With Doug’s retirement this last Friday, I suppose I should make some comment about his tenure. First off, I wish him luck. From talking to other city retirees, I can guarantee, you will be a lot happier 🙂
As for the job Doug did, I guess I couldn’t really say anything bad or good. He has kept our city relatively safe.
I can say though that while the mayor was running for his second term it was disengenious of Doug to back the mayor in saying that the violent crime rate increase wasn’t concerning.
I also think some improvements that Doug could have worked on are;
• An internal affairs department that processes and resolves all citizen complaints about officers
• More transparency with evidence to the public
• Getting our officers in the same physical shape as our firefighters
• Require officers to go through criminal justice training/schooling (and pay for it).
Other then that, I don’t have a bone to pick with Barthel’s job performance. Could he have done more? Yes he could have. But he certainly didn’t do anything detrimental to the force.
Now if he can just hand over the Tuthill Ghost!