There seems to be a lot of speculation surrounding the exit of the Police Chief. If you look at his record over the past 6 years, little has been accomplished. Sex trafficking is on the rise, drug crimes and murder is on the rise, panhandling is out of control and body cams still have to be implemented. There is also still no physical fitness plan for the police like there is for the fire department. I wouldn’t call Matt Burns tenure a complete failure, but he certainly hasn’t achieved much more than putting himself into a higher pension bracket.
I have also heard through city hall moles that there have been several complaints filed against him for basically just warming a chair, not just from citizens but internally from other officers, and mayor stoneless is well aware.
I’m hoping they will do a national search for a new chief, but we know how the sh!t runs down hill in the Police and Fire Department. So it looks like a Chief Barthel 3.0 is in store for us.