DeKalb County commissioners worried Friday that they may have already lost their practically brand-new police chief before he has had a chance to reform the troubled department.
Media reports out of New York on Thursday said DeKalb Police Chief Cedric Alexander might soon be returning to his old berth as boss of the Rochester Police Department.
Alexander didn’t do much Friday to tamp down the talk. His spokesman, DeKalb police Capt. Steven Fore, made one statement about the rumors.
“He is currently the chief of police in DeKalb County … and he continues to carry out his daily duties as chief,” Fore said in an email.
The statement didn’t indicate whether Alexander was happy in his current post or whether he had interviewed with the New York department despite having only nine months on the job in DeKalb.
Some DeKalb commissioners speculated that Alexander may have been unprepared for the morale, corruption and brutality issues — several officers indicted for protecting drug dealers and assaulting teen-age suspects this year — that have plagued the police department.
“We have not had a stable (police) chief in years. That is part of the problem,” said Commissioner Elaine Boyer.
“I don’t think he knew what he was getting into when he came to DeKalb,” Boyer said. “And that probably has weighed heavily on him.”
Commissioner Kathie Gannon said Alexander “just got started, but the job isn’t what he bought into.”
Frank Rotondo, executive director of the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police, said Alexander might be worried about his political support because the man who hired him, suspended DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis, has been indicted on corruption charges.
“The philosophy of the new governing officials may change, that is the bottom line. It doesn’t matter how good your chief is,” Rotondo said.
Attempts to reach acting DeKalb CEO Lee May were unsuccessful. May’s spokesman, Burke Brennan, released a statement regarding Alexander that said, “We continue to support his good work.”
The statement carried little indication of whether May wanted the police chief to stay.
If Alexander leaves, it will be the latest in a string of departures and retirements that saw DeKalb lose its fire chief, finance director, deputy chief operating officer and watershed director over the course of a year.
Alexander has become a familiar face at community events, as well as crime scenes. He has also roundly denounced bad police behavior, saying the department has allowed problem officers to linger on the force.
He has pushed proposals for pay raises and other perks, such as take-home police cars, to stem the flow of veteran officers out of the DeKalb department. The county has 915 officers to fill 1,100 budgeted slots.
Commissioners generally have supported Alexander’s plans to bolster professionalism and morale in the department while taking a more holistic approach to fighting crime through community outreach, said Commissioner Jeff Rader.
“From the very beginning he has said, ‘I have to rebuild this department. This should be a department of policies and performance and not one based on relationships,’” Rader said. “He has made quite a few changes and those changes have stuck. It is not as if his hands are tied and he feels he can’t be successful here.”
Alexander was police chief in Rochester (population 210,000) in 2005 and was with the department for more than three years, starting there as deputy chief. He served as deputy commissioner of the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, after which, in 2007, the federal Transportation Security Administration made him federal security director for Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
Rochester Mayor-elect Lovely Warren said Alexander was her first choice to replace that city’s outgoing chief.
But Rotondo of the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police said it would be a blow to DeKalb if Alexander were to bolt. He described Alexander as an accomplished professional and disciplinarian with the skill to turn around a department in which the work of good officers has been overshadowed by nefarious ones.
“If he leaves, it would be bad,” Rotondo said. “DeKalb County is a rough department to run. It is a big department and hard to manage.”
About the Author
