Ghosts Of Police Commissioners Past

Elsa Walsh has a pretty comprehensive profile of Miami chief of police John Timoney in this week’s New Yorker. (It’s not online, so you’ll have to pick up a copy of the mag yourself, or, uh, you can borrow my copy if you see me.)

It touches on much of his time in Philadelphia, of course — when most of those people the police arrested for making puppets were, it turns out, not really guilty of anything but making puppets to protest George Bush — but also focuses on his departure. Here’s the money anecdote:

Timoney has always had a tendency to lash out at critics and acknowledges that this only made things worse for him. By his own account, he began one meeting that was intended to patch things up with a union leader by saying, “Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?”

But the final provocation, Timoney said, may have been the call telling him he owed nearly two thousand dollars in parking tickets, all issued in a single month. Timoney learned that his son had used the car, and he paid the fines; he also says that a high-ranking officer informed him that some of the tickets were probably “ghosts” — made-up infractions. “It started to get real ugly with the union, and personal,” Timoney said.

Yes, that’s right: The union was pissed at John Timoney, so they apparently wrote him a bunch of parking tickets in order to piss him off. I love this city. Love? Is that the right word? Yeah, I think it is.

Introducing: Keystone Cops!

Welcome to Keystone Cops, an occasional look at crime, public safety and police-related news in the area. Like many things on this site, consider this a “soft launch” that I will forget about in a few days. See, I didn’t even go to the trouble of making a logo. For now, enjoy!

• The son of John Timoney, Everyone’s Favorite Police Chief™, was sentences to 18 months in prison for attempting to buy 400 pounds of marijuana from an undercover officer today. Sean Timoney faces probation and drug rehab after he gets out. Timoney’s lawyer: “Cops’ kids have been getting in trouble since the beginning of time.” Yeah, just like when Police Chief Ock’s kid got away with all those DUIs in the Great Rift Valley. [AP/CBS 3]

• In response to the school shooting in Lancaster and yesterday’s suicide at Springfield, Montco officials have come up with a solution: Panic buttons. Panic buttons. Seriously. Maybe they can get some of those convenience store-style height charts on the door jambs, too. [KYW 1060]

• Subhead from this Courier Times story: “The teen will have to spend a year in an alternative school due to his threat to blow up Pennsbury High School East.” Wait, that’s punishment? [Bucks County Courier Times]

• A former New Jersey police officer who lost his job after an encounter with state troopers is suing for a million bucks. Money quote: “Officer Wade informed me it’s a known fact among officers that you never pass a state trooper vehicle; you let them pass you. They don’t like that.” [AP/6 ABC]

• And, finally, this isn’t crime, it just seems like it: Ex-State Sen. Joe Conti has a new $150k job created by the state just for him! [Inquirer]