Our view: New Hartford can’t lose professionalism on police force

Observer-Dispatch

Posted Feb 22, 2010 @ 08:25 PM

Last update Feb 22, 2010 @ 11:04 PM

The New Hartford Police Commission, set up three decades ago to de-politicize the police department in the wake of a scandal, is no more. It was abolished by the Town Board this month to give elected officials control over the hiring of a new chief and negotiations with the police officers’ union.

That means the police department has the potential to become politicized again.

For that reason, it is incumbent upon Supervisor Patrick Tyksinski and fellow leaders to make absolutely certain the oversight of the police department is beyond reproach so that what happened 30 years ago does not happen again.

What happened?

The scandal became known by the term “Code 31,” a term quite disturbing to New Hartford residents of a generation ago. It described an operation in which local government officials and prominent Republicans would not be ticketed by town police.

Its existence confirmed residents’ worst fears – that the big shots get special treatment.

Virtually nothing does more to weaken the public’s trust in government than favoritism in law enforcement. When any of us are pulled over for going 42 in a 30 mph zone, we comply and resolve the case in court and sometimes pay fines because that’s what upholds the rule of law.

But if town leaders or well-connected individuals are not similarly ticketed, then the rule of law is merely a mirage. Law is not law if it does not apply to everybody.

It is Tyksinski’s prerogative to take control of police matters, but it’s vital that he and other town leaders understand the danger of injecting political impulses into a professional organization.

Corruption rarely begins with grand acts of malfeasance. Rather, corruption breeds in government when the rule of law is stripped away, a little bit at a time. A bit of ticket fixing here, a dollop of special treatment there, and soon, you have police officers who have lost sight of what’s the right thing to do.

We all know such things happen elsewhere. We know they happened in New Hartford a generation ago.
It cannot be allowed to happen again, and it’s the responsibility of the town supervisor and the Town Board to make sure it does not.