The long overdue word that Gloucester Police Chief John Beaudette would be bowing out seemed to come as a surprise to many city residents.
After all, through all the exasperating missteps of his four-year chief's regime, Beaudette had, until now, seemed defiant. Last summer, he expressed outage at the mere suggestion that the chief's post shouldn't be a Civil Service job and suggested he was ready to serve another 10 years — a frightening thought for taxpayers and reportedly even many within his own department. Some also noted his name was conspicuously among the missing in the list of those taking the city's $10,000 retirement incentive at the end of March — especially when his close friend and departmental ally, beleaguered overnight supervisor and Lt. Michael O'Hanley, jumped at the chance to get out just two months after being suspended for his broadcast cell-phone threat.
But whether expressing surprise, relief or some other emotion over Beaudette's announcement — made by Mayor Carolyn Kirk's office since the chief himself was, as usual, unavailable and vacationing in Florida — even the chief's harshest critics should not be celebrating, but rather focus on the opportunity this pending change holds.
Between now and May 21, when Beaudette actually leaves the job, Kirk and other officials will zero in on selecting an interim chief to lead the department, beginning well before Beaudette finishes out taking his "accrued time off" and falls off the payroll June 30. But in the larger picture, the mayor, other officials and Gloucester's residents should already begin looking to a likely November referendum on whether the city should pull the position out of Civil Service and open the permanent chief's search to outside candidates — so the city can at least have a chance to bring in a department leader with chief's experience, someone with the badly needed fresh pair of eyes to determine how to restructure this department for the future.
Despite the mayor's announcement of his "retirement" — and her noting his 32 years of service to the city and its citizens, which is indeed admirable — it's hard to ignore the fact that Beaudette's decision to bow out comes just as the second phase of the NEMLEC investigation report is due. That's the report on the North East Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council probe into the department's handling of the O'Hanley cell-phone fiasco, including how the chief himself handled the matter.
Remember that Beaudette — typically, ignoring any sense of accountability — did not inform his supervisor, the mayor, of the incident until she learned of it from other sources. There was no sense he was going to do anything about the threat until word about the incident became public. He wrongfully let O'Hanley return to work despite the fact he had been served with a restraining order and couldn't handle firearms. And we still don't know whether — as is widely believed — he OK'd the trashing of a police computer the first night O'Hanley was back on the job. If any or all of that is cited in the report, there's every reason to believe Beaudette is bowing out before being pushed, as he should have been long before now.
OK, in four years at the helm, Beaudette — lifted into the chief's post by then-Mayor John Bell above two other strong candidates who scored better on the Civil Service test — has presented a model of how not to lead a public safety department. There was his costly mishandling of Patrolman Stephen Lamberis' suspension (his statements at a 2007 City Council hearing is still accessible on Youtube.com, where viewers can find a virtual Best of Beaudette series of videos.) There was his cavalier attitude toward the department's unregulated and renegade West Gloucester firing range — including the fact that he allowed one of his comrades, Sgt. William Leanos, to rake in the money paid by outside agencies for training, without turning a penny over the city.
But this is not a time to dwell on Beaudette's missteps of the past. It's time to recognize that the entire structure around his position has to change.
For all his faults, Beaudette was dealing with a leadership nightmare — the chief's position is the only Police Department post not covered by a union. If he did try to address a problem, he stood alone, with even his lieutenants theoretically organized against him. And, personalities aside, his lack of accountability has a context; with the chief's post under Civil Service protection, any mayor trying to get rid of him, or carry out needed reforms from above, faced a bureaucratic minefield as well.
Despite a lack of leadership at the top, the Gloucester Police Department does have many, many fine officers who go the extra mile to protect our safety each and every day. Beaudette's and O'Hanley's departures — combined with voters' chance to remove the chief from Civil Service in the fall — holds an almost unprecedented chance to give the dedicated patrolmen and other officers the kind of management and leadership that they — and city residents — deserve.
Beaudette's exit, in other words, opens the Police Department's doors and windows to letting in the breath of fresh aid that's been needed for some time.
Let's hope these changes at the top lead to the clean sweep needed from the past four years.
