Did Pennington assign a fox to watch the henhouse?
May 23, 2007 at 10:55 am by John F. Sugg in News
Among the personnel changes announced May 22 by Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington was a very curious assignment. While the media focused on the wholesale restaffing of the narcotics squad, the officer appointed by Pennington to oversee what’s commonly called “internal affairs” isn’t winning the hearts and minds of many rank-and-file cops.
And it’s not because they fear Maj. C.J. Davis will become a bulldog at enforcing ethics, conduct codes and the like as the new head of the Office of Professional Standards. Rather, cops see Davis as a prime example of the cronyism in the police department — cronyism that deters integrity.
Davis, for example, was the major whose previous Special Enforcement Section portfolio included the narcotics unit. She was up the food chain from the on-the-street narcs, but if the buck stops somewhere, her desk is a prime candidate. However, Pennington’s style is to protect his inner circle and blame cops on the street.
Pennington didn’t mention Davis’ role in overseeing that badly corrupted narcotics unit — perhaps because it would have been one helluva reason NOT to make Davis the head of internal affairs.
Here’s how Pennington described Davis at a press conference: “If you look at Major Davis, I’ve moved her at least three or four times in the past couple years. If you look on this press release you’ll see she was over homeland security, she was over personnel, she was over the detective unit. What I’ve started to do is move people around and I’ll continue to do that. … I think it’s good for their careers when you move people around. I don’t see anything wrong with inspiring them to know as much as they can about law enforcement in every respect.”
Around the cop shop, what Davis is best remembered for — as I reported in a column about apparent favoritism in the police department – is the 2003 scandal in which a battalion of police officers deserted their posts during the NBA All-Star Game to work private-duty gigs for celebrities for as much as $200 an hour.
Davis, then a lieutenant, was cited as the poster child for “cops acting badly.” She claimed she worked 72 hours straight and, according to police sources, collected both taxpayer-paid-for overtime for some of the hours and private-duty lucre for other hours. Pennington, at the time, promised harsh penalties for officers who had betrayed the public trust to make extra money — but the punishments never seemed to have materialized. Davis, for example, was promoted to major and given the series of plum assignments mentioned by Pennington this week.
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May 23rd, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Even though I have a pet peeve about repeating myself, I think it’s apt here -
Pennington hails from New Orleans, one of the most corrupt cities in the South, if not the entire country. It only makes sense that he continues here the practices he picked up in Louisiana — with Mayor Franklin his all-too-willing bedfellow.
May 24th, 2007 at 9:33 am
Actually, Pennington began his career in Washington, DC, where he was a driver for then Mayor Marion Barry, and there’s some good stories there.
May 24th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Huh. I guess I was wrong.
May 24th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
New Orleans and Marion Barry……add an association with La Cosa Nostra and you have the Trifecta of Corruption.
I would love to get that guy high and listen to some unedited stories about Barry and NOPD. Not sure he can top viseo of Barry smoking crack with a hooker, but i am willing to give him a listen HAHAHAHA