From the Roundtable: City’s search for new police chief comes at critical juncture

City Manager Bill Watkins has added the task of finding a new police chief to the already-crowded items on his plate.

It came as no surprise, since the possible departure was leaked to the press weeks ago. Chief Randy Boehm decided to step down as the department’s chief, effective in July, and he will join University Health Care as manager of security.

Boehm held the police department’s top position for eight years and was generally acknowledged for his even-handed competence as manager of this increasingly complicated and controversial basic function of local government.
But Boehm’s departure finds the City of Columbia at a critical fork in the road as it relates to the functions and management of its police department.

The department is currently presented with many key issues and challenges. Watkins said the city will conduct a nationwide search for Boehm’s successor rather than choose his replacement from the upper echelon of the department.
Will the incoming chief continue to wear a uniform to “look like one of the boys,” or will the city opt for a person having a more executive demeanor and thus be designated as police commissioner? As some in our city continue their cry out for a civilian police review board, how involved will these individuals and special-interest constituencies become in the selection process? Will the vetting of candidates become burdened by the idealistic criteria of “political correctness” promulgated to placate one group or another and thus marginalize and compromise the winning candidate into the corner of impotence and mediocrity?
I believe most businesspeople want a chief who will stress law and order.
Entrepreneurs want a chief who will manage a no-nonsense department that’s committed to upholding the law and protecting the people and their property. All of us deserve a chief who will continue Columbia’s salutary progress as the department fairly applies the latest techniques of police science across the community without favor to one group over another.

Columbia has little to be ashamed of when it comes to its police department. Its officers are well-trained, college-educated professionals. The department and its facilities have been continually upgraded, which is one of the reasons why the percentage of major crimes solved is so high. Another reason is the justifiably heralded Crime Stoppers program. Still, there will always be room for improvement.

The city now finds itself at an intersection of criminal activity largely related to inter-gang conflicts tied to illegal drugs and skirmishes over territory. Stress within the department has increased, and on some evenings, all available hands on the force are occupied with criminal activity, often at widely separated areas of this increasingly spread-out community.

If there’s been a personal rub I’ve had with the present administration of the Columbia Police Department, it’s the agency’s tendency to withhold information and limit what we are told to tersely written press releases, often tardily issued. The incoming chief of the department needs to pledge the agency to greater transparency and work to correct this long-standing deficiency.

It should come as no surprise that the more the public knows about the activities of the Columbia Police Department, the more allied we will be to help our officers wrestle with the ongoing conundrum of criminal activity.

Al Germond is the host of the “Columbia Business Times Sunday Morning Roundtable” every Sunday at 8:15 a.m. on kfru. He can be reached at [email protected].