The justices are impeding justice and jeopardizing Greenwich’s public safety.
Foot-dragging by Connecticut’s highest court has left Greenwich vulnerable. A court-ordered ban on promotions in the Greenwich Police Department command staff (officers above the rank of Lieutenant) coupled with a series of retirements has more than decimated the GPD command ranks. The literal definition of decimate, to reduce by one-tenth, would have been a relative blessing when compared to the current state – a chief and no other command officers. A chain is as strong as its weakest link, and the GPD chain of command is too many links too short for public safety.
A case stemming from the promotion of Michael Pacewicz to Captain has been languishing in the courts for years. Until it is decided, there can be no promotions in the department above the rank of Lieutenant. An appeal of the case was argued before the high court on an expedited basis last April and was widely expected to have been decided last summer. The court has been silent.
With the recent retirement of Pacewicz, the department’s only remaining captain, GPD is left with no-one in between the chief and the department’s 11 lieutenants -– all dozen of whom have been working above and beyond the call of duty to fill the court-created void. Indeed, the 11 lieutenants number three above the authorized strength, a slight mitigation needed to get crucial work done. Presumably three or more of those will be promoted to command staff once the court see fits to decide the case.
In 2003, when I was graduated from the first Greenwich Citizen’s Police Academy class, GPD had a full complement of command officers. Under then Chief James Walters, the agency had Pat Chila as Deputy Chief. There were three captains, David Ridberg, Pacewicz and Michael DeAngelo. With Gregory Hannigan, Director of Operations, six of six slots were filled.
When Captain DeAngelo left GPD for the greener pastures, the command staff had a vacancy the agency was not permitted to fill. With the announcement of the approaching retirement of deputy chief Chila, a special waiver was granted by the court to allow the promotion of Captain Ridberg to deputy chief. That left Pacewicz, who retired late last year, as the lone captain.
Walters and Chila retired effective on July 1, 2008, and Ridberg (appointed acting chief) and Pacewicz were the only command officers left to do the jobs of five sworn command-level officers. “Acting” was removed from Ridberg’s title. Now that Pacewicz has retired, GPD is left with a lone chief and no help other than the lieutenants stepping up their game to fill the void.
As I wrote in an earlier post, imagine an Army with a single General and no Colonels, Majors, or Captains. NOT a pretty picture. The picture need not be bleak. All it would take would be action from the court. I was critical of the court for its judicial activism in the homosexual marriage case. I am equally critical of the court’s passivism when the public safety of our Greenwich is at stake.
The citizens of our Greenwich should let the Supreme Court know the justices’ lassitude is impacting our safety and we don’t like it.
