Council should fortify role of police director

By Mae Rhine, Managing Editor
   While Lambertville officials continue their court battle to obtain legal approval for their decision to fire Sgt. 1st Class Michael O’Rourke from the Police Department, they might consider asking their attorney how to avoid a similar problem in the future.
   It seems clear Sgt. O’Rourke disobeyed his supervisor’s orders not to conduct background checks on five of the department’s civilian employees, including his boss.
   Police Director Bruce Cocuzza has said he told Sgt. O’Rourke not to do the checks until Mr. Cocuzza could determine whether they would infringe on employees’ privacy rights and put the city at risk.
   We think that was a reasonable request.
   But the sergeant testified in court he did not need his boss’ OK and went ahead and did the checks anyway. Why?
   He has said the checks were long overdue and should have been done years before. But if he disagreed with Mr. Cocuzza’s decision, why didn’t he go over his head to the police director’s supervisors — the City Council?
   If the checks were overdue anyway, why didn’t he take a little extra time to make sure what he was doing did not infringe on the employees’ rights?
   If the city loses its court battle, what does that do to Mr. Cocuzza’s authority? If any of the other police officers disagree with his orders, could they, then, “disobey” him?
   During the ongoing court battle, Judge Stephen Rubin ruled Mr. Cocuzza showed a “total and wholesale disregard” for the rules and regulations of the Police Department in conducting the investigation. He further stated Mr. Cocuzza “overstepped his authority as a civilian police director.”
   Perhaps the key word here is “civilian.”
   If this is true, then something needs to be done — within the law — to give the police director the authority to run the department as he sees fit.
   If the City Council does not have confidence in its choice to oversee the department, it has the legal grounds to dismiss him. That was the point of hiring a police director instead of a chief of police. A police director has no tenure and, therefore, can be fired without a long court battle, as was the case with former Chief Jack Venettone Sr.
   West Amwell did the same thing by putting Stephen Bartzak as “lieutenant in charge” after it fired Chief Robert Musselman.
   If city officers challenge decisions by the police director, then they should file a grievance and let the matter be resolved by the City Council or a committee of the council to deal with it.
   It’s an issue the mayor and City Council need to discuss with their attorney to, hopefully, avoid a similar situation and give the police director authority he can count on to run the department.