First of all you will note that I have put my name to this column. I intend to exercise my rights as an American citizen and to criticize my government when it does wrong. For those of you who do not know me, I am the Vice President of the Superior Officers Association. I represent 78 of the finest men and women I have ever had the pleasure of knowing and who work hard everyday to make life safer for the residents of the City.
   I was aghast when Mayor Palmer named Santiago as the new Police Director last year. I knew Joe to be an assaultive tax cheat as my Senator Dianne Allen likes to call him. He did an eight month stint with the New Jersey State Police and was forced to resign in disgrace due in part to his lack of management and social skills. I had an idea we were in for a rough ride with Santiago; I just had no idea how bad it was going to be.
   Joe talked a good game on his arrival. Lock up the bad guys and protect life and property. That's police work the way it should be done! But the thing to watch with Santiago is what he does, not what he says. The unseen hand from City Hall was not going to allow this to happen. Joe was put here to break the unions not catch bad guys. So the contractual violations began. Transfers for discipline, disbanding units that were being effective, targeting union officials for daring to speak out against his asinine plans. And that was just the beginning!
   Then the first of several "reorganizations" began in earnest. Now, to Joe reorganization means taking authority from those who have earned it by taking tests and passing them and giving it to one of your willing accomplices who is your drinking buddy or other garden variety ass-kisser. Since then there have been several "reorganizations" where hard working commanders have been transferred because of telling Joe "No, I won't break the law and do what you say!"
   You see, Joe is really just an old time cop from Newark. His frame of reference is about 1970. He hasn't bothered to keep up on recent Supreme Court decisions concerning people’s rights and does not regard them as important. For example, he wanted people removed from Walnut Avenue and taken to another location for the purpose questioning them as to why they were hanging on Walnut Avenue. We refused to do so knowing it was a potential violation of people's rights and he had a fit. In another

instance, the Traffic Lieutenant was told to do a roving DWI roadblock at a Comstat meeting. The lieutenant correctly refused to oblige and cited the guidelines governing roadblocks. Santiago got angry and said "We did it all the time in Newark!" Of course he fails to mention that Newark's transgression of peoples rights resulted in the promulgation of the new policy. The lieutenant was summarily transferred and the Traffic Unit was disbanded for making Joe look bad in front of the men.
   By the way, Comstat meetings are pretty interesting affairs. They are supposed to be for the purpose of discerning trends in crime and developing strategies to deal with them. Joe likes to show up at least thirty minutes late, so everybody knows just how important he is. Then he frequently launches into a tirade against whomever he happens to be annoyed with at the moment. He seems to revel in belittling people. He is loud, abusive and exceedingly profane to the point where I have had to bring it up as a union issue. He sheepishly agreed and then failed to change his bad behavior.
   Joe has been lauded as a first class administrator by willing accomplices in the press. I am here to tell you that is the biggest lie I have ever heard. Joe has no ability to manage his department’s finances or personnel. The overtime budget is through the roof all because has no clue about allocating resources. He has created a dozen new units during his tenure and taken officers and supervisors from patrol to man these positions. We still have sergeants being forced to stay past the end of their tour because of this.
   In addition, this paragon of administrative virtue, put four Lieutenants into an administrative position previously occupied by one. He has taken four Captains and three Deputy Chiefs and placed them in what has become known as the Office of Irrelevancy and ordered them to perform venial tasks while there is no supervision on the street where it is sorely needed.
   And he does these things because he is evil. He cannot tolerate dissent or an intelligent discussion of policy. Joe is not that sophisticated. He has to rule by fear. He regards every criticism as a personal attack and punishes people for speaking out.
   Now you all know Joe like we do.

Creative Stats: 101

   There is a push within the police department to change the way Shoplifting is handled. Director Santiago, with the aid of his cronies, is trying to have storeowners handle the matter without involving the police. Santiago is shrewd enough to know that he cannot order his officers ignore the crime, however he is trying to exploit a loophole in an effort to reduce crimes stats. Such conduct does not lower crime, but works wonders on statistics.
   Currently, storeowners call the police when they discover a shoplifter. In the case where there is no arrest, the officers submit a theft report and the incidents are counted in the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) report. In cases where a shoplifter is caught by store management, officers submit a theft report and a representative from the store signs the court complaint. It is the latter procedure that Santiago wants to change.
   Santiago is attempting to have storeowners forego the step of a police report and sign a criminal complaint without police involvement. Because there is no police report the crime is not counted under the UCR standards. This is a perfectly legal procedure, however the motivation for the change is being seen as less than ethical.
   Santiago has promoted Comstat meetings as the place to discuss crime trends and look for patterns. Shoplifting incidents that are not documented through police reports will not show up in the crime maps; thus they are never discussed at Comstat, nor is a strategy developed to address the issues. It takes only a few minutes to handle a shoplifting investigation ethically; if manpower is the issue perhaps more officers should be hired.
   Santiago, with the full endorsement of Mayor Palmer and City Council, shows he is once again willing to engage in voodoo math to reduce crime. It is time for our elected officials to put an end to the stats game and truly address crime; complicity on their part should not be tolerated.