Current Newton police chief Howard Mintz was appointed two years ago, first as interim chief, and later as permanent chief in the aftermath of a lot of turmoil in the city’s police department.
Back in 2012, in a very tumultuous year for the department, former chief Matthew Cummings was fired after accusations of “boorish behavior” towards female employees, the ex-chief’s secretary was accused of larceny and fired. She claimed the accusation was retaliation forspeaking out, and a jury later agreed with her and reinstated her.
When chief Cummings was fired, Howard Mintz was appointed as interim chief. As interim chief one of his first jobs was to deal with maybe the most bizarre incident – Framingham police caught Newton police egging their superior’s house while off duty one night. The culprits were disciplined by the department, a few months later chief Mintz was appointed as the permanent police chief, and for the last two years things have been (thankfully) pretty routine in the department.
Chief Mintz’s tenure is now coming to a close. He faces mandatory retirement this coming November. No doubt future candidates for the post are already being weighed.
What would you be looking for in a new police chief? Are the department’s troubles now behind it? Would you hope for an internal candidate or someone from outside?
Why mandatory retirement? Age-ism? Seems to me that someone who is performing well, has resolved issues of dysfunction and has worked with the Department and the City to bring enforcement back to its expected professional level should not be FORCED to retire. We would be well served to keep him on active duty!
@Sallee – I beleive, but am not 100% certain, that mantra retirement for police officers in mandated by state regulations.
“Mantra retirement” – that’s when your meditation begins to get boring so you switch to a new mantra
I think they should look at Debra Friedl. http://www.lowellsun.com/todaysheadlines/ci_22847322/friedl-chosen-interim-lowell-police-chief
@Julia – She was part of the search committee for a new chief here in Newton in the wake of Chief Cummings departure. I haven’t heard if a new search committee will be set up to choose Chief Mintz’s replacement.
So we can retire his mantra but let him stay?
I can understand mandatory retirement for jobs that have a physical component to them, but it’s not like we expect the police chief to be chasing criminals down the street.
What MGWA said.
(It just occurred to me…we should get rid of mandatory retirement and call it persondatory retirement if we are going for gender neutral.) Can anyone verify that retiring Chief Mintz is a state “person”dated action?
@Sallee: Like
@Sallee – This is from a news story about a Framingham police chief
So it does appear to be a state rule. Interestingly, in the case of that Framingham chief, the state legislature passed a special bill to waive the rule for that specific individual.
Talk about bizarre. A waiver for a state law for one person. Does anyone know if Chief Mintz wants to retire? Or is he retiring just because his mantra has gotten boring?
@ Jerry– First of all that waiver was for a patrolman in Framingham. Not the chief. Shame on the unions up there for letting someone stay past the mandatory retirement age of 65. Once you open the door for this, you will have cops working till they can’t stand anymore. Not a good thing for public safety. Secondly the City has to have a search committee because of a home rule petition that was passed in the State House back in the early 1990’s. They should start ASAP. The Chief has mandatory retirement in November.
@Concerned Citizen – Yes, unlike the last time around, there’s time enough before November to avoid appointing an interim chief and then scrambling to find a permanent candidate.
Chief Mintz is doing an excellent job. Newton should file a home rule petition allowing him to stay for another 2 years. He has brought a steady hand to the Department.
Maybe they’ll finally find a chief respectful of the rights of Newton residents, who will issue unrestricted licenses to carry to qualified applicants like 90% of licenses issued in this state rather than restrict qualified people simply based off where they reside. Chief Mintz’s policy was better than Chief Cummings, but Newton residents deserve better than beimg treated as second class citizens when it comes to self defense. This “discretion” belongs entirely to the COP, and when looking for a new one it should be taken into account.