Since my post last week embattled Lakeland Police Chief, Linda Womack, has announced that she will resign on May 1st. Please see below for a short excerpt written by Chief Womack to the City Manager of Lakeland.
After full and careful consideration, I have come to the conclusion that it is in the best interest of me and my family to transition out of my position of Chief of Police of the Lakeland Police Department. I am very proud of all the things we, as a department, have been able to accomplish in the three years I have been Chief.
I would like to thank you for the strong support you have shown me and the Police Department during my tenure here. Throughout my career, I have not worked for or with any other City Manager who has shown such integrity and strength of character.
My transition from my position as Chief of Police will be effective May 1, 2014. I will continue to move this department forward with 100% commitment until that time. And, I will assist in any way I can to make my departure as seamless as possible.
Thank you for the honor of being the Chief of Police for the Lakeland Police Department.
So what are we as a society to make of this? Should we point the finger at Chief Womack or her officers? Is this the fault of the city council and city manager for not properly vetting Chief Womack before hiring her? After all Chief Womack was involved in another sex scandal at her former department in Elgin, Illinois. In that case then Chief Womack and her department were investigating an assistant chief who was alleged to have had sex with another officer.
Regardless of what you believe it's clear now that what occurred in Lakeland was nothing less than tragic. Several employees have lost their jobs while still others have had their names tarnished. Meanwhile the victim in this case has hired an attorney and filed suit against the City of Lakeland.
My hope is that other municipalities and the police departments they employ will take a long list at their hiring process. In this case there was smoke for quite a while. As we ultimately saw there was also plenty of fire to go right along with all that smoke. Now I certainly don't believe that Chief Womack should shoulder all the blame. However as the chief executive of her department that is exactly where the blame should land. I have to believe that while this was occurring there were whispers in the halls about what was taking place. How is that no one acted sooner? Why is that those who knew didn't get the Chief involved? If they did get her involved and she failed to act then shame on her. Either way I hope that city managers across this country use this as an example to continually take the pulse of the department heads whom they supervise. When a scandal this big takes place it is a failure of an entire organization not just one or two people.
In the not too distant future my department will be replacing our long serving police chief. As I write this I can't help but wonder how our city leaders will choose a replacement. How important will the ethical history of a prospective chief be? Will city leaders reach out to our prospective chief's former employers and inquire as to what type of ethics this person has? I wonder if that will even be a consideration. While at this point I'm not quite sure what the answer is, I sure hope that what takes place in Lakeland plays a part in how we find our next chief of police.
I find it is important to take responsibility for things good or bad, especially when you are the chief executive. I have taken over for less ethical leaders and worked hard to fix the situations that I found. In light of that I also took the blame since their actions were found during my watch and were not properly credited to a past leader. Which is ok, but puts me at a disadvantage of being labeled as the questionable leader. I wonder if Womack wasn't put in the same position and the highlights came out since this past summer with scandals surrounding this department. Were these long standing problems that were not addressed until now? A widespread plague of these types of issues leads me to believe that somebody has been turning a blind eye for some time.
ReplyDeleteJeff
With so many people involved, it makes one wonder if this lady was the only victim. It could be that the more the chief looked, the worse it got with no end in sight. It is a tragedy for everyone including the citizens of Lakeland.
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