday, September 04, 2002
Possible Twitty successors in limbo
City manager has say if new officer needed
By Jane Prendergast, jprendergast@enquirer.com
The Cincinnati Enquirer
If Cincinnati Police Lt. Col. Ron Twitty doesn't return to his job, an assistant chief could be chosen from outside the police department for the first time ever.
Voters last year approved Issue 5, allowing the city manager to choose police chiefs and assistant chiefs from anywhere.
Col. Twitty, one of four assistant chiefs in the 1,020-officer department, is in charge of the investigations bureau, which includes homicide detectives and sex crimes investigators.
Scotty Johnson, president of the Sentinel Police Association, said Tuesday that the black officers' group hopes City Manager Valerie Lemmie would keep diversity in mind if she does end up needing to look for someone to replace Col. Twitty, the first African-American to rise to the rank of assistant chief.
“She can go nationwide,” he said. “And she should. I think we would do ourselves a great service in the city to conduct a search of that nature. It would be something different here, not business as usual.”
The Sentinels supported Issue 5; the Fraternal Order of Police opposed it. In fact, the union has a lawsuit pending in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court to overturn the part of the measure that applies to assistant chiefs.
Until the vote last November, the next assistant chief would have been the next best test-taker on a civil-service list of captains.
Currently, that's Capt. Steve Gregoire, 52, commander of the department's internal investigations section. Capt. Gregoire, who joined Cincinnati Police in 1970, is white.
Supporters of Col. Twitty questioned the fairness of allowing Capt. Gregoire, in his current job, to help investigate the man whose job he might take.
The only other captain to be promoted off the current list for assistant chief was Cindy Combs, who scored first on the test last year and was promoted to assistant chief in October 2001. She is the first woman to have the job.
Col. Twitty's job is currently being done by Capt. Vince Demasi, commander of the criminal investigations section and the most senior captain of the investigations bureau. Chief Tom Streicher said he has told Capt. Demasi to “plan to be in for the long haul,” because the criminal proceedings could take months.
Despite the Issue 5 vote, the union considers the exam to be “an active and valid test,” said FOP President Roger Webster. “Capt. Gregoire is next on the list.”
But that list expires next month — and the outcome of Col. Twitty's criminal proceedings could take much longer than that.
“So it's kind of a wait-and-see thing,” Mr. Webster said. “This could open up a whole bunch of new things.”
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