The Police News
July 3, 2008

COMMENTARY

Charles Wiley, Galveston's newly hired police chief, probably hasn't even sat behind the desk in his new office yet, but people who have no idea of how to lead a police department and may not even qualify to be a street cop, are already giving him advice on what he should do when he takes over the department on July 7th.

It is suggested in the local newspaper that one of the first things he should do, starting Monday, is tackle the drug problem.

I have news for those of you who don't know this.  The Galveston Police Department has been tackling the drug problem with every ounce of energy it has, day in and day out.  Keep in mind, the department is working with barely over 100 officer's, almost half what it needs to fight crime on an even basis with the criminals in Galveston.  I guarantee you there are more than 100 criminals in Galveston any minute of the day or night.

This is akin to a newspaper trying to cover every event in town with only two reporters.  Can't be done.  We know this for a fact because we miss a lot of stories because we don't have enough reporters.  And we cover a lot of police actions and police events where there is no reporter present from any other media.  It's the same reason the police department can't have a cop standing on every front porch in Galveston watching for a street corner drug deal.

It's true, Wiley has his work cut out for him.  But anyway you cut it, if the City of Galveston don't hire more cops, a chief with big white wings is never going to 'Take a Bite of Crime' until the taxpayers and the city council make up their minds to spend more money hiring police officers to do the job.

It's easy and it's popular to 'blame the cops' on rising crime rates, drug dealing on street corners, prostitution, and everything else that people are seeing from their front porches.  But look at it this way, while those hundreds and thousands of people are standing on their front porches watching all these dastardly deeds, there may be only six police officers cruising the entire city.  That don't include the motorcycle guys.  They're out there trying to catch some of those speeders coming off the causeway that everybody complains about to the local paper.

It doesn't include the detectives.  They're trying to catch the killers and bank robbers that people live in fear of and write letters to the editor about.

It doesn't include the community service officers.  They're teaching kids how to ride bicycles safely, like people demand in their letters.

And here's something you may not want to hear, but often, the police command must pull officers from the Vice and Narcotics operation to take care of other, non-related assignments.  And when this happens, the drug dealers and street whores know about it.  They know everything the cops are doing.  They even know what their unmarked, undercover, stealth cars look like.

These are not kindergarten kids the cops have to deal with.  These are criminals.  They make their living in crime.  They are trained by their Mommies and Daddies to be criminals from the time they are big enough to walk into Walgreen's and shoplift successfully.  Criminala are begetting baby criminals faster than Galveston can hire and train new cops to deal with them.  And the crooks start training the baby crooks at an earlier age and the training last a lifetime.  We don't start training new cops until they're 21 years old.

So we suggest, before everyone jumps on the bandwagon of giving sage advice to the new police chief, who by the way, is a seasoned, veteran cop who started working the streets of Galveston over 20 years ago, give him a chance to show you what he's got.

In all probability, Charles Wiley already knows what his challenges are, and our deal with him is, if he don't try to tell us how to run our newspaper, we won't tell him how to run the police department.

Breck Porter, Police News Editor